Aesthetic Insight: The Aesthetic Value of Damaged Environments

• Authors: León Alcaraz , José María
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this article I start by assuming that positive aesthetic experiences of damaged nature are possible and I argue for the idea that the aesthetic pleasure derived from that contemplation might reveal something of the environment’s overall character. I hope to show that positive aesthetic experiences sometimes help to promote emotional attitudes that can lead to insight into the configuration of other non-aesthetic attitudes. In order to do so, I critically appeal to some of the thoughts Kant articulated about the notion of aesthetic experience and its relationship to cognition and morality. I think that the sort of experience I am after in this article cannot be easily accommodated within a Kantian framework and that the possibility of positive aesthetic experience of damaged nature will show that the relationships between the aesthetic and the cognitive or the moral are more complex and enriching than they have so far been acknowledged to be.

Keywords

EN

Kant I.; environment; environmental aesthetics; aesthetic experience; aesthetic experience of nature; aesthetic judgement; aesthetic pleasure; landscape

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 169-187
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

León Alcaraz

author

José María

• University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain