I think that beauty has a major role to play in life. Beauty is behind all the choices we make and the greatest choice is the one to live. Beauty plays its role in our clothes, food and even in relationships. We always look for the most beautiful as we are to make a choice in life regarding things, objects and people.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is the study of beauty and it is more philosophical. Defining aesthetics is a herculean task and it could be said as the human response to the beauty around us. It is the result of a complex brain process. Aesthetic impulse is created in the brain as we encounter objects or works of art. Neuroaesthetics deals with the neurological foundation of aesthetic experience.
Orhan Pamuk says in My Na. “The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion . . . open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.” I think that the motivating factor or force behind our life will be beauty. Beautiful objects around us grab our attention and we fall into it. We feel more attracted to the beauty. As Kumaranasan, a famous Malayalam poet said, whoever be, a thief running from policemen, a renounced monk or anyone else will be attracted to the beauty of a flower. It does not mean that all will blindly be attracted to a flower still the person should have an open eye to the reality. Some people have a tendency to see always the darker side of reality and beauty will always be a distant reality for them. They feel that this world is a valley of tears and they believe that what we see as beauty is deceptive and the perfect beauty is not manifested here and that can be seen only in the other world. Only world affirming people can see and experience beauty around us.
People fall into depression and suicide as they cannot find beauty in life and in relationships. I always amaze and wonder at the breathtaking beauty of nature. During my travels, I never fail to be alert to the scenery the meadows, valleys, springs and hills covered with mist. And I appreciate even the beauty of people too. I think that all the beauty we see around us is the reflection of a supreme beauty. That may be the Divine, I do not know.
The most beautiful
Orhan Pamuk said in The Museum of Innocence, “If a person is happy enough to think he has reached the happiest moment of his life, he will be hopeful enough to believe his future will be just as beautiful, more so.” It will be lovely to find the most beautiful and that will be a transforming experience in our lives. My life is a search for the most beautiful and I think that I will fall in love with the most beautiful. It can be an idea, a place or even an idea or thought. The search for beauty is simply amazing and our horizon of beauty is ever widening. Beauty is endless and it evolves. It is the most blessed gift of the Divine.
Beauty Never Pass into Nothingness
I try to find beauty in everything as Keats said in his poem, A Thing of Beauty. A thing of beauty is joy forever, its loveliness increases and never passes into nothingness. I hope that we can find beauty even in all sad incidents of life, may be in death too. I think that my study on beauty will enable me to make life more beautiful and help others to find beauty in their lives too.
Philosophical Aesthetics
Philosophical aesthetics is a discipline starting with Plato. Philosophers down the centuries have reflected upon beauty. Aristotle, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Kant, Nietzsche, Hegel and Heidegger are the major philosophers spend much of her thinking in the realm of art and aesthetics.
Aristotle believed that art has a key role to play in our lives. Schopenhauer believed that human beings are basically aesthetic, but he had a stereotypical understanding that women are unaesthetic sex and we cannot expect any solid work of art from them as they are emotional beings. Kant wrote a book specifically for aesthetics titled, Critique of Judgment. It is about the aesthetic response of human beings to beautiful things and work of art. Kant believed that beautiful objects create a ‘disinterested delight’ in us. It does not mean that we do not want to possess the beautiful object before us. It means that this delight is not just to satisfy any emotional desire within us but it is just a delight for its own sake. It could be explained by considering Hobbes. Hobbes believed that whatever we do is just to satisfy some of the desires within us and we all are basically selfish. Hegel believed that art is the manifestation of the absolute spirit. And he believed that art had a key role to play in the past to reveal truth. And now with the coming of science there is no great role for art and art is dead. There is a much celebrated thesis of Hegel called the ‘death of art.’
I like most the insights of Martin Heidegger. Heidegger did not agree with Hegel and he believed that art has a key role to play in life. He believed that truth happens in art. Truth is revealed in and through art in a very special way. According to him Human being (Dasein) is poetic, aesthetic, authentic and mortal. Human beings are aesthetic according to Martin Heidegger and Heidegger had an aesthetic and poetic concept of being. Heidegger became more aesthetic and poetic in the second half of his life. The writings of that period are more related to aesthetics, poetry and mysticism.
Aesthetic Dimension
Aesthetic dimension is present even in plants and in animals. Plants produce beautiful flowers and fruits to attract birds and other insects for reproduction. Some animals and birds prepare beautiful nest and dwelling places to attract their mates. A higher level aesthetic dimension is present among human beings; it is well developed in our level. Evolutionary psychology tells that beauty is an important aspect in the selection of partners as beauty is the result of order and harmony. Men will always look for beautiful women as partner for he believes that the beautiful girl is perfect and fertile to bring up his children.
Aesthetic Judgement
There are different views on the basis of aesthetic judgement. Some firmly believe that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. That is a limited perspective I would say. There should be an object there outside to be perceived and to be appreciated. We cannot have aesthetic judgment in vacuum. Aesthetic judgement thus has a subjective and objective dimension. However all the objects outside are not taking us to any aesthetic feeling. All the objects giving us aesthetic feelings are not artworks. Even natural things and scenery take us to aesthetics feeling. According to V S Ramachandran artists are making use of certain techniques in their works of art to produce aesthetics feelings in us. They literally distort and change the reality that we may have some aesthetic feeling.
Concept of Beauty in an Ever Changing World
We are living in world of technology that goes on changing. Today’s technology becomes obsolete tomorrow and as a result many of us are becoming out of date and out of place since we are not introduced to the latest technology. The corporate world promotes a culture of efficiency and values are hardly respected. As a result human beings are alienated from the self, the other, nature and from God. Sebastian Kappen said in his book titled, Tradition Modernity Counterculture, that our lives become mechanical in an ever changing world of technology. Life becomes so mechanical that we forget to find beauty in eating, sleeping and even in mating. I find that this observation is true and art and beauty have become things for art gallery and a commodity for sale. Female body and beauty are widely misused to promote a consumerist culture where there is no commitment. I feel the need of rediscovering our initial view of life that is basically aesthetic. Our forefathers had a life in tune with the nature and its seasons that helped them to have an attitude of love and respect to the nature and to the self. Nowadays we find the nature and the other as some commodities for our use. We need to have a new culture of philosophical aesthetes where beauty has a key role to play to make a happy living and to have a theological aesthetics which rediscover the beauty of religion to uproot the decaying anthropomorphic concept of God.
Josephs Cloud
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