Aesthetics and the Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture

by Carlson,Allen

• ISBN13: 9780415206839
• ISBN10: 0415206839
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-22
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Aesthetics and the Environmentpresents fresh and fascinating insights into our interpretation of the environment. Traditional aesthetics is often associated with the appreciation of art, but Allen Carlson shows how much of our aesthetic experience does not encompass art but nature--in our response to sunsets, mountains or horizons or more mundane surroundings, like gardens or the view from our window. Carlson argues that knowledge of what it is we are appreciating is essential to having an appropriate aesthetic experience and that a scientific understanding of nature can enhance our appreciation of it, rather than denigrate it.

Author Biography

Allen Carlson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xi
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgements	xv
Introduction: aesthetics and the environment	xvii
PART I The appreciation of nature	1	(126)
The aesthetics of nature	3	(13)
A brief historical overview	3	(2)
A brief overview of contemporary positions	5	(6)
The natural environmental model: some further ramifications	11	(2)
Notes	13	(3)
Understanding and aesthetic experience	16	(12)
Aesthetic experience of the Mississippi	16	(2)
Formalism and aesthetic experience	18	(5)
Disinterestedness and aesthetic experience	23	(3)
Conclusion	26	(1)
Notes	27	(1)
Formal qualities in the natural environment	28	(13)
Formal qualities and formalism	28	(1)
Formal qualities in current work in environmental aesthetics	29	(1)
Background on the significance assigned to formal qualities	30	(3)
Formal qualities in the natural environment	33	(5)
Conclusion	38	(1)
Notes	38	(3)
Appreciation and the natural environment	41	(13)
The appreciation of art	41	(1)
Some artistic models for the appreciation of nature	42	(5)
An environmental model for the appreciation of nature	47	(4)
Conclusion	51	(1)
Notes	52	(2)
Nature, aesthetic, judgment, and objectivity	54	(18)
Nature and objectivity	54	(1)
Walton's position	55	(3)
Nature and culture	58	(1)
Nature and Walton's psychological claim	59	(3)
The correct categories of nature	62	(6)
Conclusion	68	(1)
Notes	68	(4)
Nature and positive aesthetics	72	(30)
The development of positive aesthetics	72	(4)
Nature appreciation as non-aesthetic	76	(2)
Positive aesthetics and sublimity	78	(3)
Positive aesthetics and theism	81	(4)
Science and aesthetic appreciation of nature	85	(2)
Science and appropriate aesthetic appreciation of nature	87	(4)
Science and positive aesthetics	91	(4)
Notes	95	(7)
Appreciating art and appreciating nature	102	(25)
The concept of appreciation	102	(5)
Appreciating art: design appreciation	107	(2)
Appreciating art: order appreciation	109	(5)
Appreciating nature: design appreciation	114	(3)
Appreciating nature: order appreciation	117	(4)
Conclusion	121	(1)
Notes	122	(5)
PART II Landscapes, art, and architecture	127	(114)
Between nature and art	129	(9)
The question of aesthetic relevance	129	(2)
Objects of appreciation and aesthetic necessity	131	(2)
Between nature and art: appreciating other things	133	(3)
Notes	136	(2)
Environmental aesthetics and the dilemma of aesthetic education	138	(12)
The eyesore argument	138	(1)
The dilemma of aesthetic education	139	(1)
The natural	140	(2)
The aesthetically pleasing	142	(1)
Life values and the eyesore argument	143	(3)
Conclusion	146	(2)
Notes	148	(2)
Is environmental art an aesthetic affront to nature?	150	(14)
Environmental works of art	150	(2)
Environmental art as an aesthetic affront	152	(3)
Some replies to the affront charge	155	(4)
Some concluding examples	159	(3)
Notes	162	(2)
The aesthetic appreciation of Japanese gardens	164	(11)
The dialectical nature of Japanese gardens	164	(3)
The appreciative paradox of Japanese gardens	167	(5)
Conclusion	172	(1)
Notes	172	(3)
Appreciating agricultural landscapes	175	(19)
Traditional agricultural landscapes	175	(2)
The new agricultural landscapes	177	(5)
Difficult aesthetic appreciation and novelty	182	(3)
Appreciating the new agricultural landscapes	185	(4)
Conclusion	189	(1)
Notes	190	(4)
Existence, location, and function: the appreciation of architecture	194	(22)
Architecture and art	194	(2)
To be or not to be: Hamlet and Tolstoy	196	(4)
Here I stand: to fit or not to fit	200	(6)
Form follows function and fit follows function	206	(4)
Function, location, existence: the path of appreciation	210	(3)
Notes	213	(3)
Landscape and literature	216	(25)
Hillerman's landscapes and aesthetic relevance	216	(2)
Classic formalism and postmodern landscape appreciation	218	(1)
Formal descriptions and ordinary descriptions	219	(2)
Other factual landscape descriptions	221	(2)
The analogy with art argument	223	(2)
Nominal descriptions	225	(2)
Imaginative descriptions and cultural embeddedness	227	(2)
Mythological landscape descriptions	229	(4)
Literary landscape descriptions	233	(2)
The analogy with art argument again	235	(2)
Conclusion	237	(1)
Notes	238	(3)
Index	241