Introduction
Aesthetics is, to put it simply, the study of art, beauty, and judgments thereof. As society tends to not view art as a functional endeavour, this branch of study may seem pointless; in fact a well-known aesthete and self-proclaimed Professor of Aesthetics, Oscar Wilde, stated “All art is quite useless.” However, this sentence is misleading, and the same man also said "Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the beautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret of life." Now, that sounds more interesting and important than the study of a “useless” topic, and whether the study of aesthetics serves a blatantly “functional” role in our lives or not, it certainly appeals to our humanity, our common sense of beauty and capacity for aesthetic experience, and can potentially deepen our understanding of this phenomena that has been around since the dawn of man.
To explain it in a less broad and lofty manner, aesthetics asks questions along the lines of “what is art?”, “...
Megan Darnley PHIL-283 May 5, 2014 Compatibilism and Hume. The choices an individual makes are often believed to be by their own doing; there is nothing forcing one action to be done in lieu of another, and the responsibility of one’s actions is on him alone. This idea of Free Will, supported by libertarians and is the belief one is entirely responsible for their own actions, is challenged by necessity, otherwise known as determinism. Those championing determinism argue every action and event is because of some prior cause.
In “Morality and Natural Sentiment,” David Hume believes that morality “is more properly felt than judged of” (p. 83). Hume argues that although we are able to identify all the objective evidence pertaining to an immoral situation, we aren’t capable of determining the wrongness of the actions by examining the situation with simply reason, since there is no existing set list of moral judgments. Therefore, morality must be a sentiment, since reason just reveals facts about what happened and how it happened. I agree with Hume in that morality isn’t based on reason, because in order for something to be declared right or wrong, a person has to apply their own personal notions of what counts as virtuous conduct versus vicious conduct. Everyone has
In Appendix I., Concerning Moral Sentiment, David Hume looks to find a place in morality for reason, and sentiment. Through, five principles he ultimately concludes that reason has no place within the concept of morality, but rather is something that can only assist sentiment in matters concerning morality. And while reason can be true or false, those truths or falsities apply to facts, not to morality. He then argues morals are the direct result of sentiment, or the inner feeling within a human being. These sentiments are what intrinsically drive and thus create morality within a being. Sentiments such as beauty, revenge, pleasure, pain, create moral motivation, and action, and are immune to falsity and truth. They are the foundation for which morals are built, and exist themselves apart from any reasoning. Thesis: In moral motivation, the role of sentiment is to drive an intrinsically instilled presence within us to examine what we would deem a moral act or an immoral act, and act accordingly, and accurately upon the sentiments that apply. These sentiments may be assisted by reasons, but the reason alone does not drive us to do what we would feel necessary. They can only guide us towards the final result of moral motivation which (by now it’s painfully clear) is sentiment.
In this paper I will defend David Hume’s Moral Sense Theory, which states that like sight and hearing, morals are a perceptive sense derived from our emotional responses. Since morals are derived from our emotional responses rather than reason, morals are not objective. Moreover, the emotional basis of morality is empirically proven in recent studies in psychology, areas in the brain associated with emotion are the most active while making a moral judgment. My argument will be in two parts, first that morals are response-dependent, meaning that while reason is still a contributing factor to our moral judgments, they are produced primarily by our emotional responses, and finally that each individual has a moral sense.
Aestheticism is the philosophical study of beauty and taste. During the 19th century, the era did not agree with the philosophy. The Aestheticism Movement, a group sought to release art from responsibility of having a moral or a purpose. Oscar Wilde was associated with the group. Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray as a response to his essay collection arguing the tenets of Aestheticism, Intentions. In his The Picture of Dorian Gray, he uses the characters as an example of the beliefs of the Aesthetic ideal. Through his character’s experiences, Wilde illustrates the soul of the character, the character’s pursuits of pleasure and the character’s opinion of art. The author’s idea of Aestheticism is art that exists for the meaning of beauty, alone. Art served no purpose in the philosophy because “All art is useless.” (Wilde). Dorian’s reaction to the portrait shows the readers all that matter was he was going to age and the painting was going to stay young and beautiful. The author kind of contradicted the principles of Aestheticism. The readers read his novel and instantly think of the portrait and give it a moral. Lord Henry spoke about the portrait after Basil finished . His expressive words were centered around beauty and how magnificent Dorian’s physical appearance appeared in the portrait. The author contradicts the beliefs of the Aesthetic ideal by Dorian’s reaction of the portrait
David Hume’s essay “Of the Standard of Taste” addresses the problem of how objects are judged. Hume addresses three assumptions about how aesthetic value is determined. These assumptions are: all tastes are equal, some art is better than others, and aesthetic value of art is defined by a person’s taste(from lecture). However, Hume finds the three beliefs to be an “inconsistent triad”(from lecture) of assumptions. If all taste is equal but taste defines the aesthetic value, how can it be that some art is good and others bad? Wouldn’t all art be equal if all taste is equal? Hume does not believe all objects are equal in their beauty or greatness. He states that some art is meant to endure, “the beauties, which are naturally fitted to excite agreeable sentiment, immediately display their energy”.(text pg 259) So how will society discern what is agreeable and what is not? Hume proposes a set of true judges whose palates are so refined they can precisely define the aesthetic value of something.
AA theory by Clive Bell suggests the pinpoints the exact characteristic which makes a work true art. According to Bell, an artwork must produce “aesthetic emotion” (365). This aesthetic emotion is drawn from the form and formality of an artwork rather than whether or not it is aesthetically pleasing or how well it imitates what it is trying to depict. The relation of objects to each other, the colors used, and the qualities of the lines are seemingly more important than what emotion or idea the artwork is trying to provoke. Regardless of whether or not the artwork is a true imitation of certain emotions, ideals, or images, it cannot be true art unless it conjures this aesthetic emotion related to formality (367).
The question of whether or not there can be a completely objective standard of artistic beauty is quite a controversial topic in contemporary popular opinion. In order to properly understand one's position on art, we may first need to clarify what it means for something to be considered art. Definitions of art have been numerous and, for the most part, unfruitful, yet I will provide a brief background on popular definitions of the course of time in order to provide a proper context for the definition of aesthetic value. The purpose of this essay is to determine the factors which make particular pieces of art beautiful and others not. I will analyse what I consider to be the two major components of aesthetic value, subjective sentiments and
Influencing centuries of individuals and philosophers alike, David Hume employed an entirely different aspect of philosophy throughout his lifetime; one that invoked empiricists’ values while demonstrating a moral distinction caused not from reason, but from sentiment. Hume has become a figurehead for conceptions of human nature as well as human morality, emphasizing the naturalistic ethical view of virtues and vices as well as creating a clear understanding of human understanding through various components. David Hume exemplified his empiricist ethics by grasping the concept of knowledge, causation, and perception to accurately display the art of human nature. David Hume lived a moderately short life starting on August 26th, 1711 where he
In the history of Western Philosophy, Immanuel Kant is considered as one of the most important and influential philosophers. Kant contributed a lot to metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics and made a profound impact on philosophical movement of that time. Kant was highly impressed by work of David Hume and it was the work of David Hume that evoked Kant from his dogmas. It’s being said that Kant spend close to12 years in search of answers of various questions of David Hume’s skepticism A large part of Kant’s work was focused on addressing of very basic questions regarding knowledge of self. For Kant, knowledge is constrained to mathematics and the science of the natural, empirical world. He firmly believed that we cannot extend our knowledge to realm of speculative metaphysics. It is the mind that plays a sole and active role in constituting the features of experience and limiting the mind’s access to the empirical realm of space and time.
Aesthetics is the theoretical study of the arts and related types of behavior and experience. It is traditionally regarded as a branch of philosophy, concerned with the understanding of beauty and its manifestations in art and nature. However, in the latter 20th century there developed a tendency to treat it as an independent science, concerned with investigating the phenomena of art and its place in human life. Yet, what in a field with a hazy line in between being classified as a science or study of beliefs is considered data for determining what can be studied? It can simply be drawn to the only three things involved in the process of art : The creator, the person experiencing, and the art itself.
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher known for his ideas of skepticism and empiricism. Hume strived to better develop John Locke’s idea of empiricism by using a scientific study of our own human nature. We cannot lean on common sense to exemplify human conduct without offering any clarification to the subject. In other words, Hume says that since human beings do, as a matter of fact, live and function in this world, observation of how humans do so is imminent. The primary goal of philosophy is simply to explain and justify the reasoning of why we believe what we do.
Born in the United Kingdom; David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, and writer, who is best known today for his influence as a philosophical empiricist. Hume wrote his fair share of titles but is quite well known for a few notable pieces of work like, A Treatise of Human Nature, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. By the same token he is famously known for his adoption of the no self-theory, similar to that of the Buddhist following. Specifically “the mind itself, far from being an independent power, is simply a bundle of perceptions without unity or cohesive quality.” With this being one of Empiricist biggest ideas to run with, this has to be one of the biggest ideas I run
This is the state of contemplating a subject with no other purpose than appreciating it. For most authors, thus, the aesthetic attitude is purposeless: we have no reason to engage in it other than finding aesthetic enjoyment. Aesthetically, we appreciate beauty by using our senses by appreciating fine art in a museum say the Mona Lisa, taking a walking in garden filled with our favorite flowers and trees, devouring our favorite meal; or even finding an oasis in the dessert. Nevertheless, our imagination can also aid with our aesthetic attitude. Finding ourselves happy when we think of our family and friends is a beautiful thing, love is beauty, and beauty is love.
An Evaluation of Perception Regarding Immanuel Kant and David Hume A common philosophy that has dominated and defined the very nature of science is the theory that humankind can only be aware of that which exists within the mind. David Hume defined this concept as perception but resided the belief that perceptions could be categorically broken down into ideas and impressions in his work, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding. This gave rise to Immanuel Kant’s Critique in Pure Reason, which tested Hume’s notions. As it goes in philosophy, these ideas are purely theories of man and to take either philosopher’s side would seem implausible: It is evident both men have accomplished the unthinkable when considering their demographics – a notion