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Single Idea 20443

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 2. Aesthetic Attitude ]

Full Idea

Once analysed, Dickie claimed, the so-called aesthetic attitude is not special at all, but is rather just a matter of close attention and focus on the subject.

Gist of Idea

The aesthetic attitude is nothing more than paying close attention

Source

report of George Dickie (The Myth of the Aesthetic Attitude [1964]) by Alessandro Giovannelli - Some contemporary developments (aesthetics) 1

Book Ref

'Key Thinkers in Aesthetics', ed/tr. Giovannelli,Alessandro [Continuum 2012], p.209


A Reaction

Sounds wrong. If a paint specialist gives close attention to a painting, they do not necessarily have an aesthetic view of it. You need to know the aim of the activity, just as when you watch a game.


The 22 ideas with the same theme [distinctive frame of mind in aesthetic experience]:

The disinterested attitude of the judge is the hallmark of a judgement of beauty [Shaftesbury, by Scruton]
Forget about beauty; just concentrate on the virtues of delicacy and discernment admired in critics [Hume, by Scruton]
Only rational beings can experience beauty [Kant, by Scruton]
The aesthetic attitude is a matter of disinterestedness [Kant, by Wollheim]
It is hard to see why we would have developed Kant's 'disinterested' aesthetic attitude [Cochrane on Kant]
Hegel largely ignores aesthetic pleasure, taste and beauty, and focuses on the meaning of artworks [Hegel, by Pinkard]
Schopenhauer is a chief proponent of aesthetic experience as 'disinterested' [Schopenhauer, by Janaway]
Experiencing a thing as beautiful is to experience it wrongly [Nietzsche]
Imaginative life requires no action, so new kinds of perception and values emerge in art [Fry]
Everyone reveals an aesthetic attitude, looking at something which only exists to be seen [Fry]
Good art produces exaltation and detachment [Bell,C]
Aesthetic enjoyment combines pleasure with insight [Ross]
Consider: "Imagine this butterfly exactly as it is, but ugly instead of beautiful" [Wittgenstein]
Interpretation is performance for some arts, and critical for all arts [Wollheim]
A love of nature must precede a love of art [Wollheim]
The aesthetic attitude is nothing more than paying close attention [Dickie, by Giovannelli]
The pleasure taken in beauty also aims at understanding and valuing [Scruton]
Art gives us imaginary worlds which we can view impartially [Scruton]
Aesthetic experience informs the world with the values of the observer [Scruton]
We don't often respond to events in art as if they were real events [Jacobson,D]
Maybe literary assessment is evaluating the artist as a suitable friend [Gaut]
Aesthetic experience involves perception, but also imagination and understanding [Davies,S]