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Full Idea
To appreciate form we must consider how the parts relate to the whole, which needs some idea of what counts as a part. We must organise our perceptual data in some way, and our understanding of the object is an indispensable contributor to this process.
Gist of Idea
We can only understand form if we grasp the whole of which things are parts
Source
Tom Cochrane (The Aesthetic Value of the World [2021], 2.2)
Book Ref
Cochrane,Tom: 'The Aesthetic Value of the World' [OUP 2021], p.32
A Reaction
Abstract painting is a tricky case. It seems to need a precise boundary or frame. But we might enjoy the form of some pattern in nature, while being ignorant of the nature of what we are observing. I see his point, though.
| 636 | Beauty involves the Forms of order, symmetry and limit, which can be handled mathematically [Aristotle] |
| 8118 | Beauty is an order between parts, and in relation to the whole [Baumgarten, by Tolstoy] |
| 20431 | Art needs a mixture of order and variety in its sensations [Fry] |
| 8115 | Only artists can discern significant form; other people must look to art to find it [Bell,C, by Gardner] |
| 23924 | Maybe significant form gives us a feeling for ultimate reality [Bell,C] |
| 23931 | Significant form is the essence of art, which I believe expresses an emotion about reality [Bell,C] |
| 20434 | 'Form' is visual relations, and it is 'significant' if it moves us aesthetically; art needs both [Bell,C, by Feagin] |
| 20347 | If beauty needs organisation, then totally simple things can't be beautiful [Wollheim] |
| 22686 | Formalists say aesthetics concerns types of beauty, or unity, complexity and intensity [Gaut] |
| 24173 | We can only understand form if we grasp the whole of which things are parts [Cochrane] |