OVERVIEW OF THE STRUCTURE OF CARLSON’S ARGUMENT ABOVE

1.      To appreciate, one must know what and how to appreciate

         a.      Shouldn't drink brandy like one drinks beer

2.      Answering what/how to appreciate art is easy because we make art to be appreciated and so we know what and how to appreciate it

         a.      Examples: At a symphony we listen to piano not the coughing; at the gallery we focus on the painting's color not where it hangs

3.      Knowledge of art categories and art history allows us to focus our appreciation (know what to appreciate and how to appreciate it)

4.      Answering what/how to appreciate nature is perhaps more difficult because nature is not our creation

5.      Also, nature is indeterminate and promiscuous and so to appreciate it, it must be composed

         a.      It is so rich in its diversity that to appreciate it we must select, emphasize and group its elements

         b.      Not clear what in nature we should appreciate or how we should appreciate it

6.      How should it be composed? How to know what to appreciate and how to appreciate? On what should we focus?

7.      Carlson considers and rejects object, landscape, human chauvinist, and aesthetics of engagement models for aes app of nature and then proposes his own natural environment model (to answer what/how questions)

8.      Object model tells us appreciate pieces of nature by treating them as if they were like nonrepresentational sculptures     

         a.      Isolate them from their environment and appreciate their sensuous, design, and expressive qualities

9.      Carlson rejects object model because it

         a.      Leads to appreciative mistakes because isolated natural objects have different aesthetic properties than do natural objects appreciated in their context (e.g., Does that rock express solidity? Yes in one’s home, no on a scree slope)

10.    Landscape model tells us to appreciate nature in the way we would appreciate a landscape painting–nature is simply scenery

11.    Carlson rejects the landscape model for

         a.      (1) Ethical reasons: It involves the scenery cult (i.e., only spectacular nature is aesthetically appreciable) and ignores that unscenic nature is appreciable, and

         b.      (2) Aesthetic reasons: It appreciates nature as something it is not--a view or scene--rather than as what it is (a natural environment), and this leads to inappropriate appreciation, e.g., using only the sense of sight to appreciate nature rather than all the senses

12.    Human Chauvinistic Model (nature appreciation is not aesthetic appreciation) is rejected because nature is a paradigm of aesthetic appreciation

13.    Aesthetics of engagement model (nature appreciation involves total immersion in nature) is rejected because we cant appreciate everything all at once

14.    Carlson's Natural Environmental Model (=NEM) tells us to appreciate nature as an environment and as something natural (not human-made)

15.    According to this model, common sense and scientific knowledge of nature (i.e., natural history) is what allows us to structure (compose) our appreciation (answer the what and how to appreciate questions) and is necessary for appropriate appreciation

         a.      Just as art history is what allows us to structure our appreciation of art and is necessary for appropriate art appreciation.

16.    Carlson’s NEM or his “Scientific Cognitivist” approach to nature appreciation supports

         a.      Positive aesthetics of nature (all of nature is beautiful)

         b.      Objectivity in nature appreciation (as it relies on objective scientific knowledge)