Aesthetics, also called Philosophy of Art, is one of the areas of knowledge in philosophy. It has its origin in the Greek word aisthesis, which means "apprehension by the senses", "perception".
It is a way of knowing (grasping) the world through the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch).
It is important to know that the study of aesthetics, as conceived today, has its origins in ancient Greece. However, since its origin, human beings show that they have an aesthetic care in their productions.
From cave paintings, and the first records of human activity, to design or to contemporary art, the ability to evaluate things aesthetically seems to be a constant.
But it was around 1750 that the philosopher Alexander Baumgarten (1714-1762) used and defined the term "aesthetics" as an area of knowledge obtained through the senses (knowledge sensitive).
Aesthetics came to be understood, alongside logic, as a form of know by sensitivity.
Since then, aesthetics has developed as an area of knowledge. Today, it is understood as the study of art forms, the processes of creation of (art) works and their social, ethical and political relations.
Beauty among the Greeks
Greek philosophy, from its anthropological period, sought to understand the reasons why human activities have a commitment to an aesthetic value: beauty.
Since the beginning of time, the idea of beauty and well-doing have been linked to the production and transformation of nature.
Thus, the Greek philosopher Plato (427-347) sought to relate utility with the idea of beauty. He affirmed the existence of the "beautiful in itself", an essence, present in the "world of ideas", responsible for all that is beautiful.
Many of the Platonic dialogues discuss the beautiful, especially The banquet. In it, Plato refers to the beautiful as a goal to be achieved by all types of production.
However, the philosopher unites the beautiful with its usefulness and attacks Greek poetry and theater. In Platonic thought, this type of activity had no use and generated confusion about the gods and the aims of human actions.
in your book the republic, Plato makes it clear that in the formulation of his ideal city, Greek poetry would be removed from the formation of men for distorting individuals.
In Aristotle, there is an understanding of art as a technique for production. The philosopher seeks to define the Greek terms: praxis (action), poiesis (creation) and techne (rules and procedures to produce something).
Therefore, everything that passes through these three dimensions, all types of work and everything that produces something new is understood as art.
However, there is a strong hierarchy among the Greek arts. The arts of reason, which work with the intellect, are understood to be superior to the mechanical arts, which work with the hands.
Hand work is understood as minor work, undervalued, destined for slaves. The good Greek citizen was responsible for the activities of the intellect such as mathematics and philosophy.
Beauty throughout the History of Philosophy
Beauty was understood by the Greeks in its objectivity. This conception was maintained throughout the Middle Ages and extended in its relationship with religion. The idea of perfection and beauty were related to the manifestation of divine inspiration.
During the period, art was used as an instrument in the service of faith. Its main objective was to reveal the power of the Church and expand the Christian religion. Beauty itself became related to sin.
With the end of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance sought to separate itself from the religious view of beauty. The idea of beauty starts to relate to the most faithful reproduction of reality as possible. The artist starts to assume the protagonism, his technical quality starts to be valued.
Beauty, understood in its objectivity, will be related to the proportions, shapes and harmony of the representations of nature. These characteristics become expressions mathematically present in works of art.
Thus, a field related to the seven arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, music, dance, theater and poetry) or fine arts was defined. This conception of art has been maintained to this day, despite the emergence of new forms of artistic expression (photography, cinema, design, etc.).
Baumgarten and the Origin of Aesthetics
The German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten inaugurated aesthetics as a field of knowledge in philosophy. He sought to understand the ways in which beauty is reproduced through art.
In large part, this was due to the fact that art has established itself as an act of production that can be associated with an economic value.
To assign a value to a work requires an understanding of art that goes beyond simple taste. Baumgarten sought to establish rules capable of judging the aesthetic value of nature and artistic production.
The bases defined by the philosopher allowed that, over time, art was conceived beyond its relationship with beauty. Art starts to relate to other feelings and emotions, which influence the identification of what is beautiful and its value.
Kant and the Judgment of Taste
the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) proposed an important change regarding the understanding of art. The philosopher took three inseparable aspects that make art as a whole possible.
It is based on the philosopher's thinking that art assumes its role as an instrument of communication. For him, the existence of art depends on:
- the artist, as a creative genius;
- the work of art with its beauty;
- the public, who receives and judges the work.
Kant develops an idea that taste is not as subjective as imagined. In order to have a taste, there must be education and the formation of that taste.
The artist, in turn, is understood as a creative genius, responsible for reinterpreting the world and achieving beauty through the work of art.
Following the Enlightenment tradition, which seeks rational knowledge as a form of autonomy, the philosopher withdraws the idea of taste as something indisputable. It goes against the idea that each person has their own taste.
For Kant, despite the subjectivity of taste, there is a need to universalize the judgment of taste based on the adhesion of other subjects to the same judgment.
The philosopher sought to resolve this issue through the idea that for something to be considered beautiful, it is first necessary to understand what it really is. Thus, education would be responsible for the understanding of art and, from there, the formation of taste.
The judgment of taste unites the universality of the appreciation of beauty to the singularities and particularities of the artist, the work and the public.
Frankfurt School
An important turning point in the study of aesthetics was introduced by a number of thinkers at the University of Frankfurt in Germany.
Among these thinkers stand out Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, who, influenced by the thought of Karl Marx, weave harsh criticism of capitalism and its mode of production.
From that thought, Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) publishes an important work called The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility (1936).
In it, the philosopher claims that the possibility of reproducing works of art would make it lose its "aura" of originality, uniqueness and exclusivity of aristocracies.
This change could allow access to the work of art by the working class, which previously would have been completely excluded.
On the other hand, within the capitalist system, the technical reproduction of art would center its efforts on the profit generated by the massive distribution of reproductions. The value of the work is carried over to its ability to be reproduced and consumed.
Benjamin draws attention to the appeal of the exhibition and talks about a new form of culture that seeks to reproduce the aesthetics of art. Politics and war, for example, start to arouse emotions and passions, which were previously typical of art, through propaganda and mass spectacles.
This kind of aesthetic force can be seen in propaganda, military parades and speeches that contained a crowd of people present by the Nazi party.
With the end of World War II, Nazism was defeated, but its form of propaganda and the massification of aesthetic elements remained and developed in the so-called cultural industry.
Aesthetics today
Aesthetics, from its relationship with the beautiful among the Greeks, its definition as an area of knowledge by Baumgarten, until the days of today, it has been transforming and seeking to understand the main factors that lead individuals to have a "thought aesthetic".
Philosophy and art meet in aesthetics. There are many thinkers who, over time, made this union as a way to understand one of the main areas of knowledge and human activity.
Nowadays, a good part of aesthetic theories are also produced by artists who aim to unite practice and theory in the production of knowledge.
This is the case of Ariano Suassuna (1927-2014), playwright, poet and aesthetic theorist. In the video below, he talks about the value of popular art and its relationship to cultural domination.
Bibliographic references
The Banquet - Plato
Critique of Pure Reason - Immanuel Kant
Aesthetics - Alexander Baumgarten -
The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility - Walter Benjamin
Invitation to Philosophy - Marilena Chauí