The whole point of seeking a definition of the aesthetic is to distinguish it from the non-aesthetic. If, as claimed below, there is no distinction between the aesthetic and any other 'sudden' feeling then we don't have a definition. If it can't be falsified, as the scientists like to say, it can't be claimed as a defintion or theory. I would suppose that the sensation of being shot is not an aesthetic one. When I stub my toe on the damned table it is not an aesthetic feeling. In history, the aesthetic has always been associated with a sensation of euphoria or a sense of helpless dread or awe, as is typically associated with the sublime.
wc ________________________________ From: armando baeza <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Cc: armando baeza <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 4:00 PM Subject: Re: comment invited Tom, you ,once referred to an aesthetic experience as when at the final second of a football game your team caches the long pass in the end zone, winning the game. as an aesthetic experience as ( pleasure) And I agree with that. But another person of the opposing team felt the same aesthetic experience as (displeasure) I take the word "aesthetic" to be equal in meaning as the word "temperature" A place one can feel extremely cold to one that's extremely hot, and in between. ab On Dec 9, 2013, at 11:45 AM, Tom McCormack wrote: > On Dec 9, 2013, at 12:03 AM, armando baeza wrote: > >> "Aesthetic experiences" as i originally understood it, was that any thing >> under the umbrella >> between the two extremes of taste ,likes and dislikes. >> good-bad,ugly-beauty,etc could >> be an "aesthetic experience". >> To me,that means that any sudden feeling of any kind from nature or man > made >> art could >> be an aesthetic feeling. >> The problem I see is that some people get a pleasant surprise feeling, > while >> others >> may feel the opposite from the same experience. Yet both are really >> "aesthetic >> experiences",. >> ab > > Not for me. Someone recently sent me a series of precarious mountain-climbing > photos. Every single one was scary. I guarantee I got a "sudden feeling" from > some of them. But I have no inclination to call that feeling an "aesthetic > experience". Why, though? I'm ready to call the experience occasioned in me by > very disparate things like a Dickinson poem, a Hokusae wood print, and > Beethoven's Ninth "aesthetic experiences", but not a photo of a gruesome car > crash, or the photo of someone jumping out of the ninetieth floor on 9/11. > Why? There'a lot to be learned about just what is going on when we hear a > Mozart piano concerto, or watch Allegra Kent dancing > L'aprhs-midi d'un faune.
