Visual Art : Beauty And Beauty

In moving away from the objective property-based or perfectionist theories of the medieval and early modern periods to this sort of subject-based aesthetic, Kant did not intend to give up the idea that judgments of beauty are universalizable. Accordingly, much of the first part of the Critique is given to showing how one person’s reflective aesthetic judgments can be legitimately "imputed" to or expected from all properly-situated human subjects.(3) The famous "Deduction of Judgments of Taste" (§ 38) provides a sketch of this argument. Very briefly, Kant argues that since the faculties under consideration are "required for possible cognition as such," it follows that all who (through communicating with others reveal their ability to) cognize anything are susceptible to the same experience of faculties in free harmony, and to the concomitant aesthetic pleasure. As long as the subject takes himself to be conscientiously beholding the object under appropriate circumstances (e.g. without interest, prejudice, etc.) he can take his judgment of taste to imply in an "a priori" fashion that under similar circumstances other well-functioning human beings likewise will be pleased by it.(4)

The paper starts with multiple definitions of what beauty is defined as and moves to what the experience of beauty is.

In Aesthetics we are constantly judging. First we judge whats is on the outside, or the words on a page, or whats on the stage. Then we must go deeper into it and see the meaning behind it. We go from “I like this” to “this is good”.

However in the arts, where ugliness is an essential component. It holds a deeper truth and imposes a beauty by perhaps a message that this is how it should never be and as Jeans Rostand says “beauty in art is often nothing but ugliness subdued”.

“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them”. As such, it is fair to infer that one’s perception of beauty is dependant upon the construction of their mind, in freudian terms, on the id, ego and superego.

In philosophy of aesthetics, the ideas of beauty and sublimity have been argued to be objective or subjective by several authors, two of whom are Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke. Kant aligns himself with the idea that beauty and sublimity are subjective ideas (while still granting the sublime particular qualities) with universal judgements, whereas Burke thinks that the beautiful and sublime are objective, each consisting of particular and opposing qualities. I will argue that Burke is correct in that beauty and sublimity are objective by showing that it better explains several individuals having similar aesthetic judgements, and that he is mostly correct in that beauty consists of particular things, and that Kant is correct in regards to what sublimity consists of by arguing that Kant’s model encompasses a more complete idea of the sublime.

Reflective judgement requires taking into account Kant’s four factors of beauty: quality, necessity, universality, and purposiveness. When applying judgement to an object, a person must first inspect the quality of the object. Whether or not an object is able to instill the feeling of pleasure or displeasure on the observer. However, the pleasure one acquires from an object must not be limited to the observer's personal desires. That is, he must not secretly crave the objects.

Some people have maintained that beauty is indeed ‘in the eyes of the beholder’, or it is nothing but a capacity possessed by works of art to ‘cause’ the idea of beauty in us.[1] The difficulty of reconciling subjectivity of response with the presumed universality of aesthetic judgement is one which Kant struggled with in his third critique. Kant’s views on art are a main part of his philosophy.[2] In Kant’s view when we describe a flower being red we are, fundamentally including sensory data under concepts. However in the case of verdict like the ‘this flower is beautiful’ we are referring to what is being viewed to what he calls ‘a delight, apart from any interest’. Therefore it is a ‘judgement of taste’ as compared with ‘judgements of the

Hume’s paper focuses on the idea of aesthetics beauty, and that such beauty can actually be more clearly reasoned than others; that is, some standards of taste are more accurate- judgments that are more clearly reasoned and valid- than others. He begins by outlining the characteristics of one who has such makings of being called a true judge, and then he continues in answering why such judges need to be identified. The essay holds the idea that, “each mind perceives a different beauty” (Hume, 245); in that, even though some judgments are more precise, the idea is still interpreted differently because of the vast differences in each individual. The essay is one that tries to reason out why some opinions of taste, in matters taste both atheistic and mental, are more accurate than others; while still holding on to the notion that each opinion, regardless of the judge’s critic capabilities, are all different.

In the Arts, many are convinced that we judge an artwork objectively by its beauty, yet the very popular adage of beauty being “in the eye of the beholder” implicates that the appraisal of an artwork is entirely subjective. For example, I consider Bach’s a-minor Violin Concerto as beautiful, whereas the majority of my friends who have listened to it do not share my enthusiasm. Immanuel Kant, however, would disagree with this because in his Kritik der Urteilskraft 9, he states that certain criteria can be applied to any artwork in order to assess its value in terms of beauty. This lies upon his assumption that two observers without any particular interest in the artwork will come to the same judgement. Kant refers to this as “subjective generality”

According to Hume’s point of view, any person who has a for the most part highly developed artistic taste assessment of art less valued when it does exult in practices, which are capable of violating the moral standards which are commonly shared. Therefore Hume argues that beauty is not the actual quality of things by themselves but it is an assumption. Beauty therefore exists in a person’s mind that always tends to think about it. Therefore different people with different minds tend to identify a different type of beauty compared to another person’s mind. He also argues that one person might not be able to see beauty where another person is seeing beauty. Therefore each and every person has his own opinions about beauty and ideas, thus no one can be able to think of beauty according to the way another one thinks of beauty. Therefore Hume argues that beauty can only be thought by a person and therefore different people will always have different thoughts about beauty. Hume therefore points out that beauty is not real but it is what a person thinks it actually is according to his or her own way of thinking. Consequently beauty cannot be the same in different

In the first part "Analytic of the beautiful", Kant elucidates the judgment of taste. Kant examines the mechanics in distinguishing whether something is beautiful or not and arrives to the realization that beauty is purely intuitive. The judgment of beauty relies not on cognition and reason but on an entirely different aspect .Then, whether an object is beautiful or not depends on the sensation of pleasure or pain the subject undergoes through exposure to it. Kant deduces that the judgment of beauty is subjective; the subject is the primary variable in the equation. The empirical value of the object doesn 't matter when it 's being judged, only the sensation it radiates in the subject determines its aesthetic status.

The most important trait in defining art is its beauty. As complex as the term “art” can be, the term “beauty” is nearly just as complicated. In order to understand art more clearly it is important to understand beauty. “We label an object beautiful because it promotes an internal harmony or ‘free play’ of our mental faculties; we call something ‘beautiful’ when it elicits this pleasure.” (Freeland 8). As defined above, beauty is not a direct message. It is something that subconsciously allows man to feel good and pleasurable. There is “an internal harmony” when we observe something beautiful that allows us to take away a deeper understanding of a work of art regardless of it being “nice looking” or “ugly”.

Anyone who is familiar with the science of evolution in human beings and its philosophical context in history and modern society can appropriately associate that idea with variety amongst individuals. Undeniably, there is a persistent growth in the variety of people who identify in a myriad of groups. Interestingly enough, if anyone were to take a step back and observe the variety of individuals around them, he or she would participate in abstract notion of aesthetic judgment—or an analysis of what the individual deems to be beautiful based off of differing factors, though initially based off of physical attributes. On a psychological level, this aesthetic viewpoint is a reflection of the relative perspective of people and circumstances in which they consider what is “attractive” or “repulsive”, and apply how it is universally understood-- beauty attracts while ugliness repels. Aesthetic judgment can be utilized as a mechanism to enhance survival and reproduction within a species. Thus, this overall notion of aesthetic judgment can be associated to the emerging theory of evolution and everything it encompasses. With this groundbreaking discovery, a variety of historically great modern thinkers (philosophers) managed to incorporate this scientific theory into their understanding of the world around them. Ultimately, while their perspectives may vary, these philosophers fundamentally acknowledge that this evolutionary change is ever-present and influentially active in

Life consists of constant cycles of spontaneous outbursts of joy and unexpected disappointments; there is an upside to this repetitive tug of war. On this rock we call home, we are surrounded by the most gorgeous creations, structures, and landscapes that add a touch of serenity to our miserable existences called aesthetics. Aesthetics as an adjective is defined as concern with beauty of the appreciation of beauty. As a noun it means a set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement. The surrounding beauty that we take for continuous granted is significant towards our existence. In everyday interaction, we straddle the line between aesthetic judgement, where we appreciate any object, instead