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AESTHETICS WEEK 2

Ancient Greek Philosophy

& Objective Beauty

Objective vs. Subjective

Objective: something

that can be known,

which exists as part of

reality, independent of

thought or an observer.

Subjective: existing in

the mind; belonging to

the thinking subject

rather than to the

object of thought

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Is beauty objective or subjective?

In other words

• Is beauty a property of some objects

(like mass, shape, etc.)

• Or is beauty a judgment of the mind observing

the object

(an emotion, feeling or evaluation)

Why does it matter?

• Judgments based on objective matters can be

true or false.

– Meaning we might be able to discover criteria on

which to base our aesthetic judgments

• Judgments based on subjective considerations

are only true relative to the person making

them.

– Something might be beautiful to you, but not to

others…but nobody is wrong in their conclusions

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The Ancient Greek Concept of Art

• The Greeks did not have our modern concept of Art.

• Techne – (often translated “the arts”) area of human

expertise or craft (ex. medicine, carpentry,

mathematics, etc).

• Plato & Aristotle do refer to the “the imitative arts”

(ex. painting, poetry, sculpture) or “pleasure giving

arts” (amusements).

• Plato ranked the “imitative arts” as the least

important of the arts.

The Ancient Greek Concept of Art

• Both Plato and Aristotle

assumed all art should

represent the world in

some way.

• Mimesis: art as

imitation or copying.

Using art to replicate

something as it would

be seen in nature.

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Pythagoras

• Pythagoras (580 –500

BCE) was a philosopher

and mathematician

from the Greek Island of

Samos. He lead a group

of devoted followers in

a secretive

philosophical/religious

cult which viewed

numbers as divine.

a2+b2=c2

To Pythagoras mathematics was a form of

knowledge that was certain, objective and

universally true.

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Enter Plato

• Plato (428-347 BCE) was strongly influenced by Pythagoras. Plato replaced Pythagoras’ divine numbers with his doctrine of perfect “Ideal Forms”.

• The physical world is just a shadow of a higher realm of abstract archetypes or “Forms”.

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How do we understand such different

objects belong to the same class?

Plato’s Forms

Plato’s Forms are both the essences and ideals

of the physical objects or qualities that

correspond to them…

Essence: a things ultimate nature; what all

members of a class of objects share in

common

Ideal: the standard of perfection (for Plato,

Forms are eternal and unchanging)

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The Forms and Their Shadows

• All entities in the physical world depend on the Forms…which exist outside of space and time. But unlike their archetypal counterparts, physical entities are subject to imperfection and decay.

• Our senses can only see the shadows, but the forms can be perceived through reason.

Of Horses and “Horseness”

• There is a Form for each

species of entity that

exist. (ex. All tables are

expressions of perfect

“tableness”)

• Qualities also have

Forms. One of the most

supreme of forms is the

“Form of Perfect

Beauty”.

To the skeptical comment “I see horses but I

don’t see Horseness” Plato replied “because

you have eyes but no intellect.”

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Plato’s Theory of Beauty

• Beauty is an objective quality (it is real) with

its basis in the world of Ideal Forms.

• Physical objects, etc. may “manifest” or

“participate” in beauties true Form but they

are only imperfect shadowy reflections of it.

• Our physical senses only perceive beauties

shadow, but through rational contemplation

one can perceive beauties true Form

“Beauty is Loves Highest Object”

True Beauty – The Form of beauty

Practices, customs, knowledge

Souls

All bodies generally

One body

Plato thought the

young should be

instructed to

contemplate the

body of a lover.

Then by a processes

of abstraction work

step by step toward

understanding the

True form behind

his/her beauty.

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Plato’s criteria for evaluating Art:

Unity and Proportion

In Plato’s view visual art is “thrice removed” from the

Form it imitates… Art is an imitation of imitations.

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The Dangers Inherent in Art

• Art can (and often does) distort reality…it

provides untrustworthy or false understanding

of the world.

• Art arouses emotions and can deter us from

reasoning clearly.

• Drama often promotes superstitious thinking

and immoral behavior

“[Euripides’] Medea was about a

“barbarian” woman who betrayed

her father and brothers to help the

heroic Jason obtain the Golden

Fleece. But after she had borne him

two children Jason took a new,

native-born bride, since his people

feared Medea as a foreigner and a

witch. Medea, enraged seeks

revenge by killing their tow children.”

-Cynthia Freeman’s summery in But

Is It Art (pg 32)

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Plato vs. the Arts

• Art, in Plato's view, encourages talented people

to play in the shadows when they should be

focused on becoming philosophers. Truest reality

(the Forms) can only be perceived by abstract

thought.

• Plato continually attacks art and artists in his

written works. His favorite target—poets.

• Plato said of poetry… “with a few rare exceptions

it is able to corrupt even decent people”

Censorship of the Arts in the Republic

• In The Republic Plato

describes his ideal city.

In it all poetry is banned

“on the grounds that it

falsely masquerades as

knowledge and is

detrimental to the

human mind” (Janaway 7)

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“Some Platonic anxieties about the

power of images are echoed today by

the influential French social critic Jean

Baudrillard. He argues that images and

simulated realities are all that exist now:

Television images, advertising and

fashion photography, for example, create

a replacement reality that obscures what

is really real. Baudrillard’s term for this

condition is “the simulacrum” a kind of

world in which representations of things,

and not the things themselves, are taken

to be real” –Terry Barrett

From Why is That Art?

(Intellectual) History Repeats Itself…

Metaphysics

AxiologyEpistemology

Ideal Forms

RationalismArt has little or even

negative value

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Aristotle

• Aristotle (384-322 BCE), A pupil of Plato’s, and the teacher of Alexander the Great. Aristotle’s writings laid the foundations for logic and the natural sciences.

• Fields of enquiry systematized by Aristotle still in use today: logic, physics, political science, economics, psychology, metaphysics, meteorology, rhetoric, ethics.

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Aristotle Rejects Plato’s Forms

• Aristotle rejected Plato’s belief in a higher realm of perfect Forms.

• Aristotle believed that forms exist, but they are inherent in the physical object or quality itself.

• A physical object is matter realizing some form.

Aristotle and “Final Causes”

• Objects realize their form by

following a path of

development towards their

natural end.

• What is a things natural

end? To Aristotle everything

has been designed for some

purpose…to truly

understand a thing one

must discover it’s “final

cause”

Aristotle’s Four Causes

1. material cause is the material

of which it consists.

2. formal cause the

arrangement of that matter.

3. Efficient cause is what moved

the matter into a particular

form

4. final cause is its aim or

purpose. That for the sake for

which a thing is what it is.

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Aristotle’s Theory of Beauty

• Beauty is an objective quality of a thing embodied in its form—specifically in its appearance and function as relates to its purpose.

• Beauty is not a single essence-there are many kinds of beauty (as there are many kinds of embodied forms)

In Parts of Animals Aristotle encourages

his students to see beauty in the most

unlikely of places. The Tigers jaws may

seem frightening to us, but it is an

excellent example of form suited

to purpose.

“Practically everything has been discovered on

many occasions—or rather an infinity of

occasions—in the course of ages; for necessity

may be supposed to have taught men the

inventions which were absolutely required and

when these were provided, it was natural that

other things which would adorn and enrich

life should grow up by degrees”

- Aristotle (Politics)

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“It is an instinct of human beings from

childhood to engage in mimesis; and equally

natural that everyone enjoys mimentic

objects. A common occurrence indicates this:

we enjoy contemplating the most precise

images of things whose actual sight is painful

to us, such as forms of the vilest animals and

of corpses”

- Aristotle (Poetics)

Aristotle’s theory of Art

• We have an instinct to imitate and delight in

imitation.

• Given time cultures will develop similar forms of art

to “adorn and enrich” life.

• Art creation and consumption is part of human

nature and so must serve some purpose.

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Aristotle’s theory of Art

• We have an instinct to imitate and delight in

imitation.

• Given time cultures will develop similar forms of art

to “adorn and enrich” life.

• Art creation and consumption is part of human

nature and so must serve some purpose.

• Different artforms serve different functions.

Aristotle’s Method For Evaluating Art: determine

the purpose of the artform. How well are the

individual elements integrated into the whole to

achieve its function?

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The Role of Tragedy

• Aristotle believed the

function of tragedy was

to bring catharsis.

– Relief from emotions like

pity or fear, by

experiencing them in a

safe setting.

– A refinement of

emotional experience.

Training in emotional

control.

Aristotle’s theory of Art

• For Aristotle the creation and evaluation of

artworks are exercises in understanding.

• There are rules that govern the beauty of

objects. From knowledge of the artforms

purpose we might derive objective standards

for judging artworks.

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Metaphysics

AxiologyEpistemology

Matter & Form

Reason and

Observation

Art educates and

enhances life

Aristotle in comparison to Plato

• Beauty is universal, not because it’s part of a transcendent reality – but because it develops out of human nature (necessity & enrichment).

• Art is not inferior to the world of Forms. Art can be superior to nature by capturing the universal or the excellent in its representations.

“Mimesis, for Aristotle, does not limit the artist to what actually is…Mimesis includes the possibility of beautifying, improving and generalizing qualities found in nature” (Barrett paraphrasing Halliwell)

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Review: Ancient Greek Contributions to Aesthetics

• Art is assumed to be based in mimesis

• Art is good when it represents truth, ideals or advances morality.

• Art is bad when it distorts reality, corrupts understanding or promotes immorality.

• Comprehending beauty involves reason/contemplation.

• Art has can have powerful impact for good or evil and therefore should be regulated by the state.

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Concepts Discussed So Far

• Are aesthetic judgments based on something objective or subjective?

– Plato: Objective. Based on Ideal Form of beauty

– Aristotle: Objective. Based on form within (human nature).

• What is the value of art?

– Plato: no value, or negative value

– Aristotle: Therapeutic (catharsis), adorn and enrich life