Combining Philosophers

Ideas for H.Putnam/P.Oppenheim, Stephen Davies and Aristotle

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6 ideas

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 2. Aesthetic Attitude

20387	Aesthetic experience involves perception, but also imagination and understanding [Davies,S]
	Full Idea: It was suggested that aesthetic experience isn't solely perceptual. It's infused by a cognitive but non-conceptual process described by Kant as involving the free play of the imagination and the understanding.
	From: Stephen Davies (The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed) [2016], 1.2)
	A reaction: This fits literature very well, painting quite well, and music hardly at all.

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 3. Taste

20385	The faculty of 'taste' was posited to explain why only some people had aesthetic appreciation [Davies,S]
	Full Idea: To explain why not everyone who is prepared to encounter a thing's aesthetic properties can recognise them, ...eighteenth century theorists posited the existence of a special faculty of aesthetic perception, that of taste.
	From: Stephen Davies (The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed) [2016], 1.2)
	A reaction: But there seem to be two aspects to taste - first the capacity to enjoy some sorts of art, and second the ability to discriminate the good from the bad. The latter is 'standards' of taste (Hume's title). Do non-musical people lack taste?

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 4. Beauty

52	We choose things for their fineness, their advantage, or for pleasure [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: (roughly) Three pairs of factors cause choice or avoidance: fine/base, advantageous/harmful, pleasant/painful.
	From: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1104b29)
	A reaction: I love the Greek idea that we choose actions for their 'fineness' [kalos, nobility, beauty]. We sometimes celebrate fine deeds in the media, and even award honours for them, but we don't talk about them much.

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 5. Natural Beauty

2837	Nothing contrary to nature is beautiful [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: Nothing that is contrary to nature is fine.
	From: Aristotle (Politics [c.332 BCE], 1325b09)
	A reaction: This seems a rather conservative view, since it rules out submarines, mountaineering and heart transplants.. It depends what we count as 'natural'.

5851	Pentathletes look the most beautiful, because they combine speed and strength [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: The pentathletes are the most beautiful, being at the same time naturally suited to both speed and force.
	From: Aristotle (The Art of Rhetoric [c.350 BCE], 1361b09)
	A reaction: This is still true. Watch the Olympics. The bodies we envy most belong to those who do a variety of disciplines. The most beautiful music fulfils a variety of functions (structure, as well as melody, drama, rhythm, harmony, novelty).

21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 6. The Sublime

20386	The sublime is negative in awareness of insignificance, and positive in showing understanding [Davies,S]
	Full Idea: An example of the sublime is the vastness of the night sky. ...It includes negative feelings of insignificance in the face of nature's indifference, power and magnitude, but is positive in that we are capable of comprehending such matters.
	From: Stephen Davies (The Philosophy of Art (2nd ed) [2016], 1.2)
	A reaction: The negative part seems to be a very intellectual experience, with close links to religion, and may be the experience that leads to deism (belief in God's indifference).