The earliest discussion of aesthetics took place in ancient Greece some 500 years before Christ. We find fragments of discussion involving thinkers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle which reveal a tension between the arts of poetry and the early practice of philosophy. The tension surrounded the idea that a poet visionary like Homer who began to script Greek mythology was somehow inspired in a way that a logician/philosopher was not. Socrates and Plato who were great logicians were worried that a poet like Homer might be carried away with his fantasies and in this way mislead others either by giving them fallacious information or to encourage such free-wheeling visionary activities.
Art and Aesthetics as we have come to know them would evolve out of this early tension between philosophy and Poetry with each century adding some fresh insight to the debate. One century might look at the problem from the point of view of psychology and say hey--the poet can reveal unconscious insights so the poet/artist is valuable to society. This move toward psychic insight is where Aristotle comes into the picture. He will be one of the first of the ancient Greeks to point out that the poet, artist is one who is highly aware of his five senses and of the surrounding Cosmos or Universe. The skill with with Homer makes the world of nature appear before our minds eye through his gift of inspired language Aristotle considered a real benefit to humankind. The awareness itself was the portal to the Common Senses and to appreciation of the natural realm. Here is where science and philosophy are actually aided by the arts. The tension can be relieved between the arts and philosophy through the insights of Aristotle.
12 comments:
I really enjoyed reading this, and have a much more clearer view of what aesthetics is. It's more than just something that is pleasing to the eye, but a realization of yourself and the world you live in.
Dear Megan,
Yes that is right.
For the Ancient Greeks Aesthetics was the portal to the world itself and it remains so for us as well in 2011. When they saw the color, delicate perfection and perfumed scent of a flower they realized that Nature was fulled with things of extraordinary beauty. We feel the same way about so many of the marvel of nature and especially about the beauty of human beings.
The Greek were innately repulsed when the beauty of a woman was defiled or deformed like a flower crushed under foot. They attached a sacred value to the human form and with that value wanted to protect and cherish their children and Greek society in general. Yes it is "a realization of the world we live in"--- you are right on!
----More in class!
That lecture in class with the stones was really a great experience. I never thought that a simple act of passing beautiful stones around would spark my interest in the lecture as much as it did. It would have been especially interesting to be an ancient greek and to discover those things for the first time. I could also see that the beauty in nature and the beauty of human beings to be very sacred to the way they operated their society, especially after discovering something as beautiful as a precious stone. It would demand a lot of importance in their lives.
The rocks being passed in class was very cool. Rocks and other things in nature, we see everyday, but we don't necessarily know everything you can do with them. It would be fun to be the person to discover a beneficial use to something in nature that hasn't been discovered yet. The Greeks that discovered a lot of things probably did not realize how big of an impact they were going to make thousands of years later in art and society.
What I mostly got from this post was the idea of what makes a woman beautiful. I like that in greek a rounder, plump woman was attractive, it should be that now... but what i think makes a woman of todays times beautiful is her self confidence and an overall postive additude of life. All woman are beautiful is they decied they are. What socity might think is a perfict woman might be someone coldhearted , mean and distructive, and can make even the most visualy pleasing woman be ugly.
That you for sharing the rocks in class. I love to study the human figure and love to find the natural beauty of a human being. I agree that the ancient greeks had a huge impact on art and society.
Art according to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are similar to certain people's views today. There are people that do not appreciate art for the greatness that it is.
I've found that often people who do not value art also do not understand it. In the case of these ancient greek philosophers...I believe that they couldn't bear something that did not come so easy to them... therefore they wrote it off as something not worth thinking about.
I still can't grasp exactly where the concern comes from, why was there so much worry about other people enjoying "freewheeling visionary activity"? Imagination, fantasy, and fiction give you new ways to explore the limits of reality. I don't understand where a fear of fiction comes from, it just seems so silly.
I still can't grasp exactly where the concern comes from, why was there so much worry about other people enjoying "freewheeling visionary activity"? Imagination, fantasy, and fiction give you new ways to explore the limits of reality. I don't understand where a fear of fiction comes from, it just seems so silly.
I still can't grasp exactly where the concern comes from, why was there so much worry about other people enjoying "freewheeling visionary activity"? Imagination, fantasy, and fiction give you new ways to explore the limits of reality. I don't understand where a fear of fiction comes from, it just seems so silly.
Its crazy to me how vision activities basically just using your imagination,scared Plato and Socrates to the point where they lost sleep. I enjoy reading these post, they are a great way to refresh my memory of the history of aesthetics.
the birth of ideas are always rocky, man has progressed and will continue to, so will our understanding of the world around us and our sense of aesthetics appreciation will always evolve as we are faced with new forms of artistic creation.
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