Thomas Heyd, (2001, BJA)
“Aesthetic Appreciation and the Many Stories about Nature”
1. Heyd’s interpretation of Carlson
a. Proper aes app of nature requires science
b. Science is the primary story that informs or should inform out aes of nature
HEYD’S THREE ARGUMENTS AGAINST CARLSON
2. One: Knowing the history (origin, aetiology) of art/nature is neither necessary nor sufficient for (proper, best, better, any kind of?) aes appreciation
3. Art history not necessary for art appreciation
a. Potted art history (slamming artworks into art categories)
b. Can’t tell us if a work is
i. Innovative
ii. Has strengths other works lack
c. Can’t help us appreciate contemporary (avant garde and anti-art) art
4. Are these claims true?
a. To know if something is new, need to know the old; need knowledge for comparison
b. Isn’t knowledge of the contemporary art scene crucial for app avant garde art?
5. Heyd thinks art appreciation requires
a. Long searching exposure to many works
b. Conversation with others about criteria of evaluation
c. Personal reflection on significance of works style and execution
d. Doesn’t study of art history, art criticism, trends in the art world help greatly with these?
6. Heyd’s a critique of straw man view of art history?
a. As if all we are supposed to do is place the work in a category
b. Claims it is like reading label on wine bottle or reading bio-note on wall next to a painting
c. Consider Matthews claim that the we must perceive the aesthetic object under the relevant category, as belonging to that category
7. While origin of aes object is not fundamental to its appreciation for Heyd, attentive perception & experience of aes object, sensitive sensory attention
a. Yes perception is crucial, but perhaps so is understanding and cognition
8. Information about origin of nature not necessary nor sufficient (or important?) for its aes appreciation of it
a. Example
b. One can thoroughly enjoy a strand of trees in meadow w/o knowing
i. Its evolutionary history (ancient lineage began with dinosaurs)
ii. Taxonomy (that it is in the same family as an extinct species)
iii. Its individual development (that lightening hit that tree)
9. Heyd seems to accept idea that aes appreciation = enjoyment/pleasure
10. Two: Scientific knowledge can be neutral or harmful to aes appreciation of nature (so science is not sufficient for aes app)
a. Preoccupation with natural history can hamper sensuous appreciation of trees (e.g., skin like, red green trunks)
11. General reason science tends to hurt is that it focuses on universal rather than concrete
a. Draws us away from particular concrete character of individual aes object
b. This is what aes appreciation should be focused on
c. Science has us focus on the theoretical, general, abstract, what is common to all things of this sort
d. Why isn’t seeing the universal in the particular aes object good for aes app?
i. E.g., seeing it as member of endangered species or of an ancient lineage (Leopold’s crane)
12. Three: Aes appreciation of nature is a unique mode of discovering what nature is (p. 129)
a. Thus we don’t need science
b. Science forces us back into set categories
HEYD’S OWN VIEW OF NATURE APPRECIATION
13. Aes appreciation of nature requires (instead of or in addition to? theoretical knowledge)
a. Engagement
b. Attentive sensitive sensory attention
c. Keen capacity for this
14. Aes appreciation (=attentive sensory attention) is prone to fatigue
a. Need endurance (aesthetic endurance)
b. Need to enrich our aes horizons
c. Need contrasting aes/perceptual experience
d. Need to develop an agile imagination
15. Diverse stories (“the many stories of nature”) help with all of these
a. Bored by endless prairie, read stories about settlers in the west
16. Artistic stories do better job of engaging ordinary people than does science
a. Artistic stories widen our aes community by putting us in touch with how others aes appreciation nature and this can enhance our appreciation
b. E.g., Aboriginal myth of supernatural being in the land can direct our attention and get us to notice perceptual features of land missed before
c. E.g., Landscape painting can get us to pay attention to nature longer and aid in aes appreciation
d. Ancient rock art on canyon walls can lead us to wonder what plants natives used, where they got their water, where they slept
i. Note this is a search not for scientific knowledge but cultural knowledge
17. Heyd’s goal is to increase our capacity to attend perceptually to nature
18. Different goals Heyd/Carlson
a. Carlson: What information is aesthetically relevant?
b. Heyd: What causally helps us aes app?
i. Whips, reward, hypnosis, Paul Bunyan story
ii. If Ritalin helps us concentrate on art object and prevent fatigue, it is as relevant as knowledge of the art object?
19. Heyd considers three objections to his position
a. One: Stories are subjective/false so problematic
b. Two: Stories are cultural so irrelevant to appreciation of pristine nature
i. But science is a cultural story too
c. Three: Stories are value laden so distort aes app
i. But science is value laden
20. Objection One: False, subjective, noncredible stories (e.g., Paul Bunyon) are irrelevant and misleading to aes appreciation
21. Heyd’s reply
a. Takes a case by case functional view of appropriate stories
b. If stories lead to aes appreciation of nature, besides the point if true or false, okay even if false
22. What matters about stories/information is do they
a. Enrich capacities for aes appreciation?
b. Lead to full flourishing of aes appreciation”
c. Enhance aes app?
d. Highlight (not obscure) aes appreciable features of nature
e. Illuminate aes object in new and fruitful ways
23. The wider the reach of aes appreciation of nature the better
a. Both for own sake as pleasurable activity
b. Generate interest in protecting natural world
24. Stories/accounts that are not relevant or appropriate are ones that
a. Subvert full flourishing of aes appreciation
b. Obscure, detract/diminishe aes appreciation
i. E.g., “Earth a ruined refuge of fallen angels and sinful people”
25. Note that Heyd is not pure anything-goes subjective relativist about relevant information
a. Not any account is legitimate
26. Is enhancement of aes appreciation right criterion?
a. What if the story (corporate advertising) enhances our aes appreciation of toxic waste dumps, strip highways, industrial agriculture?
b. If “enhance” means “increase our positive aesthetic response,” sometimes the right aesthetic response might be a negative one
c. Also sometimes a false story might increase our aesthetic appreciation
i. Paul Bunyan and his blue ox babe
ii. Popular (but probably misleading) ecological stories about how “everything is hitched to everything else” or “delicate balance of nature” might enhance aes appreciation of nature
(1) But is this not inappropriate?