scholarly journals Die Grenzen des ästhetisch en Empirismus

2012 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-110
Author(s):  
Fabian Dorsch

In den letzten Jahren ist es recht populär geworden, traditionelle Fragen der philosophischen Ästhetik – wie zum Beispiel die nach der Natur und Rechtfertigung ästhetischer Beurteilungen – mithilfe empirischer Forschungsergebnisse zu beantworten zu versuchen. Diesem empiristisch geprägten Ansatz möchte ich gerne eine rationalistisch orientierte Auffassung der ästhetischen Erfahrung und Bewertung von Kunstwerken entgegensetzen. Insbesondere möchte ich die ästhetische Relevanz dreier verschiedener Arten empirischer Studien kritisch diskutieren: solcher, die einzelne Kunstwerke unter Einsatz der Natur- oder Geschichtswissenschaften erforschen; solcher, die sich der empirischen Methoden der Psychologie und der Soziologie bedienen, um unsere ästhetischen Beurteilungen einzelner Werke oder Werkgruppen zu untersuchen; und schließlich solcher, die unser allgemeines ästhetisches Urteilsvermögen einer kognitionswissenschaftlichen Überprüfung unterziehen.<br><br>In recent years, it has become rather popular to rely on the results of empirical studies in trying to answer some of the traditional questions in philosophical aesthetics, such as the one concerning the nature and justification of aesthetic evaluation. In opposition to this very empiricist approach, I would like to put forward a more rationalist picture of the aesthetic experience and evaluation of artworks. More specifically, I aim to critically discuss the aesthetic relevance of three kinds of empirical studies: of those that examine particular artworks by means of scientific or historical investigations; of those that use the empirical methods of psychology and sociology in order to examine our aesthetic evaluations of single works or groups of work; and finally of those that scrutinize our general faculty for aesthetic judgement by means of the cognitive sciences.

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110021
Author(s):  
Sizhe Liu ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Xianyou He ◽  
Xiaoxiang Tang ◽  
Shuxian Lai ◽  
...  

There is evidence that greater aesthetic experience can be linked to artworks when their corresponding meanings can be successfully inferred and understood. Modern cultural-expo architecture can be considered a form of artistic creation and design, and the corresponding design philosophy may be derived from representational objects or abstract social meanings. The present study investigates whether cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design is perceived as more beautiful and how architectural photographs and different types of descriptions of architectural appearance designs interact and produce higher aesthetic evaluations. The results showed an obvious aesthetic preference for cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design (Experiment 1). Moreover, we found that the aesthetic rating score of architectural photographs accompanied by an abstract description was significantly higher than that of those accompanied by a representational description only under the difficult-to-understand design condition (Experiment 2). The results indicated that people preferred cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design due to a greater understanding of the design, providing further evidence that abstract descriptions can provide supplementary information and explanation to enhance the sense of beauty of abstract cultural-expo architecture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 144-144
Author(s):  
Raphaël Pfeiffer ◽  
◽  

"In a clinical context, the communication of genetic information is an event that can give rise to unexpected situations for health professionals. Several empirical studies have shown that, despite being presented with “good” presymptomatic test results, some patients develop negative feelings, depression, which can in extreme cases lead to suicide attempts. Here, genetic information takes full meaning when considered in a personal narrative. In this presentation, we would like to look at the specificities of this narrative experience in the light of works on the aesthetics of everyday life, with a particular focus on the works of John Dewey. For Dewey, the aesthetic experience is possible in all aspects of people’s daily lives, including clinical experience. In this case, “aesthetics” appears in the sensitive character of an experience rather than in a specific type of object. Through the examination of this thought, we will ask to what extent we can speak of an aesthetic experience when thinking of the communication of genetic information, and how this consideration can help ethical reasoning. We will begin by examining how the moment of the communication of genetic information to patients by the clinician can constitute a process of defamiliarization of everyday life. This will lead us to look at patients’ accounts of genetic information reception and to analyse how these appear to be more than mere testimonies about the experience of pathologies, but a means by which the patient is confronted with difficult experiences in order to reformulate them. "


i-com ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Schmidt ◽  
Christian Wolff

Abstract In this paper we present an empirical study among 40 participants which investigates the relationship between various factors of user interface aesthetics on the one hand, and the influence of the user interface attributes, symmetry, colorfulness as well as visual complexity on user interface aesthetics on the other hand. The user interface aesthetics will be classified in intuitive aesthetics (1st impression with a presentation time of 500 ms) and reflective aesthetics (reflective long-term impression after a longer presentation). Reflective aesthetics is further classified in classical aesthetics (common attractiveness) as well as expressive aesthetics (creativity). For this study we have set up a corpus of 30 websites which are used as stimulus material. In a multi-step lab experiment, participants rate aesthetics and their subjective impression concerning user interface attributes using questionnaires. We are able to show that the intuitive aesthetic judgment correlates strongly with the reflective judgment. The symmetry of a website positively correlates with all definitions of aesthetics, especially with the classical or traditional interpretation in the sense of attractiveness. Visual complexity can be seen as the strongest predictor for the aesthetic judgement of users and it negatively correlates with all definitions. Concerning colorfulness, a preference for websites of a medium degree of colorfulness for the intuitive as well as the classical aesthetics can be stated. Concerning expressive aesthetics, websites of moderate to high colorfulness receive the best judgments. The relationships which we have found are finally discussed in the context of previous research and some implications for future user interface design are given.


Kepes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 197-231
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Romero-Ramírez ◽  
Duncan Reyburn

This article proposes to resolve an internal ambiguity in the subdiscipline called Everyday Aesthetics (EA), systematized by the researcher Horacio Pérez-Henao, according to whom the extension of aesthetics to the everyday has been done, on the one hand, by means of a consideration of an expansive object and subject according to aesthesis itself, as mainly proposed by Katya Mandoki, and, on the other hand, by means of a restrictive object and subject according to the parameters of an authentic aesthetic experience, a theory headed by John Dewey. Methodology: To resolve this tension, a hermeneutic methodology known as the fourfold sense of being, related to Hegelian dialectic, albeit with important modifications supplied by William Desmond was used. This methodology allows a suitable way to explore and discuss different approaches in everyday aesthetics epitomized by Mandoki and Dewey, and makes possible the proposal of a third way, epitomized by G. K. Chesterton. Results: Bearing in mind the original intention of EA—according to which the everyday must be revitalized from an aesthetic perspective, as explained by Joseph Kupfer, it is argued that the two alternate positions of Mandoki and Dewey are unsatisfactory; an attempt is therefore made to respond to this through the analysis of the aesthetic approach of G. K. Chesterton. From his aesthetic reflections, it can be ascertained that to revitalize daily life, the object must be expansive and the subject, restrictive, from a certain méthodos and according to patterns that qualify an everyday aesthetic experience. All of this seeks to pave the way for subsequent investigations of EA being both expansive and restrictive. Finally, it is argued that this Chestertonian EA converges with and extends the aesthetics of design of Jane Forsey, and thus shows that design itself can be revitalized in keeping with a restrictiveexpansive approach to everyday aesthetics. Conclusion: aesthetics should be expansive every day, in that it should concern itself with any aspect of daily life, and restrictive, in that it should set certain limits on the self and its intentions with regard to the possibilities of aesthetic experience.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Bizarro Morais

This research will focus on the works of Mikel Dufrenne devoted to aesthetic reflection, especially on those where the author elucidates more systematically his notion of aesthetic experience. It is our intention to find out whether, inside the limits of this conception, he admits the possibility of a metaphysical dimension within the processivity of an aesthetic experience, and on what philosophical foundations he establishes that possibility. Being a controversial hypothesis, we hope to modestly contribute to the critical enhancement of the philosophical legacy that Mikel Dufrenne left us through his thought-provoking work as we are celebrating the first centenary of his birth and fifteen years of his death (1910-1995). More broadly, it is our purpose - through the clues given by the author - to bring back to the core of aesthetic debate the instances of ontological and metaphysical reflection that have been underestimated, since the waves of postmodern relativism invaded the cultural and philosophical debate. We will follow the author in setting up a phenomenological version of the Aesthetics in order to stress that, already in that conceptual project, it is possible to find methodological and systematic original choices, which point to the presence of a "surge" that breaks off the categorical boundaries of the experienced. The thematic alignment that we propose on chapters two and three aims at consolidating the image of an aesthetic experience that evolves gradually to more intense and profound levels of experience, and which scope of phenomenological, anthropological and ontological implications strengthens the conviction that we are in the presence of a metaphysical sap that nurtures it. However, we are aware that Dufrenne hesitated long enough when it came to translate philosophically this horizon of metaphysical meaning of the aesthetic experience. This fact also has probably led other researchers to formulate interpretations that are significantly discrepant from the one that we propose. Nevertheless, as we intend to show in the last chapter, it is not this lack of explicitness that prevents us from finding the aesthetic and emotional, spiritual and intellectual fruits coming from the aesthetic experience, fluidized by a metaphysical openness to the absolute. As we present those conclusions, we are convinced that the path taken by Mikel Dufrenne, while phenomenologist, became even more comprehensive and credible.


Author(s):  
Gina Cima Vallarino ◽  
Juan C. González González

Este trabajo atañe a la experiencia teatral desde la estética y las ciencias cognitivas. Se defiende la idea de que la actuación estética puede ser entendida como actuación verosímil. Si la experiencia estética posee tres dimensiones –sensorial, conceptual y hedonista–, la verosimilitud en la actuación se lograría en términos de una estrecha y apropiada relación entre ellas. La experiencia estética del espectador sería, pues, una consecuencia de lo que éste percibe, piensa y siente. A su vez, los estudios empíricos permiten establecer criterios objetivos de evaluación para juzgar una actuación como verosímil, tanto por parte del actor como del espectador. In Defense of the Concept of “Aesthetic Performance” as Truthful Theatrical PerformanceThis work concerns Aesthetics and Cognitive Science. Furthermore, deals with theatrical issues, defending the idea that an aesthetic performance can be understood as a truthful performance. If the aesthetic experience has three dimensions –sensory, conceptual and hedonistic–, the truthfulness of the performance would be achieved thanks to a close and appropriate relationship between them. The aesthetic experience of the spectator would thus be a consequence of what he/she perceives, thinks and feels. At the same time, empirical studies allow to establish objective criteria of evaluation for judging the truthfulness of a performance, by both the actor and the spectator. Recibido: 03 de agosto de 2020Aceptado: 14 de diciembre de 2020


Author(s):  
José Quaresma ◽  

In this article we share the conviction that any aesthetic judgement is compounded of extreme spontaneity (I); communicated share (and not a presumed share) - the demands set by the Other of the communication and the conflict of two distinct claims (II); the personal synthesis between the individual spontaneity and the results of the share done with the Other of the aesthetic communication (III). We also admit that these three aesthetic occurrences are equally needed to the aesthetic communication, but we lay stress on the first occurrence - extreme spontaneity - as the “touch stone” of both aesthetic experience and judgement’s communication. What we corne to emphasize is that the occurrence “extreme spontaneity” is not just the very basis of the aesthetic experience, but as well, the “touch stone” of the aesthetic communication that never fades away of the discussion, even when the most rational arguments are present. As a mater of fact, this occurrence is there at the very first moment, persists secretly and strategically at the second one - moment of the communicated share - and reappears openly at the synthetic occurrence. We also defend that the “extreme spontaneity” is the occurrence that generates the suspicion’s exercise about the excesses of the communication’s rationality; that makes the suspicion something permanent (sometimes visible others latent); and finally, allows us to say that without its craft and the sensitive suspecting power the communication of the aesthetic judgement loses its authenticity and becomes empty in its universal claiming and tensional life.


Author(s):  
Johannes Riquet

Drawing on (post-)phenomenological and geopoetic perspectives, the introduction explains the book’s interest in considering islands at the intersection of material and poetic production on the one hand, and aesthetic experience of the phenomenal world on the other. It suggests that the modern experience of islands in the age of discovery went hand in hand with a disintegration of received models of understanding global space, and that fictional and non-fictional representations of islands negotiate these perceptual challenges. It thereby explains how The Aesthetic of Island Space complicates the common account of islands as discrete shapes, geometrical abstractions, and easily understandable images. Instead, it foregrounds the importance of water, mobility, and a range of dynamic geo(morpho)logical and poetic processes in the figuration of islands. The introduction ends by discussing the significance of considering islands in relation to an ‘aesthetics of the earth’ (DeLoughrey and Handley) and a poetics of the material world.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1 (3)) ◽  
pp. 116-119
Author(s):  
Anna Knyazyan

Along with the development of cognitive sciences, the study of a literary text aims at broader goals than merely philological. It is connected with the revelation of individual cognitive models through traditional philological interpretation of the text. On the one hand, the basis of the interpretation of a literary text is the so-called picture of the world, which the author creates with the help of his speech, style, knowledge of historical-cultural reality, evaluations and images. On the other hand, it also includes the cognitive, ethical, aesthetic models of the perceiver which the latter applies towards the perception of the discourse, thereby ensuring the understanding of the text.The subject matter of the article is the symbol in the works of Virginia Woolf. The use of various symbols is closely connected with the aesthetic views, life experience, unique way of thinking, world vision, psychological characteristics and the literary direction of the time.Thus, the symbol is an integral part of verbal art.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Hyun Kim

Over the last three decades, there has been an increasing number of empirical studies on how music conveys and induces emotional expressiveness, revolving around both the longstanding discourse over compositional and performance features related to recognized or felt emotions, and more recent interest in (neuro)psychological mechanisms underlying emotions induced by music. However, the question of how expressive forms of music are shaped and co-shaped within the ongoing process of music-making and music perception has received little investigation. This paper focuses on the expressive forms of music that the developmental psychologist Daniel N. Stern refers to as &lsquo;forms of vitality&rsquo;, discussing how they are (co)shaped and give rise to aesthetic experience of music. The aim is the development of a theoretical framework allowing for a new research perspective on musical expressiveness&mdash;taking into account the aesthetic experience of music&mdash;in relation to the process of (co)shaping forms of vitality in music. Further, a hypothesis for and methodologies of empirical research fitting into this theoretical framework are considered, expanding the schema beyond cognitivist and emotivist approaches to musical expressiveness.


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