AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE: CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES - PHILOSOPHY - 2025

The aesthetic experience is a way that the human being has to meet the environment that surrounds it, the world, the phenomena, the circumstances and the objects both natural and created by man. This experience causes emotions and a kind of aesthetic understanding in the person who lives it.

To reach such aesthetic understanding, active attention, special mental openness and contemplation absent of personal interest are necessary. The aesthetic experience arises from a response to a work of art or other aesthetic objects; however, it is difficult to pinpoint it precisely due to the processes involved.

These processes and dispositions, as specified by the researcher at the Department of Psychology at the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy Slobodan Markovic, can be emotional, cognitive and motivational.

All this has been the subject of studies and discussions of specialists since ancient times. Plato, without classifying it as an aesthetic experience, inquired about the emotional reactions to the recitations of poetry.

Also, Aristotle referred to the aesthetic experience when he described the positive effects of attending the theater. Research in this regard is still ongoing; even the idea that there is a unique form of experience remains a matter of debate.

characteristics

The characteristics of an aesthetic experience are related to other concepts; Therefore, the characteristics will be addressed from these concepts:

Feel an aesthetic experience

This has been one of the most important controversial areas, since it is about defining whether there is any emotion, special attitude or other internal sign that allows us to recognize if one is facing an experience of this type or not.

Immanuel Kant describes the aesthetic experience as a pleasure that is associated with circumstances in which one judges that something is beautiful.

This pleasure does not arise from the usefulness of the object, but rather that its shape produces delight and should be enjoyed by anyone. Also distinguish between answering positively for this reason, and answering positively for scientific or moral questions.

In this sense, most theorists agree that aesthetic experiences are considered as such, at least in part, when there is an emotional participation of the experimenter.

For his part, John Dewey argues that experiences of this type are the most complete, rich and elevated possible. The person is committed and aware of the effect of the world on him.

It perceives organization, coherence and satisfaction, as well as the integration of past, present and future, a fact of which ordinary non-aesthetic experiences are deprived.

Exceptional experience

Meanwhile, Slobodan Markovic defines the aesthetic experience as qualitatively different from the everyday and similar to other exceptional mental states. Consider its three crucial characteristics:

-Fascination with an aesthetic object. It refers to the motivational aspect of the aesthetic experience. This implies intense attention and high vigilance, as well as loss of self-awareness, awareness of the environment, and sense of time.

-Valuation of the symbolic reality of an object. This is the cognitive aspect; that is, symbolic, semantic and imaginative.

-Strong feeling of unity with the object of fascination and aesthetic evaluation referred to the affective aspect. It is the exceptional emotional experience produced by the unity with the object of fascination and its aesthetic appreciation.

Object of aesthetic experience

Many philosophers insist that both pleasant and painful responses associated with an aesthetic experience must connect with something special in objects or events; that is, properties that are missing from non-aesthetic or non-artistic objects and events.

The so-called formalist theorists consider that attention directed to the properties that are immediately perceived in objects and events is fundamental; that is: colors, tones, sounds, patterns and shape.

For the philosopher Monroe Beardsley (1958), there are the following aspects that must be present:

-Attention firmly fixed on your object.

-Intensity and unity. Unity is a matter of coherence and completeness.

Coherence is having elements that are properly connected to one another so that there is continuity of development, and completeness refers to the impulses and expectations generated by the elements within the experience, which are counteracted by other elements within the experience.. Thus you enjoy balance or finality.

However, a large number of theorists do not agree with the formalist position, because when having an aesthetic experience, the person focuses only on the formal properties of an object and leaves aside scientific, moral, religious or belief concerns.

Requirements of an aesthetic experience

Even when aesthetic experiences are seen as arising from objects exhibiting a pleasing shape, many theorists differ in another respect.

Just as not all objects give rise to an experience of this type, neither do all people have aesthetic experiences related to the same objects.

Both David Hume in the 18th century and Frank Sibley in the 20th, both philosophers, insist that only those with special sensitivities are capable of responding aesthetically.

Open and seasoned mint

For Hume there is only one type of person who can differentiate a bad work of art from a good one: these are the ones with an open mind, clear-headed, attentive, perceptive, trained and experienced.

For their part, the formalists indicate that beliefs or purposes must be set aside in order to fully surrender to an object; others argue otherwise.

Contextualists hold that before one has an aesthetic response, both moral beliefs and intellect must be engaged.

Thus, Kendall Walton maintains that you cannot interpret or respond to a certain work of art, unless you are well versed in the genre it represents.

For his part, Allen Carlson states that an aesthetic appreciation of something natural requires an awareness that nature is being appreciated. This involves an understanding of how nature works.

Examples

In order to list some examples of this type of experience, it should be remembered that one way to understand it is through a comprehensive approach.

This is taking into account not only the object, phenomenon or event, but also the processes that occur in a particular person.

These processes are not only biological, but psychological and even cognitive. In this way, different types of aesthetic experiences can be considered.

-Getting excited about a poem by Pablo Neruda.

-Feeling captivated by an impressionist painting.

-Calm down and feel pleasure when walking along a mountain path.

-Enjoy photographing an animal in its environment.

-Enjoy the silence of a sunset.

- Be pleased to have seen the last film of our favorite director.

-To contemplate the latest fashion of the season in the windows.

References

1. Aesthetic Experience. Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved June 5, 2018 from encyclopedia.com/humanities/enciclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps.
2. Beardsley, Monroe C (1982). The Aestetic Point of View. In: The Aestetic Point of View: Selected Essays. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, pp. 15-34. Retrieved on June 5, 2018 from is.muni.cz
3. Beardsley, Monroe C (1958). Aesthetics problems in the philosophy of criticism. 2nd edition 1981. Hackett Publishing Company Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.
4. Dewey, John (1934). Art and Experience. New York: Putnam.
5. Dickie George (1988). Evaluating Art. Temple University Press. Philadelphia
6. Graham, Gordon (1997). Philosophy of the Arts: An Introduction to Aesthetics. 3rd Edition. 2005. Routledge. Milton Park. Oxforshire. United Kingdom.
7. Guio Aguilar, Esteban (2015). From art to aesthetic experience: Interpretation and cognitive effects in aesthetic function. Postgraduate thesis. National University of La Plata. Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences, pp. 1-259. Retrieved June 5, 2018 from memory. fahce.unlp.edu.ar
8. Markovic, Slobodan (2012). Components of aesthetic experience: aesthetic fascination, aesthetic appraisal, and aesthetic emotion. In Journal List, Perception v.3 (1) pp. 1-17. Retrieved on June 5, 2018 from ncbi.nih.gov
9. Shelley, James (2009). The Concept of the Aesthetic. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Rev (Winter 2017 Edition). Retrieved on June 5, 2018 from plato.stanford.edu.