Fee-Alexandra Haase BEAUTY AND ESTHETICS MEANINGS OF AN IDEA AND CONCEPT OF THE SENSES. An Introduction to an Esthetic Communication Concept Facing the Perspectives Of Its Theory, History, and Cultural Traditions of the Beautiful. 1 The Definition of Beauty is That Definition is none - Of Heaven, easing Analysis, Since Heaven and He are one. Emily Dickinson - The Definition of Beauty is 2 (cid:150) CONTENTS (cid:150) 1. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................4 2. THE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE: THE BODY OF ESTHETICS CATEGORIES AND ELEMENTS FOR MEANINGS OF ESTHETICS IN THEORIES AND RESEARCH OR (cid:130)HOW TO GET AN APPROACH TO ESTHETICS?(cid:146)......................................................................5 2.1. Elements of Esthetics....................................................................................................9 2.2. The Senses or (cid:130)How do Esthetic Phenomena Come To Us?(cid:146).......................................11 2.3. The Perception or (cid:130)How Do We Notice Esthetic Phenomena?(cid:146)....................................26 2.4. Categories of Reception or (cid:130)How Do We React On Esthetic Phenomena?(cid:146)..................33 2.5. Esthetic Values or (cid:145)How Do We Judge On Esthetic Phenomena?(cid:146)...............................41 3. THE PERSPECTIVE OF APPLICATION: OBJECTS OF ESTHETICS FORMAL CATEGORIES FOR MEANINGS OF THE BEAUTIFUL. APPLIED ESTHETICS OR (cid:145)HOW DO WE USE ESTHETICS(cid:146)?........................................54 3.1. Applied Esthetics........................................................................................................60 3.2. What is Beauty?..........................................................................................................71 4. THE GENERIC PERSPECTIVE: HISTORY OF ESTHETICS MEANINGS OF HISTORICAL CATEGORIES OF ESTHETICS IN A CULTURE. THE PERSPECTIVY OF AN EUROPEAN HISTORY OF ESTHETICS OR (cid:145)HOW DID ESTHETICS BECOME A SCIENCE(cid:146)?.......................................................76 4.1. Ancient Esthetics........................................................................................................70 4.2. Esthetics in the Middle Ages.......................................................................................93 4.3. Esthetics of Modern Times........................................................................................105 4.4. Esthetics of the 19th Century.....................................................................................125 4.5. Esthetics of the 20th Century.....................................................................................141 5. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVITIES: ESTHETICS AND CULTURE CULTURAL ESTHETIC CONCEPTS MEANINGS OF CATEGORIES OF ESTHETICS IN DIFFERENT CULTURES(cid:133)..(cid:133)(cid:133).155 5.1. Esthetic Perspective of the Middle East and Near East..............................................155 5.2. Esthetic Perspective of India.....................................................................................171 5.3. Esthetic Perspective of Asia......................................................................................187 5.4. Esthetic Perspective of Africa ...................................................................................198 5.5. Esthetic Perspective of America and Australia(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133).(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)..(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)..............213 6. Appendix Index(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)(cid:133)..237 3 4 1. INTRODUCTION Beauty is a concept of humanity we find in all cultures. Esthetics is the science and practice dedicated to beauty. Bazon Brock stated that what we call (cid:145)esthetics(cid:146) is the theory of the conditionality of our perceptions and judgments and their applicability in our relations to others. Objects as materializations of abstract statements - i.e. esthetic objects - obtain their meaning because man is obliged to create equivalents in the world of objects in order to be able to communicate and to establish meaningful relations with others. Therefore, the differentiation between esthetic judgment and the justification of the judgment is necessary. Individual esthetic judgment only expresses a person’s ability to become aware of the totality the materialized object refers to. The objects do not contain totality itself. This has to be constituted through the mediation of the subject. As stated in Arts Connected for African arts, the answer to the question (cid:145)What is art?(cid:146) is not the same for all cultures. The idea of special objects made as (cid:145)fine art(cid:146) is not common to all cultures. In some cultures, what Westerners have traditionally called (cid:145)art(cid:146) represent principles that guide every thought and action. Esthetic traditions are visible in everything such a culture produces, including functional objects.1 Brock stated: In the middle of the eighteenth century Alexander Baumgarten, the founder of modern German esthetics, used the term for following statements: though man’s physiological structure is the same for everyone, different people pass different judgments about the same objects. Human perception and its transformation into judgments obviously depends on social conditions in man’s development.2 As Roberts stated: (cid:147)Culture is socially shared. Culture patterns are shared by human beings living in organized groups and are kept relatively uniform by social pressures. Culture represents the ideal forms of behavior. The group habits that comprise the culture are viewed as ideal patterns of behavior. Culture is gratifying. Culture satisfies human needs and in this sense is gratifying. Culture is integrative. The part of a given culture and to form a consistent and integrated whole.(cid:148)3 Foucault made in What is Enlightenment? (Qu’est-ce que les LumiŁres?) the statement that knowledge in form of opinions is already available in contemporary culture: (cid:147)Today when a periodical asks its readers a question, it does so in order to collect opinions on some subject about which everyone has an opinion already; there is not much likelihood of learning anything new. In the eighteenth century, editors preferred to question the public on problems that did not yet have solutions. I don’t know whether or not that practice was more effective; it was unquestionably more entertaining.(cid:148)4 Access to Esthetics in this Book When we ask for the definitions and forms of esthetics from a post-modern Perspective, we must take into account that the perspective of today is a re-constructive one allowing us to trace back historically, but also can engage into systematical forms of research such as empirical research, or quantıtative and qualitative research. This book is devided into four chapters. Each of them has a different approach towards esthetics according to the definition of esthetics as a theoretical field, esthetics as a phenomenon of beauty, and esthetics as a specific phenomenon in a certain cultural context. Our method facing the phenomenon of esthetics will consist in the first part of this book in an analysis of the parts of terminology and physical conditions necessary to describe esthetic phenomena. Therefore, we will also focus on the contemporary state of research regarding esthetics from branches of the humanities and natural sciences. Our interest here is to join the classical theoretical terminology of esthetics derived from the humanities with contemporary concepts of research also not related to the humanities. Based upon this conjunction we can be able to communicate in both directions (cid:150)empirically and in terms of the humanities (cid:150) about esthetic phenomena. In the second part we will focus on the applied eshetics expressed in beauty. Therefore we will look at traditional fields of esthetics (cid:150) the arts- as well as other groups of objects, since mainly esthetics in the perspective of an applied (cid:150)or better said- attached quality 5 of objects is not related to only a specific group of objects. The third part contains a historical review regarding the relation between European culture and esthetics, while the last part is related to esthetics and its cultural background in non-European cultures. These last two parts are intended to serve as a conjunction between cultural assets and their theoretical (philosophical, ideological, and religious) esthetic background system. The background in empirical sciences will serve as the tool for empirical research on esthetics. The tradition of the humanities gives us the terminology to describe esthetic phenomena. The research question of this study for the third and forth part is: Which mind concepts underlay the esthetic concepts in different cultures and different epoques. Therefore we will examine the basic terminology of the concepts as the linguistic background, on which the concepts are based. Practical studies in the applied fields of esthetics such as arts are another way to get access to the local concepts of esthetics. Esthetics as Empirical Science and as a Branch of Philosophy Methods of Research in Esthetics: Between Empirical Studies and Theory In the 21st century, esthetics is subject to interdisciplinary studies. From a philosophical perspective, an esthetic idea cannot become cognition, since it is an abstract concept that stands next to the real phenomena.5 Traditional esthetics assumes that universal and timeless criteria for the evaluation of taste of works of art exist.6 The metaphysical esthetics of the German idealism was criticized as an ordered esthetics.7 Philosophical concepts interpret among other things the so-called (cid:145)esthetics of the ugly(cid:146) as a higher form of beauty.8 We can differentiate between several methodological approaches to esthetics: From the philosophical one, the contributions of liberal arts and social science, psychology, the so-called exact sciences with disciplines like mathematics the methodology comprises theoretical approaches and empirical studies. Lavie and Tractinsky wrote in Assessing Dimensions of Perceived Visual Aesthetics of Web Sites: (cid:147)Empirical studies of aesthetics can be roughly divided into two categories. The first category includes studies that attempt to experimentally test hypotheses about the effects of isolated elements of an object or a form on human preferences. This type of research usually seeks to identify general laws of aesthetical qualities that can be found in the evaluated object. It is most commonly associated with the (cid:147)experimental aesthetics(cid:148) stream of research. The second category includes studies that are more exploratory in nature, which try to delineate higher order factors that represent peoples(cid:146) perceptions of the evaluated objects. This stream of research is typified by concerns about subjective perceptions of aesthetics rather than with the objective properties of things.(cid:148)9 Following Art Dictionary Artlex (cid:145)aesthetics(cid:146) is defined as follows: (cid:147)Aesthetics or (cid:230)sthetics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature and value of art objects and experiences. It is concerned with identifying the clues within works that can be used to understand, judge, and defend judgments about those works. Originally, any activity connected with art, beauty and taste, becoming more broadly the study of art’s function, nature, ontology, purpose, and so on.(cid:148)10 Lee Strachan in In the Brain of the Beholder wrote regarding the question (cid:145)Just how nebulous are aesthetical preferences?(cid:146): (cid:147)Just how nebulous are aesthetical preferences? Perhaps they are not beyond the realm of biology. If the basis lies solely in the complex realm of culture, we would expect human preferences in visual art to be constantly changing like hairstyles and carpet colors. However, numerous studies reveal some consistency in aesthetical preference, suggesting a biological basis. While it cannot be denied that aesthetical preferences for styles of painting, making music, and dancing vary infinitely around the world, an increasing number of studies are revealing significant evidence for a universal neuropsychological basis for some aesthetical preferences. Findings relate preferences for shape, symmetry, complexity, spatial orientation, and even level of abstractness and realism to neuropsychology and physiology. These aspects of aesthetical preferences, formerly seen as pure functions of cultural differences, are being related to neuropsychological and physiological characteristics such as right and left hemisphere abilities, handedness, and gender. As more recent research confirms these findings, a clear case can be made for a neuropsychological basis for human aesthetical preferences.(cid:148)11 6 Welsch answered the question (cid:147)What is aesthetics?(cid:148) the following way: (cid:147)The answer given by the encyclopedias is clear. The Italian Enciclopedia Filosofica defines aesthetics as "disciplina filosofica che ha per oggetto la bellezza e l’arte".(1) Correspondingly, the French Vocabulaire d’EsthØtique determines aesthetics as "Øtude rØflexive du beau" and "philosophie et science de l’art".(2) The Academic American Encyclopedia says: "Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that aims to establish the general principles of art and beauty."(3) And the German Historisches W(cid:246)rterbuch der Philosophie explains (a bit more complicatedly, because it is German): "Das Wort ‘˜sthetik’ hat sich als Titel des Zweiges der Philosophie eingeb(cid:252)rgert, in dem sie sich den K(cid:252)nsten und dem Sch(cid:246)nen [...] zuwendet".(4) In short, aesthetics is considered as artistics, as an explication of art with particular attention to beauty. The discipline’s traditional name as ‘aesthetics’ seems to be wrong, because in fact it doesn’t have - as the name suggests - aesthetics as its point of reference, but art - so the name ‘artistics’ would be much more appropriate.(cid:148)12 Esthetics as a branch of philosophy is concerned with the nature and the criteria of the beautiful. As stated in Arts Connected, the major problem in esthetics concerns the nature of the beautiful: Generally speaking, there are two basic approaches to the problem of beauty(cid:151)the objective, which asserts that beauty inheres in the object and that judgments concerning it may have objective validity, and the subjective, which tends to identify the beautiful with that which pleases the observer. The term aesthete is sometimes used negatively to describe someone whose pursuit of beauty is excessive or appears phony. Generally spoken, there are two basic approaches to the question of beauty coming from an objective standpoint, which asserts that beauty inheres in the object and that judgments concerning it may have objective validity, or the subjective standpoint, which tends to identify the beautiful with that which pleases the observer.13 In most definitions, esthetics is considered a branch of philosophy. Lesley Martin wrote on esthetics classifying it as a branch of philosophy: (cid:147)Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that deals with art, or more generally what the Oxford English Dictionary calls that of "taste, or of the perception of the beautiful" (see beautiful/sublime). The discipline in its modern form is primarily concerned with issues surrounding the creation, interpretation, and ultimate appreciation of works of art, and so it involves how the experience of such material is mediated through the individual sensitivity of the beholder, and the way the experience of it is shaped through presentation by cultural conventions such as the museum exhibition.(cid:148)14 About aesthetics in Encarta is written: (cid:147)Aesthetics, branch of philosophy concerned with the essence and perception of beauty and ugliness. Aesthetics also deals with the question of whether such qualities are objectively present in the things they appear to qualify, or whether they exist only in the mind of the individual; hence, whether objects are perceived by a particular mode, the aesthetical mode, or whether instead the objects have, in themselves, special qualities(cid:151)aesthetical qualities. Philosophy also asks if there is a difference between the beautiful and the sublime. Criticism and the psychology of art, although independent disciplines, are related to aesthetics. The psychology of art is concerned with such elements of the arts as human responses to color, sound, line, form, and words and with the ways in which the emotions condition such responses. Criticism confines itself to particular works of art, analyzing their structures, meanings, and problems, comparing them with other works, and evaluating them. The German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten introduced the term aesthetics in 1753, but the study of the nature of beauty had been pursued for centuries. In the past it was chiefly a subject for philosophers. Since the 19th century, artists also have contributed their views.(cid:148) 15 Brock wrote: (cid:147)Esthetics as theory of the relativity of our perceptions and judgments and their application through communication is the theory of neutralizing this relativity and the liberation of mechanic and unfounded judgments. Contemporary arts are often renounced of being used as cultural techniques. The arts should be developed as 7 pure arts in order to enable us to take advantage of this utility, regardless of what societies demand as cultural techniques.(cid:148)16 Beardsley stated in Theories of Beauty Since the Mid-nineteenth Century: (cid:147)Formalism is the theory that the beauty of an object is a function solely of its formal features. For example, (cid:147)Any formal organization or pattern which is intrinsically satisfying may be said to possess beauty(cid:146). A fractal is a geometric object, which can be divided into parts, each of which is similar to the original object. Fractals are said to possess infinite detail, and are generally self- similar and independent of scale. In many cases a fractal can be generated by a repeating pattern, typically a recursive or iterative process. Harvard Professor Beno(cid:238)t Mandelbrot coined the term fractal in 1975 from the Latin fractus ((cid:145)broken(cid:146)). Because a fractal possesses infinite granularity, no natural object can be a fractal. Natural objects can display fractal-like properties across a limited range of scales.(cid:148)17 The connection between beauty and goodness, esthetics and esthics, has always been discussed. Beardsley wrote: (cid:147)Since actions or behavior can be said to have beauty beyond sensory appeal, aesthetics and ethics often overlap to the degree that this impression is embodied in a moral code or ethical code. Schopenhauer’s aesthetics is one developed variation on this theme; Schopenhauer contrasted the contemplation of beauty against the evil world of the Will.(cid:148)18 Hagaman wrote (cid:147)Aesthetics, or the philosophy of art, is perhaps the most troublesome discipline advocated in a discipline-based approach to art education. It is troublesome for many reasons, including its largely verbal nature and the lack of experience of most art teachers with its content and modes of inquiry.(cid:148)19 Ballard mentioned in Art and Analysis: An Essay toward a Theory in Aesthetics on the present state of esthetic theory: (cid:147)Since man became aware of his having experiences of beauty, they have been an object of wonder and hence of philosophic reflection. What is the nature of these experiences? What is the character of the objects that elicit them? What function do they play in the human economy? This effort to work out satisfactory answers for these questions will be found to be reminiscent of the figure in Plato’s Ion where the artistic inspiration is represented by an image of iron rings held together by magnetic force.(cid:148)20 Lee in The Competitiveness of Nations in a Global Knowledge-Based Economy wrote: (cid:147)The aim of an effective scientific approach would be to observe artistic experiences as whole experiences, and for their other mental features as well as the sensory and intellectual elements. Man, in the presence of a work of art, is not merely homo sapiens. The other mental features I refer to are the less rational elements of mental life, the (cid:147)spiritual(cid:148), the emotional, and the intuitive ones. Were it not that it deals with clinical material, and that it is not an experimental technique, the psychoanalytic method of observing the unconscious as well as the conscious institutions of the mind would be ideal for accomplishing these aims.(cid:148)21 The Catholic Encyclopaedia defines aesthetics as follows: (cid:147)Aesthetics may be defined as a systematic training to right thinking and right feeling in matters of art, and is made a part of philosophy by A.G. Baumgarten. Its domain, according to Wolff’s system, is that of indistinct presentations and the canons of sensuous taste (aisthetike techne, from aisthanesthai, to perceive and feel). It has, however, developed into a philosophy of the beautiful in nature and art, and, finally, into a science of the (fine) arts based on philosophical principles. Natural beauty, particular works of art, pure, that is, not sensual, beauty, and philosophical questions are sometimes treated thoroughly, sometimes merely touched upon.(cid:147)22 Miller wrote: (cid:147)Aesthetics (as the study of art and beauty), aesthetical experience (the proper way of approach and experience art and beauty), and modern art (art for art(cid:146)s sake) all arose together at approx. the same time as expressions of modernist culture (somewhere between the Renaissance and the middle of the 20th century). Aesthetics is the name of the philosophical study of art and natural beauty. It is a relatively new branch of philosophy that arose in the early 18th century (early 1700(cid:146)s) in England and Germany, over 2000 years after the beginnings of other branches of Western philosophy (which began in Greece around 600 B.C.E.).(cid:148)23 8 2. THE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE: THE BODY OF ESTHETICS CATEGORIES AND ELEMENTS OF MEANINGS FOR ESTHETICS IN THEORIES AND RESEARCH OR (cid:145)HOW TO GET AN APPROACH TO ESTHETICS(cid:146)? 2.1. Elements of Esthetics Terminology of Esthetics Thellefsen and Słrensen argued (cid:147)esthetics is a normative science because it considers what it means to be an end or something good in itself. Ethics is normative because it analyses the ends to which thought should be directed. Logic is normative because it governs thought and aims at truth.(cid:148)24 Thellefsen and Słrensen concluded: (cid:147)Consequently, the esthetical value refers to an objective ideal that has been established in semeiosis. The ethical value refers to actions in relation to ends related to a governing esthetical value. And, the logical value mediates and maintains the relation between the esthetical and ethical value.(cid:147)25 Esthetics (cid:150) first of all- is conjunct with the senses. Berleant wrote in The Sensuous and the Sensual in Aesthetics that esthetics is based upon (cid:145)the intrinsic perception of sensation(cid:146): (cid:147)At the time of endless talk about art, it would seem fitting to recall our attention to what is perhaps one of art(cid:146)s most characteristic features. For the distinctive quality of art is neither harmony, unity in variety, aesthetical form, symbolic meaning, or the like, but rather what may be termed the intrinsic perception of sensation, either directly, as in painting, music, and sculpture, or indirectly, as in the case of the literary arts. For every perception is potentially aesthetic. When intellectual, moral, or emotional elements begin to obtrude, experience becomes less aesthetical and more cognitive, homiletic, or affective. Furthermore, recognition of the sensuousness of art emphasizes the particularity, the specificity of the aesthetical experience. The negation of aesthetical is, in every sense, anaesthetic.(cid:148)26 Holgate in Aesthetics of Built Form used as elements for the differences in perception. As subjective responses to built form Holgate distinguished between emotional responses: Size and scale Emotional response to space Proportion Emotional response to form Form and shape Emotional responses to scale Space Response to texture, color and light Visual weight Feelings about physical security and Texture structural stability Light Empathy Color and pattern Anthropomorphism and animalization Composition: balance, unity, harmony, and Sensuality duality Humor Movement and rhythm in buildings Security versus stimulus - a tension Flow of space Visual order and disorder Harmony and contrast Simplicity versus complexity Association and nostalgia Literary allusion Sensitivity in the observer Sense of place Intellectual games Intention Feelings about logic in design 27 Basic Elements of Esthetics Esthetics (or esthetics) (from the Greek word (cid:145)αισθητική(cid:146) meaning a perceiver or sensitive) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty. In academic society esthetics is the branch of philosophy dedicated to the study of art. Esthetics is the theory or philosophy of 9 taste. The Greek noun ·aisthesis· ((cid:145)perception(cid:146)) refers to the modes of perception. The word (cid:145)esthetic(cid:146) can be used as a noun with the meaning (cid:145)that which appeals to the senses(cid:146). Esthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the definitions, criteria and forms of beauty. The term ·esthetics· derives from the Greek aisthesis (·sensation·). The noun ·esthetics· places the term in the context of cultural processes. Esthetics (Gr.: aisthesis ·perception·, aisthanomai ·to perceive·, aisthetikos ·pertaining to perception·) is the philosophical investigation of perceptual or sensible beauty. The adjective ·esthetic· pertains to the perceptual structure or form of a thing or to the apprehension of such a structure for the interest given by and/or conferred upon the order of its purely internal relationships. The word ·aisthesis· means in Greek ·sensual perception·, i.e. that form of the experience, which is obtained by the senses in contrast to that one, which is used by abstract mental reflection (noesis) independently from the senses. Among the elements of esthetics we must differentiate between the object with an esthetic value and the subject that receives the esthetic phenomenon via the senses. The subject receives subjective esthetics and objective esthetics is attributed to the object. Originally any activity connected with art, beauty and taste can be considered as an esthetic investigation. The discipline of applied esthetics is concerned with exploring three areas: The nature of the creative process and the experience of the artist The interpretation of art The nature of the esthetic encounter The esthetics of the individual arts can bear the abstract criteria of esthetics in general. Thus, it seems necessary to ask for general elements of esthetics. Form / Contents Material / Stuff Sensual Qualities (color, taste, sound, etc.) 2.1.1. General Elements of Esthetics Perception and Sensation and Reception of Esthetic Phenomena (cid:150) Theories of the Psycho Physics Perception is not possible without an entity that acts on the sense organs and the organs themselves. This means that perception is not (cid:145)objective(cid:146) in the sense commonly used, which is, outside of the observer. Perception needs an observer. This is because the difference between observers is not reality itself, but the nature of their sense organs, therefore the perception itself is relative to the observer. Our senses are not sentient entities, they cannot deceive us in any meaningful sense. We are the one who deceive ourselves by a bad evaluation of the perceptions we receive. The sense organs are automatically working, but our evaluation is not, and depends on our knowledge of perception.28 Perception Evaluation Emotion Thought Reminiscence Imagination 2.1.2. Concepts of Consciousness Relaying on the source Cell Press onliıne magazine Sensualism released ın January 2006 the article Face perception is modulated by sexual orientation describing that face perception evokes activation in a distributed cortical network that includes visual, limbic and prefrontal regions. On two axial slices taken from the brain of two individuals regardless of gender, both subjects exhibited virtually identical patterns of response to male and female faces. The only 10