Philosophy of Art and Culture 2024-2025: Week 6

On Environmental Aesthetics

18th Century Aesthetic Judgments

• Disinterested Contemplatoin

• Placing value judgments of value on the beauty of an object

Contemporary Aesthetic Judgments

• Subjectification

• Appraisal of the natural and the study of imagination, emotion, and multisensory responses

20th Century Aesthetic Judgments

• Engagement of the self and the environment

• Active engagement with the environment

Aesthetic Theory and the Pragmatic Tradition

Emphasis on active imagination, feeling, erotics over intellectual empiricism.

Environmental Values

• the various ways in which individuals, processes and places matter, our various modes of relating to them, and the various considerations that enter into our deliberations about action

• Moral guidelines for environmental action

Aesthetic Value

A form of intrinsic or non-instrumental value, where something is not valued as a means to some end, rather it is found to have value in and for itself. Autonomous to one’s experience.

Contemporary Theories

• Distinction between object-focused aesthetics and environmental aesthetics

• Multisensory potential of environmental aesthetics compared to visual and scenic approaches

• Cognitive vs. Non-Cognitive environmental Aesthetics

Scientific Cognitivism

To have a just and whole appreciation for an environmental object, one must know the scientific processes and discrete measures of the object to.

Non-Cognitivism

• De-emphasise - but not to ignore - the role of knowledge

• Based on immersion, one-ness, erotics, emotional response, culture, Kantian imagination, and non-human appreciation.

Saito’s Balance of the Two

• Nature on its own terms

• aesthetic valuing begins and ends in the sensuous surface of things, with scientific knowledge and cultural narratives such as myths and folklore providing further grounding for aesthetic judgments

Critical Pluralism

• Integrated Aesthetic. Multisensory, cross-knowledge appreciation.

• Syncretism. Layers of appreciation; how natural beauty is key to the good life.

• Many Stories. How narratives shape aesthetic valuation.

Aesthetic Preservationism

• Usage of aesthetic values and narratives as Boisian propaganda to make people care about nature.

• Protection of the “wilds”

• Problematics: Focuses too much on positive aesthetic values and does not explicitly account for indigeneous histories with the land

Aesthetic Protectionism

• Valuing the beauty of a biome is key motivator for protecting it.

• Problematics: Focuses too much on positive aesthetic values, low visibility of the ugly.

Ecological/Eco-Friendly Aesthetics

Aesthetic and ecological values are aligned, particularly as a result of land scape design interventions and educational programmes.

Empiricism and Standardization in Environmental Aesthetics

We must quantify things and find empirical values because taste is inherently subjective.

Impact on Conceptual Debates

• Why only focus on discrete numerical data? There are other ways to get “objective” or pertinent evidence in protecting something or ascribing aesthetic value on something.

• Changes in the conceptual understanding of ideas like natural beauty and aesthetic qualities.

• Policy-making.

Ecological Restoration

The process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed

The Problematics of Aesthetic in Ecological Restoration

Sapiocentric conceptions of beauty and importance. Imposition of the human to the non-human; ecological restoration as a performance piece.

New Directions

• Looking at various forms of media to capture environmental aesthetics

• Capturing ecological impact of humans on the environment.

• Move beyond “wild”, non-altered environments to urban, agricultural, or human environments.

• Should talk about pressing issues.

• Global perspectives.

Fundamental Debates

• Objective vs. Subjective

• Paradigmatic art objects vs. Things that are “aesthetic”

• Environment as backdrop vs. Environment as aesthetic appreciation and engagement

Brady and Prior

• Scenic vs Immersive

• Subjectivist (eye of the beholder) vs. Objectivist and Inter-Personal

• Art-centered (beauty) vs. Integrative (all aesthetic values)