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Single Idea 18545

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

Full Idea

Shaftesbury explained the peculiar features of the judgement of beauty in terms of the disinterested attitude of the judge.

Gist of Idea

The disinterested attitude of the judge is the hallmark of a judgement of beauty

Source

report of 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (Characteristics [1711]) by Roger Scruton - Beauty: a very short introduction 1

Book Ref

Scruton,Roger: 'Beauty: A Very Short Introduction' [OUP 2011], p.22


A Reaction

Good. I take our vocabulary to mark a distinction between expressions of subjective preference, and expressions of what aspire to be objective facts. 'I love this' versus 'this is good or beautiful'.


The 21 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]
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]