Philosophy of Art Enlightenment Aesetics 1 Rationalism Descartes Influence ough hardly interested in e problems of aesetics Descartes influence was profound e ideals of knowledge formed by reflection on arimetic and geometry indelibly stamped upon e age Descartes proposed by analysis to discover e essentially simple clear and distinct ideas which should be e basis of knowledge claimed to have discovered a meod at anyone could use to get at indubitable and universal trus universal in at it would be valid for all human beings and in at it would be true of everying in a given field of inquiry a rationalist: his meod was a priori and abstract e kind of knowledge he sought could not be found rough e senses had to rest on innate concepts ideal of Cartesian knowledge spread across Europe hope of attaining it in many fields including e study of e arts Aesetics How Descartes and Aristotle Influenced 17 Century Reflection on Art e ideas of reason, good sense, intelligibility essential to e poet key concepts of Nature and Reason Nature is e universal underlying e particular e reality behind appearance Nature and Reason are intrinsically allied Influence of Aristotle s Poetics poetry is an imitation of human action wi e development of e emerging concept of Nature is basic Aristotelean idea would be furer developed e aim of e poet is to provide just representation of general Nature (Samuel Johnson, 1765) The business of e poet... is to examine, not e individual, but e species.... Shakespear s characters are praised for eir universality, not eir individuality ey sought e grandeur of generality aim of poetry and drama is to reveal universal traits of human nature
Philosophy of Art Enlightenment Aesetics 2 because e end of poetry can be exactly stated e neo-classical eorists held at ere could be a science should be possible in principle to discover and draw up a set of general rules by which a poem can be successfully constructed and criticism possible e doctrine of rules especially e ree alleged Aristotelean rules of tragedy came into its own in 17 century brought into e heart of aesetics e epistemological conflict of e Enlightenment: e conflict between e rival claims of reason and experience most of e eorists of e 17 century were united on e a priori approach e major premise at poetry is imitation of human action was not questioned Dryden (1668) if Nature is to be imitated, en ere is a rule of imitating Nature rightly... Dryden was quite explicit at taste cannot be all ere is to criticism e quarrel between ancients and moderns wheer e rules of art are best studied in e classical writers implying at progress does not occur in contrast to e emerging intellectual optimism of Baconian science Theory of Painting and Music prevailing eory of painting and music parallel closely e eory of poetry Painting attempt to make painting a serious and intellectual art, comparable to tragedy and epic e function of painting was to please by teaching painting as imitation of Nature in late 15 and 16 centuries painting was conceived as imitation of nature but more of a realistic way, wi attention to e sensuous show of ings e dominant eme of 17 century was ideal imitation Nature in Cartesian sense ideal imitation meant e representation of e general raer an e individual Sir Joshua Reynolds lectures at English Royal Academy (1769-1790) emphasized role of reason in art if painting is an art at all it must have principles e aim of painting has beauty as its object but a beauty at is general and intellectual an idea at exists only in e mind to paint e general form of ings even e works of Genius must have eir rules
Philosophy of Art Enlightenment Aesetics 3 but also recognizes genius as a power of producing excellencies out of e reach of rules cannot teach taste or genius application of Descartes metaphysics if painting is taken as e imitation of human beings in action e essential problem of representation is to depict in bodily motion states of mind and soul is is what is called expression in 17 century eory rules for painting will be found in eory of expression analysis of emotions and eir physiological manifestations us much effort put into classifying e details of physiological expression main emes summary on painting: e confidence at general principles to explain e goodness and badness of painting might be found more specific eory about e unity of dramatic content of e painting itself principle of e appropriateness of e gestures to e situation Music since Pyagoras a certain degree of rationalism in music eory music eory concerned wi problems of consonance and dissonance which harmonic intervals are permissible? Many sought laws derivable from self-evident principles wi help of Descartes eory of emotions e earlier speculations about emotional effects of music were developed into full-fledged Affect Theory Music is science which ought to have certain rules; ese rules ought to be derived from a self-evident principle; and is principle can scarcely be known to us wiout e help of maematics. (Jean-Phillippe Rameau, 1722) Toward a Unified Aesetics implications of Descartes philosophy in e field of aesetics first worked out by Baumgarten Reflections on Poetry (1735) unfinished Aesetica (1750) coined e term aesetics attempted an aesetic eory based on Cartesian principles e object of aesetics is to investigate e kind of perfection proper to perception Aesetics is e science of sensory cognition from Cartesian point of view, a science of perception is paradoxical for perception is just what does not submit to science
Philosophy of Art Enlightenment Aesetics 4 Baumgarten sought to explain how Cartesian certainty could apply to understanding poetry Descartes notion of clear and distinct ideas applied to poetry gives rules concerning diction, meter, plot, eme, etic. for poetic devices to increase clarity tried to derive principles for bo poetry and painting from same fundamental principles e single principle to which all e fine arts are to be reduced is e principle at art is e imitation of beautiful nature against is stream of ought: Lessing s Laokoon (1766) had impact on 18 century called attention to e distinctiveness of e medium of each art he asked, for e first time wi such directness and explicitness, what a given art can imitate, and what it can imitate most successfully again, begins by starting from first principles
Aesetics Enlightenment Aesetics 5 Empiricism in opposition to e Cartesian emphasis on a priori principles e Baconian tradition called attention to e need for empirical study of psychological processes of art sought a freeing of e arts from rigid criticism derived from first principles If philosophical disciplines can be said to define emselves in terms of e central terms ey attempt to define, en modern aesetics is at discipline at attempts to define art and aesetic. Bo ese terms derive from 18 century e term art had long been in use but not until 18 century at e artforms included in e modern system of e arts began to be grouped togeer and at e term art became linked wi e concept at now governs it e reverse is true wi concept of e aesetic e term did not become linked to e concept at now governs it until 19 century but it was in e 18 century at e concept first took on recognizable shape us 18 century can be regarded as e formative period of modern philosophical aesetics a study of e philosophical forces at forged our central concepts in aesetics caution not to read 20 century aesetics into our understanding of e development of ese concepts in e 18 century for ese concepts have changed in e past 200 years our concept of e aesetic can be traced particularly to British aeseticians of 18 century eir eories of taste shaped our aesetic eories Locke provided e empiricist framework Shaftesbury inspired e philosophical interest in e concept of taste most important works of 18 century British Aesetics Joseph Addison s papers on Good Taste and The Pleasures of e Imagination in e Spectator (1712) Francis Hutcheson s An Inquiry Concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony, Design (1725) David Hume s Of e Standard of Taste (1757) Edmund Burke s A Philosophical Enquiry into e Origin of Our Ideas of e Sublime and Beautiful (1757/59) Alexander Gerard s An Essay on Taste (1759) Lord Kame s Elements of Criticism (1762) Archibald Alison s Essay on e Nature and Principles of Taste (1790) Imagination and Artistic Creation
Aesetics Enlightenment Aesetics 6 e concept of imagination developed in 17 century a commonplace at e mind somehow has e capacity to rearrange its experience if poetry can teach as well as delight one might obtain a clearer notion of just what sort of tru it has to teach fuller explanation of its delight by asking what faculties of e mind it proceeds from philosophers in e Cartesian tradition not much interested in e imagination as it was conceived as playing a very subordinate role, along wi sensation, in e acquisition of knowledge Bacon gives a different status to e imagination in early 17 century England ree parts of Man s Understanding History to Memory, Poesy to Imagination, Philosophy to Reason Bacon posed problem for 17 century: what is e imagination and how exactly does it work to produce poetry? (and painting and sculpture) by separating off e imagination as a special active power in its own right Bacon opened up new field of inquiry Hobbes takes up challenge of giving careful account of imagination e physiology of sensation consists of motions whose appearance to us is imagination or fancy difference between simple imagination and compound imagination how does is compounding take place? Hobbes answer an early version of association eory in sensation, a given image may be followed by a variety of oer images on different occasions e same image becomes capable of giving rise to e same variety in imagination but it can never give rise to an image at it has not been associated wi in sensation for Hobbes it is e imagination at primarily gives poetry e power to arouse passions justifies poetry in terms of its emotional effects John Locke (1632-1704) nowhere discusses imagination under at name still one of his main aims is to show how e understanding ough limited to simple ideas produced in sensation and reflection can operate on ese simple ideas to produce e complex ideas in e kind of logical positivist inking launched by Locke we see e emergence of two distinct languages e metaphorical language of poetry e literal language of science
Aesetics Enlightenment Aesetics 7 e problem of taste psychological approach to art invites two lines of inquiry 1) problems about e origin, or genesis, of art 2) problems about e effects of art: e psychology of aesetic enjoyment most of e empiricist eories about imagination bear on first problem Shaftesbury (1671-1713) reinvigorated Neoplatonsist metaphysics permeates all his writings God is conceived as exercising e continually creating power in nature nature is us e greatest of all works of art an inward eye e same faculty at is called moral sense when applied to human actions is e sense of beauty when applied to external objects us a kind of special faculty by which we appreciate beautiful objects is capacity came to be known as Taste Shaftesbury did not ink of taste as relative like e moral sense, e aesetic sense permits universal standards of judgment also got into e problem of what is now often called e aesetic attitude reflecting on e problem of psychological egoism made distinction between a certain pleasure and self-interest e enjoyment of beauty, especially, is completely separate from e desire of possession e beginning of a contrast between disinterested aesetic contemplation and practical interest also widened e concern of aesetics beyond e sphere of e beautiful e notion of e sublime e willingness to enjoy e look and feel of nature in its more wild and fearsome aspects: rugged cliffs, chasms, raging torrents, e appalling vastness of space did not fully separate is new sort of contemplative delight from beauty but placed under it Addison takes up furer e concept of e sublime, but not under at name e primary pleasures of e imagination all proceed from e sight of what is great, uncommon, or beautiful greatness is his word for e sublime tries to give a phenomenological account of a certain species of pleasure Addison s work invited a new approach to e problems of art and beauty
Aesetics Enlightenment Aesetics 8 Hutcheson begins wi a Lockean view of sensation of simple and complex ideas of primary and secondary qualities Hutcheson s treatises can be seen as a unified response to a single question: What is e source of e pleasure we take in beauty? One of chief merits of his work was e attempt to look for e source of beauty in us as well as in objects. He asked bo What is e source of e pleasure of beauty in us? What is its source in objects? to e first question his answer is at it is in virtue of our possession of an internal sense at we take pleasure in objects of beauty to e second: it is in virtue of eir possession of uniformity amidst variety at objects of beauty give pleasure to us ough bo answers continue to be sources of inspiration e first question is of greater historical importance Hutcheson fashions first philosophically sophisticated incarnations of our categories of aesetic pleasure, aesetic properties, aesetic objects, in short, what was internally sensible for Hutcheson becomes aesetic for us on e basis Hutcheson might be e founder of modern philosophical aesetics What is e source of beauty in us? opens his Inquiry wi e complaint at ere are but two acknowledged categories of pleasure: Sensible pleasures ose at arise from external sources, namely e five bodily senses Rational pleasures ose at arise wi e additional involvement of reason he argues at e pleasure of beauty doesn t fall into eier category 1) it cannot arise wi e involvement of reason, and must have source solely in senses 2) cannot arise solely from external sources, must involve some internal source (or sources) us ere must be anoer category of pleasures: to e externally sensible and e internally rational must be added e internally sensible ose at arise only wi e involvement of some internal sense which includes e pleasure of beauty e capacity to perceive beauty may correctly be called a sense because e pleasure it produces does not derive from any knowledge of principles, proportions, causes, or of e usefulness of e object e pleasure of beauty arises wiout e involvement of reason is plainly sensible and arises naturally, necessarily, immediately, and wiout increase of
Aesetics Enlightenment Aesetics 9 knowledge to say such pleasures arise naturally is to say at it arises independently of custom, education, and example necessarily : is to say at it arises independently of mere acts of will we cannot will ourselves to take pleasure in any object, e pleasure of beauty arises en only by subjecting ourselves to beautiful objects immediately : it arises independent of self-interest, for is would require long deductions of reason wiout increase of knowledge : it arises independently of e kind of disinterested knowledge at we find exemplified in knowledge of principles, proportions, and causes Hutcheson never explains how is fourfold description eliminates reason as a source of e pleasure of beauty to establish at e pleasure of beauty is internal is simple by comparison two basic arguments: 1) some people possess all five external senses, each in perfect working condition, and yet are incapable of taking pleasure in acknowledged objects of beauty 2) not all object of beauty are objects of external sense Thus his conclusion: e pleasure of beauty arises only wi e involvement of some internal sense e pleasure of beauty is internally sensible What is e source of e pleasure of beauty in objects? This prompts e question what quality (or complex of qualities) suits an object to give us e pleasure of beauty what is e source of e pleasure of beauty in objects? Following Locke, Hutcheson inks of e idea of beauty as a secondary quality, at is, merely an idea, not a quality at inheres in objects source of beauty must be in a quality at causes e idea of beauty an inductive survey of beautiful objects reveals e common characteristic: e quality of uniformity amidst variety pleasure of beauty arises from e simple presence of ese two non-opposing, independently variable qualities his esis, roughly speaking, is at objects give rise to e pleasure of beauty to e degree ey possess complex order chief meod to establish is empirical esis is to assemble a diverse group of beautiful objects his conclusion at knowledge, and erefore reason, plays no role in e taking of aesetic pleasure proves difficult to sustain
Aesetics Enlightenment Aesetics 10 Hume Hume addresses neier of Hutcheson s questions, oer an to simply dismiss his answers Hume takes e pleasure of beauty to arise wi e involvement of bo senses and reason and to have not one but irreducibly many causes in objects bo points are incidental to e larger project at concerns Hume: e seemingly hopeless search for a standard of taste accepts e subjectivity of judgments of beauty but still wants to provide some standard at would permit criticism in aesetic judgment The Problem of Judgment in morals as well as aesetics if a moral judgment expresses a speaker s pleasure in what he sees in human conduct in what sense can we talk of eier a right or a wrong in morals? if an aesetic judgment expresses a speaker s pleasure in what he sees in beautiful objects in what sense can we talk of better or worse judgments in aesetics? e hopelessness of e project of establishing a standard in aesetic judgment stems from its incompatibility wi Locke s esis at beauty is no quality in ings emselves, but merely a sentiment in e mind at contemplates em If beauty were a quality in objects, judgments concerning eir beauty would have reference to someing beyond emselves to real matters of fact and us be true or false according to e presence or absence of beauty in e objects Objects emselves would en provide a standard for judging individual tastes good taste would consist in perceiving beauty in, and only in, beautiful objects but as beauty is merely a sentiment of pleasure excited by e perception of objects judgments concerning eir beauty have a reference to noing beyond emselves and are true or false according merely to e presence of absence of pleasure in e mind us appears at ere can be no standard of taste assuming at we can detect e presence or absence of pleasure in our own minds all judgments of beauty will be true, and all tastes erefore equally sound The Standard of Taste Hume s strategy is to accept e Lockean esis but argue at is does not preclude e existence of a standard of taste Hume s argument for a standard of taste divides e mechanism of taste into two stages: 1) a perceptual stage, in which we perceive qualities in objects 2) an affective stage in which we feel e pleasurable sentiments of beauty or e displeasurable sentiments of deformity
Aesetics Enlightenment Aesetics 11 because we pass rough bo stages in arriving at judgements of taste differences in such judgements divide into two categories: 1) ose arriving merely at e latter stage, erefore purely affective 2) ose arriving in e former stage, and erefore perceptual insofar as differences in taste arise from differences in perception, Hume believes we have a standard for preferring some tastes above oers The questions of wheer and when ere is a standard of taste us reduce to e questions wheer and when differences in taste result from differences in perception at e works of Homer, Virgil, Terence, and Cicero have pleased minds in such diverse places and times indicates at ey possess qualities at e mind, by its nature, takes pleasure in perceiving us e principles of taste or rules of art are not a priori but based on experience can only be established by induction from many observations of e actual effects at poems and paintings have on e beholder and to generalize from ese observations presupposes common dispositions of human nature to be pleased or displeased by certain ings e perception of certain properties of objects always gives rise to pleasurable sentiments of beauty, or displeasurable sentiments of deformity it follows at when we fail to take pleasure in works possessing properties fitted by nature e blame falls neier on works, nor principles, but on us some particular forms or qualities...are calculated to please us ere can be general propositions about which forms will give immediate pleasure to e qualified recipient if ey fail of eir effect in any particular instance, it is from some apparent defect or imperfection in e organ devotes considerable attention to cataloging and describing ese defects: 1) lack of delicacy 2) lack of good sense 3) failure to have practiced 4) failure to have formed comparisons 5) prejudice The Qualified Observer ose who are free from each of ese five defects are persons who are capable of proper response to art Hume refers to ese capable ones as true judges
Aesetics Enlightenment Aesetics 12 to be a true judge is rare and admirable Strong sense, united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice, can alone entitle critics to is valuable character; and e joint verdict of such, wherever ey are to be found, is e true standard of taste and beauty we have a true standard of taste only when judges render a joint verdict such a verdict is e verdict at any ideal perceiver would give regardless of particular constitution or cultural background ey are verdicts we would all give, if we only perceived better wi is concept of Qualified Observer Hume inks at critical disputes are resolvable wiin limits some judgments can be disqualified or overruled on various grounds insensitivity, inattention, prejudice, inexperience Hume s system us has nonrelativist basis in at The general principles of taste are uniform in human nature. Yet ere is room for much explainable variability ere is a residual range of unresolvable disagreements Hume acknowledges some cases in which differences in affective response do not result entirely from differences in perception in addition to e 5 defects of perception ere are two additional sources of diversity of taste: e different humours of particular men and e particular manners and opinions of our age and country such constitutional and cultural differences will bring about divergent responses to art works us no principles of taste will specify ose properties and uniform perceptions of works possessing em will not necessarily lead to agreement when differences in taste arise wiout perceptual basis, en ey are mere differences in taste ere is no standard to reconcile such differences in taste Hume s Legacy one element of his account has not aged well is asserting at a property at pleases in one art work will please equally in all Hume ignores a crucial role at context is now recognized to play in e value of artworks we know realize at no property of artworks is everywhere a merit could a more nuanced account of principles take in context? It should be possible to substitute a sophisticated version wi little violence to e rest of e eory In distinguishing mere differences of taste from perceptually based differences of taste, and in en arguing at e latter must have a standard in real matter of fact, Hume provides a basis for understanding aesetic norms at is as promising as any our discipline has seen (47).