QUYNH NGUYEN ON THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CREATIVE OF COMMONPLACE:

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1 QUYNH NGUYEN ON THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE CREATIVE OF COMMONPLACE: XXIII WORLD CONGRESS OF PHILOSOPHY PHILOSOPHY AS INQUIRY AND WAY OF LIFE Athens, 4 10 August 2013 University of Athens, School of Philosophy University Campus, Zografos, Athens, Greece Quynh Nguyen, Detail of September 11, 24 x22 Oil on canvas, 50 x 9, ( ) 1. BEAUTY AND THE BEAUTIFUL. AESTHETICS AND THE AESTHETIC. Beauty as the concept or eidos; namely something intuited, lies beyond our reach but excites our mind. It is different from the beautiful, which we gain from our experience of everyday life. Venus s judgment of Helen of Troy as the most beautiful woman is a work of mythology that shows Helen s Beauty never exists in realty. Something beautiful speaks of our true knowledge and feeling although transitory. Then comes the philosophy of beauty or aesthetics to investigate all notions of the beautiful now under scrutiny of reasoning to be the Aesthetic, which we wish to examine under the terms of sense data garnered from the so-called scientific study or cognitive learning to fathom the oddities of aesthetic expressions, which embody extension, reducibility, and even reductio ad absurdum. The idea of the beautiful recaptures the Greek terminology aesthesis rather than the ideological definition of Baumgarten who argues that Aesthetics should be the sister of Logic ; namely It (Aesthetics) is born as a woman, subordinate to man (reason/the absolute power) but with her own humble, necessary tasks to perform (Eagleton 1990:13-16). Anyway, both the Beautiful and the Aesthetic occupy the center of fascinating complexity of fuzzy knowledge. 2. AESTHETIC AND IDEOLOGY The aesthetic comes from our taste. Our personal or individual taste deserves its autonomous right to be in this lived world and consequently demonstrates our identity that is clearly

2 ideological in its own right (Mortensen 1997: ). This point dominates Hegelian concept of the progressive self-conscious of spirit, the term is ascribed to historical dialectics to foster the achievement of spirit where freedom gains ascendancy in individual affairs. (Krukowski 1987: 12). However, as a social, economic, cultural, educational, and political constituent, we cannot rule out the context or networks of historical embodiments that constitute part of our cognizant and our sensate-ness; hence the modes of our behavior. Once we recognize our behavior as serious as a component or by-product (derivative) of historical discourse we realize the exigency of liberating ourselves to regain the autonomy of what is called the beautiful and the creative of our individual pursuit for our happiness, or to the ascendency of the spirit. Kant s theory of aesthetics, Critique of Judgment, follows his ethical formalism based on rationality. Yet Kant s formalistic dogma silently bolsters up both his stand against the culture of absolutism of Germany in the 18 th century, and his unflagging obedience to the King of Prussia. Kant s consciousness of the aesthetic as investigation of taste, in fact incorporates the senses or the body that is pretended to be subject to rational guidance, in order to avoid intolerable revolt against the dominion or hegemony of the ruling power. As such Critique of Judgment elicits Kant s docile and implicit design of liberation. His aesthetic theory implies the lawfulness without a law (Eagleton 1990: 20). Kant s conception of aesthetics goes against Marxist theory of art. According to Marx, the knowledge of art must be scientific. (Graham 2000: ). In this fashion, human cognizant defined in Marxism follows rational norm or I call it Neo-formalism. Unfortunately it is not only a fallacy but alien to the knowledge of the body or the sense faculty. As the result Marxist aesthetics has created gross distortion of human consciousness. Even scientists have refuted it as myopic and unscientific because it is impossible to determine the value of human knowledge scientifically. Science will stop short before the unattainable, for instance the magnitude of a scent. The Neo-Marxist Horkheimer is right to clarify that even though the dynamisms of history, science cannot meet utilitarian ends (Horkheimer 1972: 3-4). If ideology is false and distorting idea, then Marx s aesthetic theory presupposing a social and economic revolution runs deeply into his own ideology and gives his followers an excuse to turn humanity upside down. As such Marxist slogan is not only dreamy and poorly ideological but full of transgressions and anti-progress. Why? As observes Hume the good critic should be a man with some practice and experience, (Mortensen 1997: 106) which are not evident in Marx s life and his students. In the absence of praxis, how could Marxist perspective to change the world become possible? (Graham 2000: 186). In case the Marxist theory were successfully installed after it won the war, the true social and economic revolutionary promise would still be on a bumpy road to no destination, or simply invisible. Mark s observation of social background and mercantile economic truly come out from the 18 th century German absolutism in whose machinery-like rational thinking system the peasantry, and in Marx s time simply the workers had neither ideology nor liberation at all. As humans our needs are many and complicated such that we have learned from history that one component of a theory could easily become shortsighted. Adorno, a Neo-Marxist is right to point out a number of fundamental problems of Marxist theory of art because: a) All notions of art and aesthetics of all times are transitory; b) They are both universal and temporal; c) The aesthetic does neither solve problem nor emerges quite intuitively; d) It is all human that sometimes we would rather live up with our happiness than to accept something materially attractive; e) While not all history is about class struggles, individual revolts are exemplified against philistine

3 dogma; f) The cult of rationality in Marx s thought is irrational because rational aesthetics only serves the means not the end; and finally, g) Marxist aesthetics nurtures revenge responsible for the ignorance and tyranny in the Soviet case (Adorno 1982: 231, 346, 361, 453, 485), and in states where social upheavals end without social revolution. 3. CRITIQUE OF THE BEAUTIFUL, THE AESTHETIC OF THE COMMONPLACE While lived experiences and the lived world are continuous working projects, they are not inclusive. True meaning of the world and of human community, especially in terms of the aesthetic and the creative should be tested against man s motif. This awareness is not based on moral doctrine but on ethics as observes Wittgenstein Ethics and Aesthetics are one ( Wittgenstein 2003: 149), so, it focuses on defining and re-defining both individual ideology and the claim of every commonplace aesthetic to avoid taken-for-granted-ness that would taint individual s happiness and would so hazard other s interests. Now we must make the following ideas clear: a) Ideology b) Commonplace and Somatic Aesthetic a) IDEOLOGY Ideologically individual taste could surge to creativity and reveal something never existed before (Buber 1958: 31). From its locality individual ideology may seek other s appreciation without conflict. Individual ideology can protect its own interest, identity, freedom and right. Once individual ideology steps out of its territory and tries to meddle with other s individual ideology, it shows the sign of the I as Tyranny over the world of organization (Buber 1958: x). Conflicts of the ideological are inevitable, but they can co-exist in terms of mutuality, dialogue, and partnership (Buber 1965: 79). In social, economic and political life, ideology takes a big and complicated picture that is vested in laws and morality albeit questions may arise due to manipulation and corruption. Social ideology provided that it is a good one still needs it to enter negotiation with individual ideology to open up a fair play possibly leading to better ideology. In reality, such a scenario is conditional and may never been materialized. Civil disobedience as is seen in the case of Thoreau would merit a discourse any time in public and private sectors. But such a disobedience while challenges legal system must see if social welfare including public security, financially, politically, culturally and morally would benefits from Thoreau s ideology. b) COMONPLACE AND SOMATIC AESTHETIC From the outset of this paper, experience of the beautiful is a unique revelation of any individual. Traditionally, the beautiful presumption claims its ultimate domain existing only in arts or precisely the great works of art. But we are not living in history to really feel like did Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Some artist s technique so mesmeric that it raises ontological as itself having metaphysical power that surpasses human capacity. That is so great about technique, but that also creates self-alienation for the viewers who only see history as social transformations through the ages. We have seen the transfiguration of the common objects as the creative and the beautiful exemplified in the still-lifes of Chardin, the found-objects of Duchamp, and the Pop-artists We cannot argue for or against the enduring truth that in reality may not make our life happier. Our senses could be very happy with the variant and the transitory.

4 Our experience of the beautiful has reality but no category. The landscapes, the fresh-ness of some breeze, the warmth of a body, the feeling of fresh water, the verdancy of meadow, the soothing aroma, the chirping sounds of sparrows, the chimney smoke over roof top, the lovely tones of pigeons, the melancholia of mourning doves, the dampness of sodded meadows, the stench of labor and valor, then even the barbeque odor that reminds us of the faces of our friends in certain place and time. Out of such a check list we find the beautiful of some commonplace and somatic aesthetic experiences that cannot be produced in any work of visual art, even in the art of music. Somatic aesthetic experience is free and direct, effortless and spontaneous. 4. THE CREATIVE WITHOUT CREATION Benjamin s discovery of the aesthetic of AURA strongly associated with the Capitalist commodity has made him an iconic aesthete, especially in Post-modernist visual culture. His breakthrough in aesthetics embraces everyday productions as new awareness of the beautiful without creation. Does this sound like the absurd? Early in 1955, Albert Camus defensed his philosophy of the absurd that he was insistently opposed by his own consciousness and all creation, and he only preserved what he believed to be true, as he concluded that Living an experience is accepting it fully and knowing (experience) as an absurd we must bring it to light by consciousness (Camus 1983: 51-52). Call it absurd or not, each experience of the beautiful brings home an AURA. If one possesses the metaphysical of technique to make an artwork a stunning creation, then one should continue to pursue his dream, either by using traditional media or by manipulating new technology, such as video and digital technology. Scanning or reproducing images from textbooks or from websites may be a good option. We do not have to make art in order to be creative. Our mind should be creative thinking. So in silence we may discover something beautiful and joyfully utter the sound Wow! an alternative for AURA. Wonderful voices and body movements, beautiful moving objects - form and function, like automobiles, airplanes and especially the spaceships, and even the earth planet have become our invaluable aesthetic experiences. Thus, they are endowment of nothingness ever. (1,800 words) Dr. Quynh Nguyen EPC College, El Paso, Texas USA quynh@att.net and qnguyen@epcc.edu SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Adorno, T. W. (1982) Aesthetic Theory. Routledge and Kegan Paul. Buber, Martin (1958) To Hollow This Life. Harper & Brothers Publishers, NY. (1965) The Knowledge of Man. George Allen & Unwin LTD. London. Camus, Albert (1983 The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. Vintage International. Danto, Arthur C. (1981) The transfiguration of the Commonplace. Harvard University Press.

5 Eagleton, Terry (1990) The Ideology of the Aesthetic. Blackwell Publishing. Graham. Gordon (2000) Philosophy of the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetics. Routledge, London and New York. Horkheimer, Max (1972) Critical Theory. Herder and Herder. New York. Krukowski, Lucian (1987) Art and Concept: A Philosophical Study. The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst. Mortensen, Preben (1997) Art in the Social Order: The Making of the Modern Conception of Art. State University of New York Press. Sibley, Frank (2006) Approach to Aesthetics: Collected Papers on Philosophical Aesthetics. Clarendon Press Oxford. Wittgenstein, L. (2003) Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The Barnes and Noble, NY.