Western Aesthetics

Friday, February 10, 2023 11:53 AM

TERMINOLOGY FILSAFAT
Derived from the Greek "philosophia" which comes from the root words Philos (love) or
philia (friendship) and Sophos (wisdom, knowledge, skill). The English "philosophy" means
lover of wisdom (lover of wisdom).
Some notions of philosophy:
 Efforts to describe the nature of ultimate reality, fundamental and real.
 As a scientific discipline that seeks to help you see what you say and say what you
see

What is Philosophy?
 Wisdom (wisdom) or also "as the art of life" (Pythagoras 582-496 BC). The duty of
man in this world is to seek wisdom. Is the art of how a person develops his life more
perfectly.
 Ancient Greek culture emphasized that people should identify themselves. (gnocchi
seauton/know thyself) Because by knowing yourself, you will know the gods
 In the East philosophy is not only knowledge but as a "way to perfection and
salvation" which is obtained through guru/yogi/rshi/master.

AESTHETICS
It comes from the Greek aisthetikos which means "to observe with the senses". The word
aesthetics is also related to the word aesthesis which means "observation".
Aesthetics are theories that include:
 Investigations about the beautiful
 An investigation of the basic principles of art.
 Experiences related to art, art creation, judgment or reflexes

AESTHETIC SCOPE
 Philosophical Field: a study of the basic character of art, norms and values of art.
 Psychological Field ; study of observations and responses, creation activities, and
performance.
 Sociological field: a study of the observer or the public, works of art, means, and the
environment.

Encyplopedia Americana divides aesthetics in 4 lifetimes:

> Classical Aesthetics(plato, aristotle, plotinos),
> Medieval Aesthetics (augustine, thomas aquinas),
> renaissance aesthetics ( David Hume, Imannuelkant)
> Contemporary Aesthetics ( B Croce, Collingwood, santayana , Clive Bell)

AESTHETIC MAPPING
 Ancient Greece : the key word is "cosmos", nature. It means that aesthetics is
studied within a cosmocentric framework. Nature becomes sacred, nature as a
macrocosm and man as a microcosm. Artwork as an imitation of nature/mimesis.
Middle Ages : the key word is "teos" which means God. The reflection of a beauty is

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  Middle Ages : the key word is "teos" which means God. The reflection of a beauty is
that God Himself is not nature or the cosmos. All works of art must be based on
religious teachings (christianity) which is a dogma that must be obeyed.
 The Renaissance ; the key word is "Antropos" which means human. Man became the
central point of inquiry into philosophy (anthropocentrism), emerging from Humanism
in Italy.
 XX century : the key words are technology and informatics. Since the advent of the
postmodernism movement in the 60s what has been sold is no longer technology but
information and digital simulation (virtual reality, Hiper reality)

CLASSICAL AESTHETICS (ANCIENT GREECE)

PLATO (428 - 348 BC)

 Plato's career journey began in the wrestling ring, although he was once champion but
never qualified for the Olympics in olympia. "Plato" is a nickname in the wrestling ring,
while his childhood name is Aristocles. Plato's father was named Ariston (a
descendant of the nature of the last king of Athens), while his mother was of Solon
descent, the famous foundation of Athenian law.
 Plato's career journey began in the wrestling ring, although he had never qualified for
the Olympics. Having been a poet of tragedy ttp failed, and finally decided to study
Philosophy by listening to Socrates' conversation.
 Socrates' method of asking questions, inspired plato to take care of him for 9 years.
 Founded a famous school, Academia (387 BC) with a ransom when it wanted to be sold
as a slave.
 Plato's Academia was closed by the emperor Justinian in 529 BC in an attempt to
abolish Hellenistic culture and replace it with Christianity.
(the starting point of the end of the classical period and the beginning of the dark
ages/medieval times).
 During his life Plato diligently wrote, and almost all of his writings were written in the
form of dialogues with Socrates as figures in dialogue. One of his very famous works
is POLITEIA (State)

Teachings About Idea

 To understand Plato's teachings on beauty or the beautiful we must first understand
Plato's view of reality. (is in the 7th book of the polytheia Allegory of the cave)
Idea is a pseudo-shadow of the real world (the shadow of an object that is an

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  Idea is a pseudo-shadow of the real world (the shadow of an object that is an
imitation of the real.
 From the teachings on this idea Plato formulated his famous theory with the Theory
of Two Worlds
 The two worlds are the idea world (upper world) and the everyday world
(underworld). According to Plato the underworld is an imitation of the upper world.
 The upper world is described as the world of ideas i.e. the world of truth, the true
absolute, the world of spirits, true knowledge (episteme).
 The underworld is a relative, everyda, mortal, imitation and opinion-only world.

The relationship between the upper and lower worlds can be explained by 3 keywords:
> Paradigm : meaning that the upper world becomes an example, a prototype, a
pattern for the underworld.
> Present in : the upper world is always present in the (presence) of the
underworld.
> Participation : The underworld takes part (participates) in the upper world.

Art Theory
 Plato's view of works of art is known as the theory of MIMESIS (COPYISM).
This theory suggests that something that exists in this world is an imitation
(mimesis) of the "original" in the world of Idea. In addition, according to Plato, works
of art are imitations of the reality that exists in this world except music, so it is far
from true truth.
 A work of art is an imitation of something that exists in the world, and reality in the
world is an imitation of the world of Idea, so a work of art is an imitation of an
imitation (2 levels imitation).
 According to him, works of art are not good to be used as a source of knowledge.

ARISTOTELES (348-322 BC)

 Aristotle was born in 384 BC in Stagyra, northeastern coast of Thracia, Northern

Greece. His father was a physicist who worked for the Macedonian king, Amyntas II.
 At the age of 18, he was sent to Athens to study in Plato's Academia. (studied for 18
years until Plato's death in 374 BC).
 Disillusioned with his education in Academia, he left Athens for Assos , meeting his
friend Hermias who became king there. He was appointed an adviser to Hermias.
 In 345 BC he went to Pella the capital of Macedonia (because Hermias was captured
and punished by the Persians).

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 and punished by the Persians).
 In 342 BC was invited by King Philip of Macedonia to be his son's personal teacher
(Iskandar the Great the Younger).
In 335 BC returning to Athens founded his own school called Lykaion (one of the
titles of the god Apollo) which is also called the Peripathetic school (his way of
teaching while walking around, in small groups) which is actually a scientific research
center.
 In 323 BC went to flee out of Athens because he was accused of spreading Atheism,
and settled Kalas until his death from 322 BC.

Background Thoughts
 Despite being a student of Plato for about 20 years, Aristotle rejected Plato's
teachings on Ideas. He does not acknowledge the existence of eternal ideas.
According to Aristotle the teachings of Plato ttg Idea are a misinterpretation of the
fact that man can form universal concepts related to empirical things.
 Man has the mind to make abstractions, that is, to elevate or form universal forms of
idividual empirical reality.
 Aristotle's approach is an Empirical approach that departs from sensory real reality.

Metaphysics
 In his teachings on metaphysics Aristotle disagreed with his teacher. According to
him Ideas do not help us at all either to observe objects or to recognize objects. The
essence of an object is within the thing itself.
 The theory that teaches about the form of an object consists of matter (hyle) and
form (morphe) known as the teachings of Hyle-morphism.
 An example of hyle-morphism is "a horse statue made of wood" according to Aristotle
in the horse statue there are two elements that come together at once, namely wood
and horse carving.
 Wood as matter, and horses as forms. Before wood got the shape of a horse, there
were already other forms such as tree shapes etc.
 According to Aristotle everything that exists is developing towards the goal of its
nature, that is to say moving from a possibility (potentia) to reality (actuality).
 The division of philosophy into theoretical and practical philosophies is based on
Aristotle's teachings on the method of thinking. The word "theoretical" comes from
the Greek word "theoria" which means to look, to contemplate. Theoretical philosophy
is the science of looking at, trying to understand, and reflect on the origin and
development of everything that exists.
 Practical philosophy comes from the word praxis which means an action that brings
value to itself.

A View of Beauty
 The works of art that Aristotle highlighted a lot are literary works and works of
play.
Art is not only an imitation of an object that exists in nature, but rather an
"imitation of something that is universal"
Katharsis or purification is the culmination and purpose of a work of dramatic art in
the form of tragedy. Whether or not a staging of a play is successful can be

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 the form of tragedy. Whether or not a staging of a play is successful can be
measured by the degree of catharsis that occurs. (everything that seems logical and
unexpected will be appreciated by the audience so as to leave a deep impression and
brighten the soul of the audience)

PLOTINOS (205-270 BC)

 Plotinos was a philosopher at the height of Ancient Greece who summarized and made
a kind of synthesis of the various philosophical schools of his time, including eastern
philosophy. Since the main inspiration for Plotinos' philosophy was Plato his philosophy
was called Neo Platonism.
 Neo-Platonism arose in Alexandria (where various sects, cultures, and rituals met , all
of which were behind the culture of Heleinesm.
 The school was founded by Ammonius de Saccas who was born into a Christian family,
but he revived Plato's philosophy and became a Neo Platonist.
 His most famous student was Plotinos who was born in Egypt. The works that appear
are the edits of his student named Porphyri in the Enneadeis which consists of 6
books, and each book consists of 9 Chapters.
 The central doctrine of Plotinos metaphysics is his theory of the Trinity. This trinity
consists of ; The One (to Hen, the one), The Mind (Nous) and the Soul (Psyche).
 Plotinos is known for its philosophy of emanation centered on "the One" which is also
called the "Good" meaning the unspeakable, unthinkable and unidentifiable, because it
is not something or not a spirit.
 According to Plotinos, everything that exists comes from and goes to the One. It is
the origin and purpose of all things.
 Beauty is the process of man's life journey in finding his identity. Beauty arises not
because of the presence of color, tone, shape and homogeneity but because of the
unity of various different/heterogeneous elements.
 The culmination of the experience of beauty is the religious/mystical experience.

Shofiana, Risa

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