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1. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Jason J. Howard Schelling and the Revolution of Paleolithic Cave Painting: Unveiling the Power of the Aesthetic
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My paper utilizes the insights of F.W.J Schelling’s work on aesthetics to explain the unique appeal and power that aesthetic experience held for people of the Upper Paleolithic. This appeal is revealed most dramatically in the cave paintings of Chauvet and Lascaux. According to Schelling, genuine artistic activity expresses a fusion of the unconscious (der Bewußtlosen) and the symbolic (die Symbolik), which is irreducible to any other experience or product. This fusion creates a unique experience of self-transcendence and reintegration that affirms the continuity between consciousness and the natural world. Consequently, genuine aesthetic products never have any simple pragmatic or utilitarian motive, but result from reconciling the deepest contradictions of the human experience. I argue that it is this experience of continuity and re-integration that is captured in the cave paintings of Chauvet and Lascaux, and which confirms the irreducible power of the aesthetic.
2. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Božidar Kante Aesthetic Qualities as Iterated Response-dependent
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There is widespread view among numerous aestheticians that aesthetic and value properties are response-dependent. According to some philosophers the dependence has a rich and multilayered structure: value qualities (e.g. beauty) depend on our response to aesthetic properties (e.g. harmonious), which in turn depend on our response to a pattern of primary and secondary qualities (shapes and colors). Secondary qualities are themselves response-dependent. The basic dependence relation is thus iterated. The resulting structure is one of iterated response-dependence. The integral part of such a position is a relational view, best captured by the response-dispositional analysis: My states of being appeared to magnificently in front of a painting manifests the disposition of painting to induce such experience in the normal viewer.There are two main objections against the dispositional analysis: (1) argument from circularity and (2) argument from introducing two kinds of quality, one categorical, for experiential states, and one dispositional for objects. In this paper we will suggest the arguments against second objection.
3. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Margrethe Bruun Vaage Noël Carroll and the Role of Empathy in Fiction Film Engagement
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Carroll denies that the spectator of fiction film commonly has empathy with the characters. He argues that the spectator typically emotes to the events in the film from his position as observer, and that this context gives asymmetrical reactions in spectator and character. According to Carroll, empathy is unlikely to occur. Theproblem with this argument is that if the differences between spectator and character that Carroll points to exclude empathy, it would also exclude empathy in real life. Furthermore, Carroll merely shows that the spectator cannot only feel as the character feels. This does however not entail that empathy cannot be one part of the spectator’s response as observer. This paper thus argues that Carroll fails to show that empathy is an unlikely spectator response.
4. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Stephanie Over Notion and Structure of Art in Hegel’s Aesthetics
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This study will focus on a systematic exemplification of the notion of art and artwork based on Hegels aesthetics. It opposes two forms of skepticism which (1) question the possibility and value of a definition of art and (2) reject the category of the artwork for art is regarded as a process rather than a material thing. As such it is no longer something that can be conceived by seeing, hearing or touching the end product of that process. The criticism of these postions results in an understanding of works of art as objects or processes with a specific structure of meaning. The study developes ideas which are related to Hegel's thought, insofar as Hegel regards the artwork as an expression of the ‘idea’, and the term ‘idea’ designates a complex semantic structure.
5. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Modesto Ortega Umpiérrez, Lucía Martínez El espacio de la infancia
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Fue Baudelaire quien advirtió que, en el juguete, podemos encontrar materia de reflexión. En un texto publicado en el Monde Littéraire del 17 de abril de 1853 con el título de “Moral del juguete”, cuenta la visita hecha siendo niño a casa de Mme. Panckoucke: Me tomó de la mano y cruzamos así juntos varias habitaciones; después abrió la puerta de una estancia que me ofreció un espectáculo extraordinario y verdaderamente fabuloso. Los muros no eran yavisibles hasta tal punto estaban recubiertos de juguetes. El desván desaparecía bajo una floritura de juguetes que colgaban como estalactitas maravillosas. El piso dejaba apenas un pequeño paso sobre el que posar los pies… Es a causa de esta aventura si no puedo detenerme delante de una tienda de juguetes y recorrer con la mirada la inextricable muchedumbre de sus formas extrañas y de sus colores dispares, sin pensar en la señora vestida de terciopelo y de pieles, que se me a apareció como el Hada del juguete.
6. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Haewan Lee Characterizing Aesthetic Experience
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In this paper, I suggest what I think is an appropriate characterization of aesthetic experience. I do this by critically assessing Noel Carroll’s position and Gary Iseminger’s counterposition. Carroll claims that aesthetic experience should be understood only as an experience of the aesthetic content of an object. Although I accept many of Carroll’s points, I find his position unconvincing. I contend that, in addition to the content, positive value plays a significant role as a constituent of aesthetic experience. Unlike Carroll, Iseminger formulates a value centered view of aesthetic experience. However, I find Iseminger’s position even moreproblematic. Since having an aesthetic experience is such a general phenomenon, and does not seem to require an introspective response, neither a subject’s meta-belief, nor judgment concerning the value of her own experience, should be required. Also, I believe that intrinsic value is not necessary for aesthetic experience, because the value aesthetic experience has could be instrumental. I suggest that we can better characterize the aesthetic experience as anexperience of aesthetic contents combined with positive value. I reject the additional meta-belief requirement.
7. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Van Dan Nguyen Postmodernism, or an Abuse of Concepts
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There exist at present many conceptions of postmodern(ism). But there is a certain number of differences between the conceptions of postmodernism in the arts and the conceptions of postmodernism in various spheres of social activities. In arts, people pay much attention to the significant attributes of the concept, but in spheres of social life, the term is often used as a criterion to marking time in the periodization of history. That is, while in arts the significant attributes will make the criteria to define the postmodernism, in social life the concept of postmodern(ism) exists a priori and does not depend on social characteristics. That is for many people, the postmodern era is simply taken for granted as the period after the Second World War. At the same time, we have to recognize that thearbitrary and easy use of this term in the social life has spread contagiously to the artistic field. Many people simply attribute the label of “postmodern” to all creations outside the traditional realism in the second half of the 20th century, only because in their opinion, those creations appeared in the age that they called “postmodern era” for granted. Thus, in this way, “postmodern” may have too many different and indefinite meanings, but just thereby, it has also no meaning at all. This situation has brought ambiguity to defining the status of contemporary arts. I can only state that, in the field of arts, despite different conceptions of “postmodern(ism)” among many persons, we may conclude that it is more exactly to use this concept only to designate the summit or the “paroxysm” of modernism; and it still bears a temporal character to designating the second half of the 20th century. With the meaning of “paroxysm”, the term of “postmodern” can be entirely replaced with the term “modern”, or more precisely, with the term “meta-modern” or “ultra-modern”. Besides, we should be vigilant against the abuse of the concept “postmodern” which is being used fairly popularly in the current socio-political life, and most of these cases of abuse only want to make impressions of the “ultra-new” (or “ultra-modern”) character of the events. Just because of this abuse, the concept “postmodern” runs the risk of becoming platitudinous, leads to becoming meaningless because of bearing too many different and indefinite meanings, and thereby loses its effectiveness and usability. For my own part, I think that we should use the concept “postmodern(ism)” only for architecture and painting. As for other fields, especially for literature, we should not use it, and instead, we shall make use of the concept “modern(ism)” or at the most, we shall use the concept “ultra- or meta-modern(ism)” which will be precise and very appropriate. It is not necessary that, whenever to make impressions of the newest, one should have to recourse to the term “postmodern(ism)”, and then to be at a loss in making efforts to find the characteristics in order to ascribe them to the term to demonstrate its legitimate existence, but in fact, these characteristics are not of its own.
8. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Dai Xun Dewesternization and Resinicization: Issues and Methods of Chinese in the Global Era
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Since the 1990s, contemporary Chinese aesthetics has radually fallen into depressions and became silence after the two heated domestic debates in the 1950s and 1980s. Nowadays it is high time for Chinese scholars to make reflections on these setbacks and frustrations. Firstly we need to clarify what are the real problems that contemporary Chinese aesthetics encounters. To be short, that is, the arrival of globalization has caused a series of profound turns from aesthetics to arts. With the further expansion and penetration of globalization, theoretical aesthetic subjects and relevant problems are more salient, including the shift of contemporary aesthetic research paradigm, the basic method that we borrow western theories to interpret Chinese art works and aesthetic phenomena, the constant advancing interdisciplinary research, etc. The author’s main aim in this paper will be to explore some workable methods, which are significant to the development of the present Chinese aesthetics in this new century.
9. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Pigulevskiy Victor Aroma and the Problem of Harmony
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In nature scent is important for man primarily as a marker of food and sexual attractiveness, it polarizes as objects of life and decay, death. Scent, just like touch and taste exists till subject and object get opposed to each other, it is the sphere where body is included into material world, and flesh of the world is incrusted into the body. Aesthetics in its anthropologic meaning is limited by a body- perceptible dimension. Development of such categories as the sublime, tragic, comic are not possible here. Creation of compound aromas, including those which do not exist in nature, can not overstep the limits of the beautiful- -ugly opposition. There is no contradiction, nourishing the comic, the tragic or the sublime, in blending of body with the world by means of scent. The spectrum of the aesthetic in the sphere of aromas is expanded in the plane from the beautiful to the ugly: fragrant, heady, amber, garlic, carpic, putrid, hideous, stinking.
10. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Isabelle Sabau The Sacred in the Visual Arts
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The earliest preoccupations of human beings show close interconnections and parallel developments between the world of the sacred and the world of art. The sacred has been the important aspect of human life since the dawn of humanity, often seen as awesome and extraordinary, to be feared and revered at the sametime, while the evolution of artistic expression can be traced to its beginning in the spiritual world of the sacred. This paper proposes to discuss some of the prevailing theories that define the sacred and its representation in the visual arts.
11. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Montserrat Crespín Perales Nishida Kitarô's First Notion of Beauty
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Although we cannot find any Aesthetics system in the works of NISHIDA Kitarõ (1870-1945), the most significant and influential Japanese philosopher of the twentieth-century, one of his central themes is the role of art and aesthetics in relation with morality and religion. His aesthetics approaches are magnificent examples of his aim to overcome the innate dualism that sustains modern epistemology and a door, apparently hidden, to a better understanding of all his speculative scheme of philosophy. This paper attempts to throw light to the importance of the first aesthetic approximation developed by Nishida eleven years before the publication of Zen no Kenkyû [ 善 の 研究 ] (An Inquiry into the Good) (1911) and twenty-three years before the publication of the more accurate system of aesthetics that we read in Geijutsu to dôtoku [芸術 と 道徳] (Art and Morality) (1923). We will analyze the small essay entitled "Bi no Setsumei" [美 の 説明] ("An explanation of Beauty") (1900) and Nishida's first definition of beauty as muga [無我] (self-effacement or ecstasy).
12. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Viorel Guliciuc Fractal Art as Genuine Art
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There is a whole discussion around the genuine/non genuine appurtenance of the Fractal Art to the Art (Ken Keller, Tad Boniecki, Noel Huntley a.o.). Fractal Art is a new way to manipulate shapes, colors and light. It is a subclass of the visual digital art that could describe as that art form produced using a computer (PC, Mac), fractal and graphical software and output devices (monitors, plotters, printers etc.) or using fractal rules and traditional painting techniques (example: Pollock) as essential tools in the creative process. It is crucial to understand that the use of a computer is not a sine qua non condition, even most of the fractal artworks were digitally realized. Fractal Art is an experimental art, engaging in a new way the relations between Creator and Work. Fractal Art has a genuine equilibrium between “pragmatic” and “theoretic”. It is rather about “discovering” than “manufacturing”, rather “evocation” than “mimesis”. The conclusion has to be: Fractal Art is a genuine art form.
13. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Curtis L. Carter Symbol and Function in Contemporary Architecture
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The focus here will be on the tension between architecture’s symbolic role and its function as a space to house and present art. ‘Symbolic’ refers both to a building as an aesthetic or sculptural form and secondly to its role in expressing civic identity. ‘Function’ refers to the intended purpose or practical use apart from its role as a form of art. As an art form, it serves important symbolic purposes; its practical purposes are linked to serving individual and community functions requiring the delineation of space. In the present context of museum architecture, certain museum buildings are more likely to be seen as a sculptural object than as functioning buildings. The reasons for this development derive in part from unresolved issues pertaining to the respective roles of symbolic and practicalfunction as is seen in the analysis of architecture provided by G. W. F. Hegel, Rudolf Arnheim and Nelson Goodman. The vocabularies of contemporary architects such Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava do not follow the abstract geometrical patterns of Le Corbusier or Louis Kahn who envisioned a universal vocabulary of architectural forms derived from industrial technical forms that underscored Modernist conventions in architecture.By looking at this issue in the contexts provided by the theoretical discussions of Hegel, Arnheim and Goodman, it is possible to see more clearly the importance of examining with a critical eye the relative place of symbolism and function in museum architecture, and to question whether current museum practice has gone astray in allowing the sculptural symbolism to become the dominant element. When either its symbolic or its practical aspects are out of balance the result is sure to be unsatisfactory architecture. If the past is a reliable guide, it works best when the symbolic (sculptural) and the practical in architecture are worked out in harmony with each other.
14. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
AeJu Lee 춤과 마음
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Dance is the gesture of life. In other words, dance is a moving gesture to attain life's aim. As people have will to accomplish their aim, the will of life is expressed in dancing. Dance comes, therefore, from the heart as it arises from the flow of mind. The visible dancing feature begins from invisible mind. While life is made of flesh and mind, dance is the gesture of life containing both. Culture is from people's life. As the ground of culture have people's personal and also collective history, it is the case in Chum (Korean traditional dance). No matter what region or folk is, every ethnical dance express its own condensed culture and heritage. In this respect, though each ethnical traditional dance can't be evaluated, Korean sees people as the small universe. Chum does not simply express ourbody. We conceived nature and human as one, as a whole that cannot be dividable. Based on that wisdom, Chum has expressed the holistic gesture of Korean and nature. As summary, Chum is the movement of nature and flow of mind of Korean, expressing our culture.
15. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
V.N. Kulbizhekov Rethinking and Extrapolating of Notion “Mental Experiment” Relating to Musical Art
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In this article the author examines the problem of mental experiment extrapolation to musical art. Thus an attempt was made to determine the community of mechanisms of thought process in the scientific cognition and in the artistic creation. Author talks about peculiarities of music mental experiment and emphasizes its basic functions in musical thought. Therefore, the mental experiment in the sphere of aesthetic activity has its own specific character, whichis not identical with the notion of the mental experiment in the scientific sphere and scientific experience. It shows the greatest importance of rethought the category of “mental experiment” in the musical creation sphere. The study of the mental experiment in the sphere of music, as one of the forms of non-verbal treatment, storage, creation and transfer of information, is of great value, meets the self-reflectiveness necessities of life of individual or the whole society.
16. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Markus Kleinert Kierkegaard's Pedagogue or Practice in Negative Dialectics
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In his study “On the Concept of Irony” Kierkegaard characterizes irony several times as pedagogue. This alludes to Galatians 3,24f., according to which the law has been a pedagogue (‘Zuchtmeister’ in the relevant German translation, Luther 1984) in relation to Christian faith, and alludes further to the three uses of thelaw in Protestantism. Presented on this background the pedagogue becomes an important figure for the interpretation of irony and its negative dialectics in philosophy, religion and art. Drawing attention to the pedagogue in the emphatic sense might be helpful for a reading of Kierkegaard’s writings (both the pseudonymic and the edifying works) as well as for a genealogy of negative dialectics with all its modern and contemporary actualizations, e.g. in Adorno’saesthetical theory or in Danto’s considerations concerning art and philosophy after Duchamp.
17. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Julia Jansen, Francis Halsall, Tony O’Connor Aesthetics as Cross-Disciplinary Discipline
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One of the important aspects of recent aesthetics is its focus on cross-disciplinary approaches. This implies that, although claims to generality and objectivity continue to be made, no single practice, science, or approach is able to provide absolute evidential support for arguments and claims. Aesthetics as a critical enterprise, therefore, is open to a plurality of explanations. As a result, art becomes more than another object of scientific or philosophical inquiry. It becomes a model for philosophical practice that can complement or compete with dominant scientific paradigms. However, such aesthetic practice must respond to at least two grounds for skepticism: that a turn to aesthetics involves withdrawal from either critical and rigorous thinking or from social action and life. By discussing three core themes relevant for recent debates across the fields of philosophy, art history/theory and art pratice we would like to show how these concerns, while serious, can be taken up by aesthetics. These themes are: 1. the issue of validity (motivated by inquiries into the peculiar validity of aesthetic judgments); 2. the issue of subjectivity (motivated by the stipulated ‘special link’ between aesthetics and the human subject); and the political dimension of aesthetics (highlighted by the political implications of pluralist approaches to aesthetics, such as the need for negotiation and appeal).
18. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Elizabeth Cranley Towards an Aesthetico-Ethical Theory: Mapping the Connections between Ethics and Aesthetics
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In this paper I will explore the philosophical modes of connectivity between ethics and aesthetics. I argue first, that the traditional ethical theories of deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics can be mapped onto the aesthetic theories of formalism, functionalism and taste. Second, I argue that we can see threesimilar themes running through the literature that explicitly addresses the interdependence of ethics and aesthetics. Finally, I will outline this body of literature, which I shall call ‘aestheticoethical’ theory, using the three categories of essential, instrumental and existential connection. The philosophical landscape I amoutlined in this paper represents the groundwork for a larger pedagogical project. I argue that the traditional ethical theory is limited when it comes to teaching ethics to students going into creative industries like advertising. I propose that these three modes of aesthetico-ethical theory can be used to construct an alternative theoretical framework for teaching ethics at the intersection of creativity and commercial practice. Is philosophy relevant to everyday life? Is it not too abstract and general? The knowledge of priests, psychologists or physicians is as abstract and general, yet its relevance is not contested. Is not its relevance limited to the case of the rare sage which is both able to discuss complex philosophical matters and ready to adopt “the philosophical attitude” to life? Suchpopular notions ignore controversies with regard to the existence of such sages, the content of their alleged wisdom, or the nature or impact of their “philosophical attitude”. Modern philosophy is generally much more skeptical, realistic, pluralistic and therefore “democratic” than the elitist classics. It does not trust myths about the “good life” of the wise, nor ignore their preoccupation with death.
19. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
José Fernández Quintano Philosophy of Paleolithic Art
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The Paleolithic art interpretation is still a polemical subject. Nearly 300 caves covered with Paleolithic paintings have been discovered and more than 90% are located in Spain and in France. Surprisingly, more than half the painted illustrations are abstract patterns such as dots and lines. The high realism of naturalist figures also stands out. We will present the four groups of theories that have been formulated since the end of the XIXth century in order to interpret the Paleolithic art: the artistic theory from Lartet and Piette; the magical hunting theory from anthropologists such as Tylor and Frazer and archeologists like Breuil; the structuralist theory from Raphael, Leroi- Gourhan and Laming-Emperaire; and lastly the shamanist theory from Lewis-Williams and Clottes. We will also refer to the agglutinative theory gathering all of these from Ucko and Rosefeld. Afterwards I will offer my own thought. Paleolithic paintings are the expression the life led by every generation of the clan. The panels or the set of animals as much as the painted signs are their own History collection.
20. Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 1
Galina Kolomiets About the Main Problem of Philosophy of Music
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The paper is based on the original study of Galina Kolomiets named «The conception of music value as a substance and as the way of value interaction between the person and the world» which is presented in the monograph “The music value: philosophical aspect”. The phenomenon of music is considered as the indissoluble unity of its two hypostases – the essence of music (musical substance) and musical skill, which belongs to the person and the world. The basicidea of the author is to show, how the extra-historical essence of music (world harmony, universal rhythm) is connected with the man and the world and what are “the cohesion mechanisms” of musical substance as a form of art. According to the study such mechanisms are: the music value and value in the music, inverted, from one side, to the highest sense, from another - to the senses of human life.