Philosophical reflection on aesthetics, beauty and art

Beauty and aesthetics permeate our reality. Whether on social networks or in everyday life, we establish distinctions between what we consider beautiful and what we do not. But, in reality, what is beautiful? In this article we will explore both terms from the philosophical discipline.

We will also reflect on works of art and what is understood as such. Colloquially, we believe that the artistic is found in museums, in the form of paintings or sculptures. But aesthetics reasoned a lot about it to open our horizon of possibilities. Let’s delve into this topic.

What is aesthetics?

The Herder Encyclopedia defines aesthetics as a branch of philosophy that has beauty in general as its object of study. This discipline focuses, above all, on those conditions that make it possible to perceive the beautiful. In addition, it includes the reflection of the evaluation criteria to establish whether something is beautiful or not.

Throughout its development, reflection on beauty or aesthetics became a philosophy of art. As such, she is responsible for studying and theorizing the following:

works, evaluation, sensitivity, what can be considered art, aesthetic feeling in the viewer.

Of course, philosophical reflection on aesthetics is not limited only to the field of art. If we start to think, We continuously produce evaluations of this type in everyday life; So, knowing its bases will help us make our own judgments.

Study of beauty in philosophy

As we said, aesthetics studies beauty, but what does this concept mean? An article from the Journal of Philosophy of the Complutense University Maintains that beauty is associated with proportion and measure. That is to say, something beautiful is that which has fair proportional measurements.

It is important to highlight that this sense of “beautiful” is present in human beings and not in things. In the same way, it is the individual who makes aesthetic value judgments. And this means that Beauty is a property that human beings bring to their immediate experiences..

Contemplating the beautiful generates enjoyment or aesthetic pleasure in the viewer. This is a feeling that is at the basis of human behavior. Therefore, we are attracted to the right beauty and we delight in it, since it gives us pleasure and pleasure.

Despite this, appreciation implies a certain physical and perceptual disposition of the subject; It includes the senses, imagination and the order of sensations.

So, are aesthetics and beauty related?

The answer to this question is that one is not without the other.. But we make this statement in a very specific sense: aesthetics, as a philosophical discipline, needs to study beauty. In this way, it is an essential condition for reflection in the discipline.

What we mean is that both are required: one to be an object of study and the other to be thought about and theorized. Hence, when we judge what is beautiful we do so through a philosophical conceptual scheme. However, it must be considered that such an assessment belongs to the sensitive qualities of the subject.

Philosophy of art

We said in previous sections that aesthetics was shaped in its development as a philosophy of art. Keeping this in mind, what is the purpose of art? What does the philosophy of this topic have to tell us? A thesis from the Antonio Luis Montoya University was dedicated to studying it from Hegel’s perspective.

The thinker maintains that art is a disposition of reason to represent and know itself. Such representation arises from the human capacity that produces culture within a given society. That is to say, Art is the expression of culture at a certain moment in history. Its usefulness is to express what culture and society are through artistic work.

Work of art on the one hand, creative activity on the other

Hegel, furthermore, establishes a distinction between the work of art and the creative activity. In this sense, The piece of art is an object or a thing and artistic work is an activity of reason. Along these lines we can say that art is not only a pure aesthetic or creative activity. It implies a certain degree of knowledge and, therefore, we can consider it rational, since it involves thought.

Thus, The purpose of art is to represent the sensibilities of a certain historical moment. For its part, it generates knowledge and reflection on the viewer about himself and the world around him.

What can be considered art?

Much has been written about what can be considered art. However, even today there is no consensus. The novelist Leo Tolstoy, in his book What is the art (2012), introduces an interesting way to resolve this question. He maintains that reducing art to pleasure and aesthetic taste is impoverishing it.

Instead, proposes seeing art as a means of communication between human beings. In this way, the artist transmits emotions and feelings that may be difficult for the viewer to express. Thus, another can help him manifest what he initially cannot.

This way of considering art makes us think that Everything that produces emotions and feelings is. Therefore, our existence is impregnated with artistic works that cannot be reduced to fine arts. Art and beauty transcend the everyday, reflecting on it connects us with deep emotions and expands our understanding of the world and ourselves.

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