Cheerskep,
Every human feeling exists under the Umbrella of Aesthetics.
It applies to every thing under our sun and beyond. What A,E,
one get while eating pizza,or listening to classical music comes
from same A,E source of A,E's, our biased Brain.
mando
On Mar 4, 2009, at 7:46 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Michael writes:
"a.e. is a term that embraces the responses to different WoA, and they
themselves are segregated into their various different kinds, so we
have the
musical-a.e. and the painting-a.e. and the sculpture-a.e., and the
literary-a.e.,
etc."
I'll make this observation and then set it aside to move on: Terms
or words
or "definite descriptions" etc don't embrace anything. They don't
"refer to",
denote, designate, apply to, name. They are inert, like ink on
paper. (Granted,
a given term will be associated by a given mind with some notion or
other.
But the next mind may associate it with something quite different.
So it's minds
that do something, not the word.)
Michael claims his "truth conditions" approach identifies what's a
"work of
art" and what not. I'll claim in a later posting that his approach
does not
work. This is critical, because Michael's argument entails that we
can't identify
a.e.'s until we can identify works of art. But I'll also
momentarily set that
aside and move on.
Let's accept 'embrace', and ask: Is Michael saying his is an if-and-
only-if
statement? In other words, does the term 'aesthetic experience'
embrace all and
only the responses to "works of art"? Suppose someone says he gets
an a.e.
from contemplating a sunset or the ocean or an unfolding real life
drama? Would
Michael say, "No, you don't?" But this would only prompt a, "Yes I
do." "No,
you don't." "Do!" "Don't!" Michael's claim is an arbitrary, unilateral
assertion.
Moreover, while almost everyone will accept that music yields an
experience
that we may call "by definition" a "music experience", why call it an
"aesthetic experience"? What's at issue is whether or not we are
ever justified in
calling any experience "aesthetic". In pondering this, it will help
if you keep
clear the distinction between just agreeing to CALL something an
"a.e." and
asserting it IS an a.e..
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