In the centuries following Aristotle, Roman and early Christian thinkers took a great interest in art and added rich detail to Aristotle's probing insights into aesthetic experience.
Two of the best known Roman era thinkers were probably Greek trained philosophers: Plotinus and Theophrastus who provided us with great descriptions of the techniques of art-making and of art's more mystical potential. Aristoxenus offered innovative insight into the nature of music and composition theory. Because of the prevalence of Stoic Philosophy which promoted restraint and self-mastery the general mood of aesthetic thought in this era promoted mastery of the materials of art and of artistic restraint.
Most important of all was a growing sense of history itself and the history of aesthetic thought as it had evolved. There was as part of this historical consciousness a rediscovery of Aristotle's writings. Cicero the great conscience of his age saw the excess and weakness of a declining Roman culture and spoke out against the arena where wanton bloodshed and the wholesale slaughter of humans and animals was offered as entertainment. He also reminded readers of the more heroic qualities of the best of Greek and Roman literature along with the moral values promoted. Plutarch thought deeply about a cult of ugliness in vogue in the art of his time.
Longinus like Aristotle, believed that great style in art springs from an artist's inner-greatness and requires humane character and inner strength. Chrysostom added to Longinus and believed that art is the revealing of the artist's vision--the more splendid and sublime the vision the more compelling the artistic expression. Plotinus a Christian thinker having studied many art forms and techniques believed that Beauty is the projection of love onto perception and that the impulse to love what is experienced is a "metaphysical homesickness". He believed our love of the external world of beauty in nature and art is a mystical/spiritual urge to return to God and a Heavenly Home. What Plato had called the Realm of Perfect Forms and Ideals-- Plotinus understood as a true and final home in Eternity with the Divine Creator.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
ARISTOTLE & AESTHETICS - PART 3 - Hist. of Aesthetics
As we saw in the last post Plato had mixed views of art and aesthetic experience when considered from a cultural point of view. Aristotle, who was a student of Plato, took his teachers concerns to heart and pondered them. Being a strong observer of nature and culture rather than a pure thinker (like Plato) Aristotle thought he could unravel some of the doubts of his master through the scientific observation of art in culture and form and function within nature. Here are some of the key points of Aristotle on art and Aesthetics:
1. Nature is dynamic and designed for a purpose. 2. Art emulates nature; the arts and especially music are patterned energy created for a purpose to move another emotionally. 3. Just as we move from infancy and instinct toward adulthood and mature thought, so we see a similar evolution in humanities comprehension of art from instinct to patterned thought and logically guided form to evoke certain emotions and ideas. 4. the way a great tragic play is organized to produce insight shows a logic that is scientific and purpose-driven by the writer or designer. 5. Fantasy is the cause of poetry and shows a fusion of form and matter into a pattern which is driven by the purpose to teach a lesson. Fantasy can be used for pleasure and for a good. 6. Catharsis which is the release of deep emotion, grief, sadness etc. can be achieved by a good play (in our era film, book, etc) 7. A viewer of a good film or play etc. experiences rational or logically patterned emotion leading to a moral point or practical lesson or the release of a painful memory or emotion and is therefore good in that sense. 8. Aristotle celebrated the remarkable ways in which art media can be shaped by humans and he could not stop talking about the skill of the artist/shape-maker who was like God in creative/shaping capacity and artistic logic. In the end Aristotle believed that art and fantasy are of real benefits to society if used wisely by mature artists for the good of others.
1. Nature is dynamic and designed for a purpose. 2. Art emulates nature; the arts and especially music are patterned energy created for a purpose to move another emotionally. 3. Just as we move from infancy and instinct toward adulthood and mature thought, so we see a similar evolution in humanities comprehension of art from instinct to patterned thought and logically guided form to evoke certain emotions and ideas. 4. the way a great tragic play is organized to produce insight shows a logic that is scientific and purpose-driven by the writer or designer. 5. Fantasy is the cause of poetry and shows a fusion of form and matter into a pattern which is driven by the purpose to teach a lesson. Fantasy can be used for pleasure and for a good. 6. Catharsis which is the release of deep emotion, grief, sadness etc. can be achieved by a good play (in our era film, book, etc) 7. A viewer of a good film or play etc. experiences rational or logically patterned emotion leading to a moral point or practical lesson or the release of a painful memory or emotion and is therefore good in that sense. 8. Aristotle celebrated the remarkable ways in which art media can be shaped by humans and he could not stop talking about the skill of the artist/shape-maker who was like God in creative/shaping capacity and artistic logic. In the end Aristotle believed that art and fantasy are of real benefits to society if used wisely by mature artists for the good of others.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
A Singular Aesthetic Experience
Please go to the link below for OK Go's White Knuckles video, and you would also enjoy the This Too Shall Pass marching band and the Rube Goldberg Machine, among others:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHlJODYBLKs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHlJODYBLKs
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