more on this theme     |     more from this thinker

Single Idea 21372

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 1. Aesthetics ]

Full Idea

The central problem of aesthetics is how satisfaction with and pleasure in an object are possible without any reference thereof to our willing.

Gist of Idea

Aesthetics concerns how we can take pleasure in an object, with no reference to the will

Source

Arthur Schopenhauer (Parerga and Paralipomena [1851], II:415), quoted by Christopher Janaway - Schopenhauer 6 'Aesthetic'

Book Ref

Janaway,Christopher: 'Schopenhauer' [OUP 2002], p.71

A Reaction

This does seem a good distinction. We can divide pleasures into willed and unwilled. Compare thinking that some remote stranger (in a photograph) is very beautiful, with falling in love with someone.

Related Idea

Idea 21370 Schopenhauer is a chief proponent of aesthetic experience as 'disinterested' [Schopenhauer, by Janaway]

The 24 ideas from 'Parerga and Paralipomena'

21474 Metaphysics studies the inexplicable ends of explanation [Schopenhauer]
21473 All knowledge and explanation rests on the inexplicable [Schopenhauer]
21476 A priori propositions are those we could never be seriously motivated to challenge [Schopenhauer]
21475 All of our concepts are borrowed from perceptual knowledge [Schopenhauer]
21372 Aesthetics concerns how we can take pleasure in an object, with no reference to the will [Schopenhauer]
21477 We don't control our own thinking [Schopenhauer]
21478 Half our thinking is unconscious, and we reach conclusions while unaware of premises [Schopenhauer]
21479 Knowledge is not power! Ignorant people possess supreme authority [Schopenhauer]
21480 Boredom is only felt by those clever enough to need activity [Schopenhauer]
21470 For me the objective thing-in-itself is the will [Schopenhauer]
21485 The state only exists to defend citizens, from exterior threats, and from one another [Schopenhauer]
21486 Poverty and slavery are virtually two words for the same thing [Schopenhauer]
21487 The freedom of the press to sell poison outweighs its usefulness [Schopenhauer]
21482 The five Chinese virtues: pity, justice, politeness, wisdom, honesty [Schopenhauer]
21481 Buddhists wisely start with the cardinal vices [Schopenhauer]
21483 Man is essentially a dreadful wild animal [Schopenhauer]
21484 A man's character can be learned from a single characteristic action [Schopenhauer]
21469 Human life is a mistake, shown by boredom, which is direct awareness of the fact [Schopenhauer]
21466 Pleasure is weaker, and pain stronger, than we expect [Schopenhauer]
21467 Would humanity still exist if sex wasn't both desired and pleasurable? [Schopenhauer]
21468 The Creator created the possibilities for worlds, so should have made a better one than this possible [Schopenhauer]
21471 If suicide was quick and easy, most people would have done it by now [Schopenhauer]
21488 The beautiful is a perception of Plato's Forms, which eliminates the will [Schopenhauer]
21472 Only religion introduces serious issues to uneducated people [Schopenhauer]