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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.
| 24164 | Even non-theists can wonder what, if anything, makes the universe good [Cochrane] |
| 24165 | Pleasure has an intrinsic (independent) value, but that is not a final (for its own sake) value [Cochrane] |
| 24166 | Pleasure serves to maintain our relationship with its source [Cochrane] |
| 24167 | Love is a mutual reciprocation, not just a desire for something [Cochrane] |
| 24169 | We can treat value as a verb; we value something when we positively engage with it [Cochrane] |
| 24168 | Aesthetic value appreciates a thing objectively, as a good in its own right [Cochrane] |
| 24171 | Morality is not a final value; it concerns how we distribute the things we actually finally value [Cochrane] |
| 24173 | We can only understand form if we grasp the whole of which things are parts [Cochrane] |
| 24174 | Beauty is fittingness, of details uniting within a pattern [Cochrane] |
| 24175 | Accounts of sublimity differ over whether we learn something good about ourselves [Cochrane] |
| 24176 | A person's activities have value when they receive full attention [Cochrane] |