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AestheticsAntoon Van den Braembussche: Thinking Art: An Introduction to Philosophy of Art
The Artist’s Studio: connection between aesthetics and the art world/art history
Mandatory artists from Thinking Art are: Giacometti, Van Ostaljen, Kosuth,
Duchamp.
Learning objectives of this course:
1. Think about art from different aesthetic perspectives (what do people say, what
are their definitions, conventions, where do they come from?)
2. Distinguish between a humanities and social sciences approach to studying arts,
culture and society
3. Clarify the interrelationships between developments within aesthetics, art, history
and the sociology of arts and culture
4. Philosophical vs empirical question
5. Philosophical texts
Lecture 1 Introduction: What is aesthetics (and what is not)?
What is the difference between a philosophical question and an empirical question?
Learning objectives:
1. Explain when, how and why aesthetics emerged as an independent philosophical
discipline
2. Explain the difference between philosophy of art, art criticism and social sciences
such as art history and the sociology of culture
3. Explain the difference between aesthetics (in a broad and a narrow sense) and the
philosophy of art
The question about the nature of art is almost as old as philosophy itself. Plato and
Aristotle were one of the firsts to pose the question what art exactly is. From the 18th
century onwards, philosophers became more and more interested in art.
What are the historical roots of the philosophy of art?
How we look at things, people, social classes is determined by aesthetics. How people
structure the world in terms of what we can or can’t see. It’s about the distribution of the
sensible structure of the world.
Bourdieu(1979): Distinction
He found that taste corresponds with social class. People with more economic capital
have more cultural capital. The cultural elite has pure taste, are capable of aesthetic
distancing, looking at it from a purely aesthetic perspective. This is also a social break.
Vandebroeck (2017): Distinctions in the flesh
We classify people in different groups.
Chapter 1: What is philosophy of art?
1.1 The current interest in philosophy of art
The current interest in the philosophy of art is linked to three major developments:
1. Modern art. Since there is more art, more urge to the renewal of art, artists more
often use the philosophy of art to support their new works and art forms.
, 2. Recent developments within the art world; postmodernism. The art world became
more fragmented, and the boundaries between what was art and what wasn’t
became unclear. This led to a ‘crisis of legitimacy’, which stimulated theoretical
reflection on art more than ever.
3. Contemporary philosophers show a renewed interest in the philosophy of
art/aesthetics, as a result of many new publications and new introductions.
1.2 the terms ‘philosophy of art’ and ‘aesthetics’
How we identify ourselves as a person, how we categorize other things and people, socal
distinction. Aesthetics: not only define ourselves, but distinguish ourselves from other
people by art or using our own bodies for distinction. It’s about perception, experience,
how we look at and categorize the world into a sensible structure. Aesthetics doesn’t take
a social sciences approach (art exists within a specific social system, e.g. creative
industries where people work, and decide what art is and what it isn’t.). It’s about the
world behind the objects of art. In Aesthetics we take a humanities approach. We will
focus on the more general, universal developments within those artistic fields, isms,
conventions that exist in a genre or discipline, are derived from aesthetic theory.
Aestheticians are influential for art disciplines and genres. More helicopter approach,
discussing developments in the field of aesthetics as an independent philosophical
discipline. Aesthetics is an essentialist, naturalistic discipline. Plato: the nature of art is
imitation (of empirical reality). Art is a reflection of society. Expression theory: art is about
the expression of ideas in the artists head, should be about the expression of emotion.
Within aesthetics there is an internal dynamic: aesthetic as a discipline moving from an
essential discipline, to a more sociological discipline. Janet Wolff: convergence between
aesthetics and the sociology of culture: aesthetic theory -> more sociological approach.
Aesthetics starts with traditionalism: essentialism -> 1960s, 70s, 80s: sociological
approach theories emerging. Bourdieu and Becker start to criticize aesthetics for its
essentialism. Bourdieu criticises Kant's elitist theory of aesthetic judgment. Kant: taste is
pure taste, of the cultural elite. Bourdieu: there are different tastes existing alongside the
taste of the elite. Emergence of social constructionism, Becker Art Worlds: central to the
institutional theory of art. Social constructionism: how we classify the world depends on
the position we take as human beings. Definition of art differs per group of people,
definitions can change in terms of changing viewpoints.
Becker: Art exists in an institution, he refers to as an art world. Art is what people say it is,
but what do they mean with this?
,Defining the term: Aesthetics
Aesthetics: “the philosophy of the beautiful or of art”; “a system of principles for the
appreciation of the beautiful”.
The terms aesthetics and philosophy of art - in short:
1. Aisthesis: science of sense perception/sensation (until mid-1700)(used by
Baumgarten and Kant) Questions about knowledge, how can we achieve
knowledge from reality. (traditional)
2. Aesthetics: systematic study of aesthetic judgment (mid 1700s onward) (more
modern way, Baumgarten, Kant)
3. Philosophy of art: critical reflection on the nature of art (late 1700s onwards) focus
on the definition of art itself. Aesthetics should not be about aesthetic judgment,
but more focusing on the systematic study of artistic objects themselves.
Aesthetics and philosophy of art not exactly the same, but are used interchangeably.
Baumgarten: Aesthetica: analyse the a priori conditions that determine our ability to
formulate aesthetic judgments. Use the term aesthetics in an epistemological way, focus
on the difference between a scientific and an aesthetic judgment.
Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten first used the term aesthetics (reflections on poetry) for
this new discipline. Aesthetics in a more modern way, not sense perception, but what is
the definition of poetry: what is art? He later gave ‘science of sense knowledge’ as a
definition. According to Baumgarten, the judgment of taste as the ‘sense of beauty’ or the
ability to judge according to the senses (instead of intellect) was the central object of
aesthetics. Aesthetics should also contribute to a further cultivation and perfection of taste
and sensibility.
Kant in his work used the original meaning of aesthetics, as the science of sense
perception. Kant and Baumgarten are very different from each other. Kant distinguishes
between sense perception and aesthetical judgment. Also, he based this distinction on a
transcendental inquiry into the a priori conditions presupposed by empirical and
aesthetical judgments. Kant didn’t believe that Baumgarten’s aesthetics could establish
objective rules or laws of natural or artistic beauty.
Philosophy of art: A philosophical discipline that thinks about the nature of art, what is art
and what is not. Thinking about the definition of art.
Aesthetics: also revolving around the question of the aesthetic judgment
(perception/reception): Analyzing an aesthetic judgment, perception or recepting.
- Why and how do people distinguish between ugly or beautiful?
- What is a judgment of taste/aesthetic judgment
- What are a priori conditions that make an aesthetic judgment possible in the first
place? What are a priori conditions that are central to the ability of people to make
aesthetic judgments? To distinguish between ugly/beautiful.
Kant was the first one to systematically analyse the a priori conditions for aesthetic
judgment.
Historical roots of Aesthetics
Thinking about art (what is art?) is something as old as philosophy itself (Plato. Aristotle
(catarsis: expression of violent emotions you get cleansed from these emotions yourself)
(before them playwrights, thought about the nature of art throughout their books). But
, aesthetics was only recognised as an independent philosophical discipline until the 18th
century. Three factors:
1. Autonomization (or emancipation) of art (field of artistic production)
(Enlightenment: think for yourself, think of yourself as an autonomous person,
thoughts are not forced upon you by the kingdom or the church) artist:
autonomous person, art: autonomous entity. Artistic field becomes an independent
autonomous field in society. Rules don’t come from the kingdom or the church, but
people in these fields can decide for themselves about the conventions and rules.
2. Consequently: crisis of aesthetic norms (what is art?) This is a consequence of the
emancipation of the artistic fields: a crisis of aesthetic norms arises.
3. Emergence of modern (natural sciences that become dominant during the
Enlightenment) sciences (what are the rules of art and its appreciation?) birth of
the natural sciences, can be used as a tool to discover the internal dynamics of
empirical reality, scientists can systematically observe empirical reality, discover
the internal workings of reality. Central to the birth of positivism. As we understand
the internal workings of the empirical world, we can try to change the world,
society into a better, more democratic, free place.
There was a countermovement (which started) during the Enlightenment: there is a
different form of knowledge alongside scientific knowledge. Poetry: expression of a
different form of knowledge, sensibility, feeling, emotions. Investigate the internal
workings of the art itself, analysing poetry in a scientific way. The roots of artistic
knowledge are more in our feelings. Systematically investigate the ability of people to
appreciate poetry, form judgments upon it. Sensibility as an underlying force for the
creation of poetry, art.
Growing out of and against Enlightenment: Romanticism & Bildung
Enlightenment: investigate poetry and aesthetic judgment, take with them the skills of
scientists to study the artistic world, aesthetic judgment.
Against the dominant positions within the Enlightenment: argue that sensibility is not only
a different form of knowledge, but increasingly seen as an independent form of
knowledge.
Dominant idea in Romanticism: we should use the arts as a tool to change the world. We
need to train the sensibility of people, civilize people, before we can establish the ideas of
freedom into practise.
- Heinrich von Kleist: Cecilia, or the power of music: (Romanticism): music as a tool
can change people’s behavior, make them more civilized. Good example of the
leitmotiv of the romantic movement: art to educate humanity
- Kant (autonomy)
- Schiller (Bildung)
- Schopenhauer (Music & The Will)
- Nietzsche (Music & The Dionysian)
- Modern Avant-Garde movements
- Current dys (e.g. Social Design)
Aesthetics is an essentialist, naturalistic discipline.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel found the term aesthetic superficial. According to him, it
referred to artistic and natural beauty, while he wanted to restrict the term to art and its
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