Introduction
Aesthetics is, to put it simply, the study of art, beauty, and judgments thereof. As society tends to not view art as a functional endeavour, this branch of study may seem pointless; in fact a well-known aesthete and self-proclaimed Professor of Aesthetics, Oscar Wilde, stated “All art is quite useless.” However, this sentence is misleading, and the same man also said "Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the beautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret of life." Now, that sounds more interesting and important than the study of a “useless” topic, and whether the study of aesthetics serves a blatantly “functional” role in our lives or not, it certainly appeals to our humanity, our common sense of beauty and capacity for aesthetic experience, and can potentially deepen our understanding of this phenomena that has been around since the dawn of man.
To explain it in a less broad and lofty manner, aesthetics asks questions along the lines of “what is art?”, “...
Hume was the first thinker to point out the implications of the "representative theory of perception." He had inherited this theory from both his rationalist and empiricist predecessors. According to this view, when one says that he/she perceives something such as an apple, what it actually means is that the one has in the mind a mental idea or image or impression. Such a datum is an internal, mental, subjective representation of something that I assume to be an external, physical, fact. But there are, at least, two difficulties inherent in ascribing any truth to such perceptions. If truth is understood as the adequacy between the image and the object, then it is impossible to infer that there is a true world of objects since the only evidence. From this fundamental point, human reason loses its contingency in moral issues and decision making, letting feelings come to the first place. Hume emphasises the utility of knowledge as opposed to its correctness and suggests that morality begins with feeling rather than thought. In this case, Hume also believes that sympathy plays an essential role in morality. Sympathy is a fundamental feature of the human nature, that motivates us to make decisions. Sympathy can be described as an attempt to find or see one’s own nature in another object. Hume states that it is the start for all other human feelings.
According to the Oxford dictionary, Art is an expression or application of human creative skill and imagination producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. (oxforddictionaries.com). In the area of the Arts, it seems that knowledge is attained through a holistic lens, where its approach towards knowledge emphasizes the whole of an artwork rather than their constituent parts (simplyphyschology.com). Art can be accessible since the audience is able to experience it directly, with the help of our senses. As viewer we enjoy aesthetic pleasure, which involves an appreciation of the contents in relation to vehicles or supports. (Levinson, 1996) In fact, according to Jerrold Levinson’s ‘The Pleasures of Aesthetics’
David Hume sought out to express his opinion on ethics in which sentiment is seen as the grounding basis for morality. These theories can be seen as a response to the theories proposed by philosophers where they believed reason is considered to be the basis for morality. In this following essay I will show how Hume provides an argument in favor of sentiment being the foundation of our morality, rather than reason. To do this, I will begin to outline Hume’s ethical theories, highlighting his main ideas for grounding morality on sentiment and bring up some possible counterarguments that might potentially weaken this argument.
Art, what is Art? It is an ambiguous matter: without an exact form, an exact meaning. Does it have any rules or restrictions? However, it can be a great influence on the lives of people. In the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, two lovers have fell in and out of love due to Art!
In Appendix I., Concerning Moral Sentiment, David Hume looks to find a place in morality for reason, and sentiment. Through, five principles he ultimately concludes that reason has no place within the concept of morality, but rather is something that can only assist sentiment in matters concerning morality. And while reason can be true or false, those truths or falsities apply to facts, not to morality. He then argues morals are the direct result of sentiment, or the inner feeling within a human being. These sentiments are what intrinsically drive and thus create morality within a being. Sentiments such as beauty, revenge, pleasure, pain, create moral motivation, and action, and are immune to falsity and truth. They are the foundation for which morals are built, and exist themselves apart from any reasoning. Thesis: In moral motivation, the role of sentiment is to drive an intrinsically instilled presence within us to examine what we would deem a moral act or an immoral act, and act accordingly, and accurately upon the sentiments that apply. These sentiments may be assisted by reasons, but the reason alone does not drive us to do what we would feel necessary. They can only guide us towards the final result of moral motivation which (by now it’s painfully clear) is sentiment.
It seems most appropriate, before having any mention of Hume’s philosophy, to briefly enunciate the concept of empiricism. Prior to Immanuel Kant’s solicitation of Transcendental Idealism, the schools of epistemological thought were divided into rationalism and the aforementioned empiricism. The former is the belief that knowledge is innate, and that logic and reason are the chief methods of acquiring that knowledge. Conversely, empiricists believe that knowledge is sensory, or experience, based; in essence, that human beings are tabula rasa. It is upon the latter end of this dichotomic spectrum that we find Hume’s epistemology; that of empiricism.
David Hume’s epistemology was informed by empiricism and tempered by a skeptical bent which denied knowledge the privileged position of reliable foundation attributed it by Cartesians and other rationalists of his day. Throughout his Treatise of Human Nature, Hume’s broad strategy in discussing such topics as space, time, causation, and self involves argument that we cannot glean sufficient knowledge related to some crucial philosophical concept, our understanding grants us only a vague idea of that concept, and explanation as to how some false views of that concept are rooted in fallacy (Norton, 93).
The big idea about Hume is the fact that there are two main things that make up the entirety of the human experience: ideas and impressions. Note that all ideas are made up of impressions. Hume also talked about what things we can truly know. The only thing that we can know according to Hume is the fact that we are something that has the ability to think. All we can know about ourselves is that we have the ability to think. We also can’t say that we automatically know that we have a body. We only have a perception of our body that makes it feel like it should be basic knowledge.
In the history of Western Philosophy, Immanuel Kant is considered as one of the most important and influential philosophers. Kant contributed a lot to metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics and made a profound impact on philosophical movement of that time. Kant was highly impressed by work of David Hume and it was the work of David Hume that evoked Kant from his dogmas. It’s being said that Kant spend close to12 years in search of answers of various questions of David Hume’s skepticism A large part of Kant’s work was focused on addressing of very basic questions regarding knowledge of self. For Kant, knowledge is constrained to mathematics and the science of the natural, empirical world. He firmly believed that we cannot extend our knowledge to realm of speculative metaphysics. It is the mind that plays a sole and active role in constituting the features of experience and limiting the mind’s access to the empirical realm of space and time.
Aesthetics is the theoretical study of the arts and related types of behavior and experience. It is traditionally regarded as a branch of philosophy, concerned with the understanding of beauty and its manifestations in art and nature. However, in the latter 20th century there developed a tendency to treat it as an independent science, concerned with investigating the phenomena of art and its place in human life. Yet, what in a field with a hazy line in between being classified as a science or study of beliefs is considered data for determining what can be studied? It can simply be drawn to the only three things involved in the process of art : The creator, the person experiencing, and the art itself.
David Hume’s essay “Of the Standard of Taste” addresses the problem of how objects are judged. Hume addresses three assumptions about how aesthetic value is determined. These assumptions are: all tastes are equal, some art is better than others, and aesthetic value of art is defined by a person’s taste(from lecture). However, Hume finds the three beliefs to be an “inconsistent triad”(from lecture) of assumptions. If all taste is equal but taste defines the aesthetic value, how can it be that some art is good and others bad? Wouldn’t all art be equal if all taste is equal? Hume does not believe all objects are equal in their beauty or greatness. He states that some art is meant to endure, “the beauties, which are naturally fitted to excite agreeable sentiment, immediately display their energy”.(text pg 259) So how will society discern what is agreeable and what is not? Hume proposes a set of true judges whose palates are so refined they can precisely define the aesthetic value of something.
Today most art education programs are made up of four components. One of these components is art aesthetics. Aesthetics is the study of the nature of a piece of artwork. It analyzes the work by asking specific questions regarding the artist and the piece. The viewer becomes the judge in a sense. It tries to discover what the artwork might be representing. They could also ask what type of emotion the artist was trying to convey in their work. The viewer also takes part in analyzing the physical aspects and characteristics of the work. It focuses on the use of color, sequence and synchrony of an artwork. It notes the artist’s craftsmanship, artistic ability and proficiency in technique (Hoffman 1999).
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher known for his ideas of skepticism and empiricism. Hume strived to better develop John Locke’s idea of empiricism by using a scientific study of our own human nature. We cannot lean on common sense to exemplify human conduct without offering any clarification to the subject. In other words, Hume says that since human beings do, as a matter of fact, live and function in this world, observation of how humans do so is imminent. The primary goal of philosophy is simply to explain and justify the reasoning of why we believe what we do.
David Hume was a philosopher and historian who born in Edinburgh in 1711-1776. David Hume made great impact around the time he was living. According to Matthews & Platt (2008) “from 1763-1766, David Hume served at the British embassy in Paris, where he was honored by the French philosophies. He later returned to Edinburgh, where he was the leader of the Scottish Enlightenment” (p. 502). Therefore David Hume first developed his philosophy with a discussion about human nature around 1739-1740 (Matthews & Platt, 2008), which he took with him throughout his life.
views as to what art is; and as they say, beauty is in the eye of the