Chapter examines aes experience/aes qualities/aes value

• Nature of aes response, of aes appreciation (=app)
• Potential aes experiences she mentions: listening to music, watching a film, beholding a rose, running through a rainstorm, stroking a cat, cooking a meal, getting dressed in morning, climbing a mountain, making or appreciating a quilt, listening to rap music, taking an evening stroll
• Are these all aes experiences?
• Why might some think not?
  
• Paul Ziff's "anything viewed" doctrine:
• Any exp can involve an aesthetic response
• Is this true?
• Anything is possibly worthy of our attention, not just great art
• But also natural env
• Also everyday env
• Less elitist approach to under aes exp.
• Elitist approach: aes exp happens only in opera house or art gallery
• Gator basking in the sun on a mud bank in a swamp is just as fit an object of aesthetic attention as artwork of Leonardo's
• "Attend to the beautiful grinning display of life"
• "Anything that can be viewed can fill the bill of an object fit for aes attention and none does it better than any other"
• Controversial?
• Saying everything is equally aes valuable? (Hope not.)
• Would an object designed to be aes appreciated (an art object) be a better subject of aes app than one not so designed (utilitarian artifact or natural object)


• PROBLEM OF AES VACUUM: WHAT MAKES EXP OF NON-ART AESTHETIC EXPERIENCES, GIVEN DON'T HAVE ARTISTIC CONTEXT
• Move from the arts with their aesthetic context fixed by artist creative activity, meaning created by artist, and reception of artistic qualities by audience
• To everyday objects and envs
• With nature and everyday env and objects, these lie outside artistic context
• These objects have many uses/functions or roles, what makes them aesthetic?
• For example:
• When is cooking an aes exp and not just something for nourishment
• When is climbing a mountain involve aes response and when just trying to get to the top
• What makes these exp aes if not determined by context as case with art
• Don't approach these activities with app of aes qualities as our explicit aim
• Is the idea that aes qualities are put in art objects and so aes exp is likely to happen there?
• But nature does not put aes qualities (intentionally) in objects and so to under how exp of nature is aes, need to focus on aes exp?


• THE TRADITIONAL ACCOUNT 8 (borrowed from Kant and Stolnitz)
• Brady's view "the integrated aesthetic" builds on this account
• Disinterested and sympathetic attention to and contemplation of any object of awareness for its own sake (Jerome Stolnitz-1960-on aes attitude)
• Contemplation: act of considering with attention, regarding steadily, to view or consider with attention
• Aes exp involves disinterested contemplation of perceptual qualities
• Response is perceptual rather than intellectual
  • Response is contemplative via perceptual rather than intellectual reflection of the phenomenal qualities of object
• Does this mean we pay attention to our perceptions and continue perceiving
• It is perceptual (phenomenal) qualities of object that we contemplate
• Interest in appearance of object rather than qualities concerning function or kind of thing it is and its place in the world
• Aes response contrasted with perception as means of knowing object or intellectual attention to it
• Response grounded in immediate perceptual response not mediated through knowledge or factual considerations
• This account may conflict with Carlson's way of under aes app nature
• Interestingly, if perceptual response is all that is needed and little cognitive abilities, then perhaps/probably higher animals have aes response of this sort
• Contemplation is active engagement of perceptual and affective capacities in relation to object's qualities
• Okay now she's added affective dimensions; why is it okay to add this but not intellectual dimension?
• Sympathetic attention & engagement
• Drawn out of ourselves as become absorbed by qualities of aes object
• Not get distracted
• Compare to sympathy for other people, attending to their feelings, putting one's feelings aside if there is a conflict
  • Let object guide us where it will
• Could be poor guide (inept artwork)
• Or lead us where we don't want to go
• Alienate our sympathies
• But if approach work openly it is aesthetic even if object makes our continued sympathetic attention not possible
• Clear we open ourselves up to the object and allow ourselves to be throughly engaged by it
• Not all aes exp will involve such absorption, some will be much less engaged
• Why can't there be mild aes experiences, where we are only partially engaged aesthetically and our attention is also on other things?
• Is she describing the ideal or the best aes response so she would allow partial ones?
• Disinterestedness (DI)
• Trad view says DI is nec and others disagree (no one thinks suff)
• Role both in moral phil and aes (not unproblematic)
• Not indifference
• But absence of purpose that attaches to aes response
• Don't approach object to use it as a means to some end
• Nor interested in discovering its functions or use
  
• Aes exp may involve affective, cognitive!!, and imaginative mental states
• Affective approaches emphasize feelings like pleasure and emotion
• Emotions (type of feelings) like awe, happiness or shock can be part of aes response
• Imagination: imp place in traditional view
• Cog approach focuses on role knowledge plays in our app of aes object
• Knowledge
• Kn is not central, but relevant if enhances our app and enables us to grasp meaning and expressiveness of object
• Not relevant when it distracts our attention away from objects aes qualities
• More recent approaches (dif from traditional view of aes on which Brady builds her account)
• Stress significance of genetic studies or information about origin of aes object for under and eval that is part of aes app
• With art, kn of artist and context of art making (historical, social) is needed for appropriate app.
• Carlson's nat env. model says sci kn nec for proper aes app of nature
• Brady says aes app in some cases involves an attempt to understand, interpret and grasp the meaning of aes object before us
• What sources are used for this is in dispute
• One view is that immediate perceptual exp of sensuous surface is suff for such understanding and so need nothing besides object itself and individuals perspective
• Another view: religious knowledge, myths, and folk narratives may be most appro sources
• Cognitive view says knowledge, factual knowledge is main source, and it need not exclude other sources as potentially relevant

• Relation of aes with nonaes exp
• Can choose strict def of aes that sets aes apart or looser def that allows more continuity with rest of experience
• Either way is some agreement on distinguishing features of aes exp
• Individual exp will differ and nonaes exp can share many features of aes


• AESTHETIC EXP AND ENV 13
• Hepburn's Contemporary Aes and Neglect of Natural Beauty shows how nature and art app differ
• Absence of artistic context in aes app of nature means appreciator is more independent (with greater responsibility) to determined how exp unfolds
• Greater freedom in aes exp of nature compared to art
• Unlike most art, nat env. surrounds and environs us; we are enveloped by aes object
• Still true we can focus on objects or scenery and set ourselves apart
• Unlike art, nature's meaning is not given mainly by artist who presents it for discovery by appreciator
• For most part, we bring meanings to nature in aes app of it
• Content of nature app in aes qualities and meanings tied to them
• These aes qualities are perceptual, expressive and imaginative, rather than related to art history and human culture as with art.
• Expand trad conception of aes exp to apply to nature by
• Include use of all senses
• Concerned not only with beauty, sublimity, the picturesque and ugliness, but with other categories of aes value, like shocking
• Nature's variety demands openness to app atypical aes objects
• Gators on dung heaps, beatles, mud flats
• Not just pretty flowers, sunsets and dramatic mountains
  
• AESTHETIC QUALITIES 16
• Examples of exp aes qualities
• Exp of melancholy moor, complex song of blackbird, fragrance of flower meadow
• Types of qualities
• Sensory: value added to sensory quality, fragrant or velvety soft
• Affective: emotion related, like the metaphor cheerful brook
• Imaginative: magical, mysterious (overlap with affective)
• Behavior: human behavioral qualities used metaphorically: lively, relaxed
• Gestalt: unified, having integrity, formal qualities like graceful
• Reaction: reactions or affective response of appreciator: funny, shocking
• Character: overall character of aes object: majestic, threatening
• Symbolic: fluttering, wandering fight of butterfly represents freedom, sacred character of nature
• Historical: narrative or historical feel: original, ancient, romantic
• Why all positive?
• Aren't aesthetic qualities also negative: boring, confused, disgusting
• Mainly descriptive qualities, though used as basis for ascribing value to aes object
• Pure value qualities: Some aes qualities are evaluative as identify a quality but also ascribe aes value at same time: vulgar, beautiful, ugly


• AESTHETIC SUPERVENIENCE
• Aes qualities depend on (emerge from) non-aes or base properties (often, primary properties)
• Graceful sweep of weeping willow (aesthetic qualities)
• Dependent on shape of tree and its light, thin branches and leaves (non-aes base qualities)
• Supervenience is a defense of realism of a sort about aesthetic qualities
• Aes qualities aren't made up by the subject, but are dependent on real features of the world
• Sibley: We simply perceive non-aes qualities in things, but discriminating aes properties takes keen attention and sensitivity in perception
• Perceive or deduce?
• Issues
• How broad is the base? Narrow (only perceptual properties of aes object) or broader (includes background knowledge and more)
• E.g., Contemplating Duchamp's fountain as insulting/funny depends background knowledge of historical context of his ready-mades
• E.g., To grasp the aes qualities ("exciting, majestic") of Ivory-billed woodpecker requires knowing that it was thought extinct
• E.g., Lemonade creek: Here aes value judgment is dependent on background knowledge ("disgusting or amazing")
• Nature of dependency of aes qual on non-aes qualities (Sibley)
• Not rule governed: Can't infer from a set of non-aes properties a particular aes description
• Fine lines and light colors do not guarantee a painting is graceful rather than heavy
• What about these particular fine lines and colors arranged in these ways?
• But aes qualities are sensitive to changes in non-aes qualities
• Changes in non-aes qualities will nec cause changes in aes qualities
• Mis-stated as tiny changes in the former need not change the latter
• Important environmentally: For changes in non-aes qualities of landscape can potentially change its aes qualities
• Given what she says above, it must change the quality
  
• AES QUALITIES AND SECONDARY QUALITIES 18 (and response dependence)
• Most aes qualities are phenomenal; we grasp them primarily via perceptual experience (and so apprehension of them depends on conditions of perception)
• Conditions include, person's sensory capacities, cognitive stock, set of beliefs and values, and cultural and historical context of perception
• Most contrast aes qual with primary/physical qualities
• Qualities intrinsic to the object
• Exist independently of observer
• Like mass, volume, shape scientist might measure
• Aes qualities compared to 2^nd qualities (like color)
• Not intrinsic to object
• Response-dependent: existence and nature of aes qualities are dependent to some extent on conditions of observer
• If one distinguishes appropriate and inappropriate responses this would reach toward more universality
• Response dependence not lead to strong relativism or idea aes qualities are subjective projections
• Still defend a realism (relational version) even given response dependence
• Aes qualities are real and defensible in aes judgments even though their existence depends importantly on relation between appreciator and object
• View goes between
• Objective realism: aes properties exist in objects independent of observers
• Subjective realism (idealism!): aes properties are entirely dependent on subjective state of appreciator
• For Brady, both the subject and object are relevant
• Color analogy to defend her view: Aes qual like color qual
• Aes qualities are associated with objects, as 2^nd qualities, and not mere subjective projections
• X is red, means red is a property of X, but allows that it will depend on conditions of perceiver (perceptual capacities, degree of light, etc)
• X is red or X will be seen as red?
• We don't say color properties are subjective projections
• Do associate them with objects
• Most cases we agree on color ascriptions
• So if aes properties are like color properties, get a lot of objectivity/realism (intersubjectivity)
• Differences color and aes properties
• More agreement on color than expressive quality of landscape
• Cultural factors and other considerations have greater role in aes judge of landscapes
• Response dependency of aes qual will be of greater magnitude than for color
• Still some limited objectivity of aes quality; a shared basis for judgments within many cultures and some cases also cross cultural shared basis


• AESTHETIC VALUE IN RELATION TO OTHER ENV. VALUES 20
• Important for Brady to make aes distinct from other areas of human inquiry
• Dist aes qualities and ecological and diversity value
• Integrity or coherence of ecosystems are (also) aes qualities.
• Diversity is an aes quality too (variation rather than sameness or repetition)
• Dist aes value/qualities and cultural value
• Cultural value of forests as definitive of Nordic cultural identity
• Why isn't this also a aes value of the forest?
• Dist aes value from historical and sacramental value
  
• VALUING FROM A HUMAN PERSPECTIVE: WHY AESTHETIC VALUE IS NOT ANTHROPOCENTRIC OR INSTRUMENTAL (22)
• (1) Aes value in env. context seen as a strongly human value (anthropocentric)
  • One of the values that is most response-dependent, in contrast to sci values that are less prone to human subjectivity
  • Also aes judgments strongly linked to production of pleasure/displeasure, thus
• (2) Aes value of nature often viewed as instrumental:
  • Humans value nature aes for the pl it provides
• Both above claims are mistaken
  
• True that aes judge come from human perspective
  • We bring our exp and aes sensitivity to bear on base properties perceived in env. and aes app emerges
• Aes judge is thus anthropogenic, but does not follow it is more anthropocentric than other types of env values
  • Or anthropocentric at all
• Because aes judge are response dependent, they depend on human valuers
  • But so do other types of judgments (e.g., moral judgments)
• Env. phil shown how moral judgements, though they are anthropogenic, need not be anthropocentric
  • Humans intrinsically valuing nature for its own sake
  • This is value generated by humans (we are doing the intrinsic valuing), but we are not valuing nature as merely an instrument to human benefit (anthropocentric)
  • So too, valuing nature aesthetically is a value generated by humans (in their interaction with nature) (thus anthropogenic), without being a instrumental value for human benefit.
• Some might think that the aesthetic valuing of nature is likely to be more anthropocentric-instrumental than moral valuing of nature
  • Can you see why this has some plausibilty?
• AESTHETIC VALUE AS NON-INSTRUMENTAL VALUE
• Why people mistakenly think that aes value is instrumental like recreational value
• One: Difficult phenomenally to separate our aes exp from recreational ones
  • Often part of same activity
  • Likes X-country skiing because it takes her out of her office and invigorates her body, but also enjoys aes qualities such as soft wispy sound of wind through pine trees
    • Skiing is pursued for satisfaction it brings, sounds of nature are valued for themselves rather than as a means to some end (instrumentally)
    • Could focus aesthetically on skiing and value it for own sake too: harmonious flowing motion of my skis on the snow
• Two: Confusion between two kinds of pleasure
  • Recreation and aesthetic activity both instrumental as both bring pleasure
  • This is why some environmentalists see aes value as icing on cake, as a frivolous value less important and urgent in relation to conserving env. compared to ecological or moral values.
  • But there are two types of pleasure here: one interested, other disinterested
  • Pursue recreation for relaxation and enjoyment it brings and because we get such pleasure out of the exp, we pursue it;
    • Seeking the pleasure is what motivates the pursuit of recreation
  • Pleasure in aes app does not play motivational role but is merely a by-product of the experience
• Aes pleasure results from intrinsic valuing (Levinson):
  • Pleasure in object is aes when it comes from apprehension and reflection on object's individual character/content for itself
  • To app something aesthetically is to attend to its forms, qualities, and meanings for their own sake
  • Aesthetic pleasure is centered on object for its own sake alone
• Valuing something for own sake means:
  • Desire to go on hearing, looking at or otherwise having an exp of X where there is no reason for this desire in terms of any other desire/appetite that exp of X may fulfil, and were the desire arises out of and goes along with the thought of X
  • Concedes there is a kind of desire and interest in aes app but it is focused on object and terminates in it
• Aes value is intrinsic, attributed to objects in virtue of their aes qualities rather than for some purpose like production of pleasure or knowledge
• An additional argument that aes response not just about gaining pleasure
  • Aes response not exclusively connected to pleasure:
  • Sometimes we feel dismay, curiosity, shock in our aesthetic encounters
• This shows that aes response isn't sought merely for the pleasure it brings

  
  
  

• Miscellaneous
• Brady's broad sense of "perception": Perception includes all senses and immediate thoughts and meanings that attach to what we perceive