M3: Lecture Notes (Narrative) judgments (the appreciation or criticism of a

work of art). Thus, aesthetics is broader in

AESTHETICS
scope than the philosophy of art. It is also
broader than the philosophy of beauty, in that it
applies to any of the responses we might
The word aesthetic is derived from the Greek expect works of art or entertainment to elicit,
αἰσθητικός (aisthetikos, meaning "esthetic, whether positive or negative.
sensitive, sentient, pertaining to sense
perception"), which in turn was derived from
αἰσθάνομαι (aisthanomai, meaning "I perceive,
Aestheticians ask questions like "What is a
feel, sense" and related to αἴσθησις (aisthēsis,
work of art?", "What makes a work of art
"sensation"). Aesthetics in this central sense
successful?", "Why do we find certain things
has been said to start with the series of articles
beautiful?", "How can things of very different
on “The Pleasures of the Imagination” which
categories be considered equally beautiful?",
the journalist Joseph Addison wrote in the early
"Is there a connection between art and
issues of the magazine The Spectator in 1712.
morality?", "Can art be a vehicle of truth?", "Are
The term "aesthetics" was appropriated and
aesthetic judgments objective statements or
coined with new meaning by the German
purely subjective expressions of personal
philosopher Alexander Baumgarten in his
attitudes?", "Can aesthetic judgments be
dissertation Meditationes philosophicae de
improved or trained?"
nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus
("Philosophical considerations of some matters
pertaining the poem") in 1735; Baumgarten
In very general terms, it examines what makes
chose "aesthetics" because he wished to
something beautiful, sublime, disgusting, fun,
emphasize the experience of art as a means of
cute, silly, entertaining, pretentious, discordant,
knowing. Aesthetics, a not very tidy intellectual
harmonious, boring, humorous or tragic.
discipline, is a heterogeneous collection of
problems that concern the arts primarily but
also relate to nature. even though his later
definition in the fragment Aesthetica (1750) is Theories of art and art itself exist within a
more often referred to as the first definition of context—philosophical, cultural, class and
modern aesthetics. gender specific—from which it emerges and
without which it does not exist. Philosophers
and art theorists cannot escape the influence
of past philosophers and theorists any more
Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy
than they can remain untouched by current
concerned with the nature and appreciation of
trends in film, technology, and architecture. Art
art, beauty and good taste. It has also been
and culture and theories of art and culture are
defined as "critical reflection on art, culture and
inseparably and organically linked together.
nature". The word "aesthetics" derives from the
Furthermore, this is not a static or eternal
Greek "aisthetikos", meaning "of sense
pattern but one that is dynamic, fluid,
perception". Along with Ethics, aesthetics is
constantly changing historically over time.
part of axiology (the study of values and value
judgments).

Principal changes in philosophy (generally) are

likely to become more influential in the
In practice, we distinguish between aesthetic
philosophy of art. There is a profound
judgments (the appreciation of any object, not
convergence between general philosophy and
necessarily an art object) and artistic
philosophy of art. Let me express three general
trends that are important to keep in mind as we experience the world in two fundamentally
discuss pre-aesthetic, aesthetic, and ways—logically and aesthetically.
postmodern theories over the duration of this
course. As Sartwell points out, (p8) Europe
only developed the concept of the aesthetic in Logically—that is a thorn, it will hurt if it pricks
the 18th century. me

Here are the three broad movements in Aesthetically—enjoying a sunset, looking at

philosophy that are important to remember seashells, enjoying a work of art. These things
when we reflect upon questions concerning art: are beautiful because you are looking at them
aesthetically.

1. Deep suspicion that we cannot hope to

fix any single ontology, any universally What we call art, or more properly fine art, is
adequate unchanging account of human therefore, according to the 18 th-19th century
cognition or human interests or human tradition of the aesthetic, those objects made
concerns. by humans to be enjoyed aesthetically. So,
2. We must reflect upon the contingent and Paleolithic European cave paintings, Native
tacit practices of human life. These are American wood carvings are not really art
central to philosophical reflection according to some because they were made by
3. There cannot be any canon or principles people before the emergence of aesthetic
or conceptual priorities in accord with experience.
which philosophical theories may be
shown to be approaching systematic
closure on any questions. So, art created as art, aesthetic exp. And
aesthetics are notions that all arose together.
These human ways of interpreting the world
Aesthetics (as the study of art and beauty), have not always existed since the dawn of
aesthetic experience (the proper way of human society and not even since the
approach and experience art and beauty), and beginning of Western civilization. Philosophy is
modern art (art for art’s sake) all arose together often thought of as a kind of systematic
at approx. the same time as expressions of reflection of our ordinary commonsense
modernist culture (somewhere between the intuitions and deeply rooted beliefs and
Renaissance and the middle of the 20th assumptions. This would mean that aesthetics
century). Aesthetics is the name of the is a reflection on ideas we already have about
philosophical study of art and natural beauty. It art, artists. If aesthetics is a branch of
is a relatively new branch of philosophy that philosophy and philosophy is a reflection of our
arose in the early 18th century (early 1700’s) in ordinary commonsense intuition, then, in a
England and Germany, over 2000 years after sense, we already know what art, aesthetics,
the beginnings of other branches of Western and artists are.
philosophy (which began in Greece around 600
B.C.E.)
But these commonsense intuitions may be so
deeply engrained and internalized that we may
Aesthetics is closely related to the concept of take them for granted. Perhaps we can more
aesthetic experience. Baumgarten who coined fully experience artworks if we enlarge our
the term aesthetics, claimed that humans perspective. How do we do this?
 sake. And one large subset of such
disinterested actions were those associated
Our way of viewing art from an aesthetic point
with art and natural beauty.
of view is only one way of looking at things. It
appears at a certain point in the history of
certain cultures and may just was easily
The reaction began in Britain with the Earl of
disappear and be replaced by another way of
Shaftesbury (1671-1713) who said we can love
viewing things.
things for themselves (good wine, a beautiful
sunset, a painting). Deciding what we should
love and appreciate in this way is a matter of
The ideas of aesthetic enjoyment and fine art
taste, a kind of inner sensation, or feeling. It is
and artist arose in what we call the modern
not something you can learn from a book.
period (end of 17th century to middle of 20th).
Main points of modernist aesthetics
As I mentioned earlier, In the 1750’s Alexander
Baumgarten pursued this idea by dividing all
Aesthetic experience is nonutilitarian
human thought into two broad categories—
AE is detached from ordinary self-interested logic and aesthetics. After Baumgarten, the
pursuits (is disinterested) British worked on the idea of good taste as
kind of refined sensibility available to anyone
Works of art are made to be viewed who would adopt the detached, disinterested
aesthetically—and so just to be enjoyed (For aesthetic point of view. And still later, at the
no other purpose) very end of the 18th century, the German
Everyone can appreciate art just by adopting philosopher, Immanuel Kant synthesized the
the aesthetic point of view work of the British taste theorists and the
German attempts to define the aesthetic as
Artists see things in a unique way and differentiated from the logical, and Kant’s
creatively find innovative ways of efforts pretty well defined and stabilized the
communicating that vision to us tradition of the aesthetic attitude for the next
Artists show us how to look at the world, how 150 years.
to understand ourselves, who we are
Works of art express these unusual ideas of
artists
Great works of art must be innovative and
creative, expressing new ideas in new ways
The history of art is the history of these great
innovations by these great artists
Art is not hard to understand—it just requires
that we adopt the aesthetic point of view
The story of aesthetics begins with Hobbe’s
claim that all human perception is self
interested. Many people disagreed with
Hobbes and though that some human actions
were disinterested, that is, done for their own z
sake, enjoyed and appreciated for their own
LECTURE 3
AESTHETICS: Study of Art and Beauty
The Field of Aesthetics
Etymology “AESTHETICS”
 GREEK aesthesis
 ENGLISH “sensory perception”
ALEXANDER BAUMGARTEN (1714-1762)
 The word “aesthetics” was first
employed by Baumgarten to mean “the
science of sensory perception.” DIVISION OF AESTHETICS
Particularly, he used it to denote a realm
of concrete knowledge, as distinct from THEORY OF BEAUTY
the abstract where content is  Nature of beautiful things
communicated in sensory forms.
THEORY OF ART
AESTHETICS
 Essence of art
Philosophy  Theory about the ultimate  in terms of a single key concept,
reality of things such as "expression" or
"representation”
Of beauty  Nature of Beauty: Why are
THEORY OF ART CRITICISM
beautiful things beautiful?
 Evaluation of the merit or demerit of
And art  Essence of Art: What makes works of art
something a work of art?  To criticize a work of art is to make a
judgment of its overall merit or
demerit and to support that judgment
by reference to features it possesses.
Aesthetic Terms
CATEGORIES OF VALUE
LOGICAL  True and False
ETHICAL  Good and Bad
AESTHETIC  Beautiful and Ugly
AESTHETICS VALUES
BEAUTIFUL UGLY
Delights Glooms
Wow! Yuck!
Walastik! Eww!
Hanep! Sus!
FILIPINO SENSE OF BEAUTY
 The colorful is beautiful.
PRETTY
SEXY
 Beautiful Shape
 Beautiful shape of the female body
GROTESQUE
 Ugly Shape
CUTE
 Beautiful Size
PIQUANT
 Ugly Size
HAIKU
 A very short form of Japanese poetry
consisting of 17 syllables in three
phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on respectively or
consisting of 11 on in three phrases of
3, 5, and 3 on, respectively.]
An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
Autumn moonlight—
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.
In the twilight rain
these brilliant-hued hibiscus –
A lovely sunset.
-Basho Matsuo(1644-1694)

A summer river being crossed

how pleasing
with sandals in my hands!
Light of the moon
Moves west, flowers' shadows
Creep eastward.
In the moonlight,
The color and scent of the wisteria
Seems far away.
-Yosa Buson(1716-1784)

LOVELY Beautiful sound

DROLL Ugly sound
TIMBRE OF THE HUMAN VOICE
FLOWING EFFECT (Continuous Sound)
 Jose Mari Chan, Constant Change
(1989)
TREMBLING EFFECT TREMOLO OR
VIBRATO (Vibrating Sound)
 Louis Daniel Armstrong, What a
Wonderful World (1967)

FANTASTIC
 Beautiful Image
RIDICULOUS
 Ugly Image
Hierarchy of Beauty
 DIMENSIONS OF FILIPINO WORLDVIEW
1. Natural Dimension
2. Biological Dimension
3. Communal Dimension
4. Social Dimension
5. Normative Dimension
6. Ethical Dimension
7. Moral Dimension
8. Aesthetic Dimension
9. Teleological Dimension
10. Ideological Dimension

The Filipino Aesthetic Worldview

“All societies have aesthetic standards for
appreciating things. This appreciation is
essentially a collective formation, deeply
embedded in symbols and meanings of
society. These symbols and meanings are
closely associated with the people’s concept of
ganda as this materializes in their ways of
experiencing the world or rationalizing their
relationship with it. Ganda may be viewed not
only as an emotion experienced in the
encounter of what is pleasurable but also as a
particular cast of minds out in the world of
objects.”
-Jocano, Filipino Worldview