What does aesthetics mean?

Explore the essence of beauty from the spiritual level

The discussion on the essence of beauty from the spiritual level is divided into two aspects: one is from the objective spiritual level, such as Plato, Plotinos and Hegel; First, from the subjective spirit, such as Hume and Kant.

Plato set beauty as a "single idea", which is the root of all beauty and the essence of beauty.

Prouddin further mystified this idea and called it divine reason. This sacred reason is the source of all things in the universe and the root and essence of beauty. For theologians in the Middle Ages, this concept was directly called "God", and God was the root and essence of all beauty.

Hegel replaced the idea and God with his "absolute spirit" and regarded the idea of beauty as a link in the development of absolute spirit. And put forward that "beauty is the perceptual manifestation of ideas"

Hume discovered the essence of beauty from human aesthetic experience. He thinks beauty is a feeling of "happiness".

Kant, a German philosopher, defined the essence of beauty in detail from four aspects: quality, quantity, relationship and way, showing an attempt to reconcile the contradiction between rationalism and empiricism.

Explore the essence of beauty from the material level

Philosophers who seek the essence of beauty from material aspects are represented by Aristotle, Diderot, Bok and Chernyshevski.

The Pythagorean school holds that beauty is harmony and proportion.

Aristotle believes that the essence of beauty lies in the perceptual thing itself, and affirms that beauty lies in the form and proportion of things.

Bok believes that beauty is the nature of the object that can arouse people's experience, and this nature moves people's instinct, not arouses desire. He summed up these attributes, first of all, "small", and similar attributes are "smooth", "close", "thin" and "bright", which reveals the perceptual characteristics of beauty.

Diderot put forward that beauty lies in relationship, which can be divided into three kinds of relationships, and correspondingly there are three kinds of beauty. The first is true relationship and true beauty. The second is to observe the relationship and relative beauty. The third is to imagine relationship and relative beauty.

Chernyshevski put forward the famous viewpoint that "beauty is life" and emphasized the relationship between beauty and reality.

At the end of 19, with the rise of psychological science, the traditional metaphysical discussion of beauty turned to the psychological study of beauty, and various psychological aesthetics were established.

Croce thinks beauty is a kind of intuition. Munsterberg put forward that "isolation" produces beauty. Gulus and dragons? Li proposed that "internal imitation" produces beauty. Lipps put forward that "empathy" produces beauty. Bloch put forward that "distance" produces beauty.

All schools of psychology and aesthetics have grasped an important issue in the development of aesthetic psychology and made great achievements.

However, the study of the essence of beauty is not only facing the change of research methods, but also facing the solution of the problem itself. This trend of deconstruction was manifested in various aesthetic schools in the 20th century, especially in analytical aesthetics.

2. Answers from contemporary China aestheticians.

In contemporary China, the study of aesthetics began after liberation. In 1950s, there was a great discussion about aesthetics in the whole country, and one of the central topics was the essence of beauty. Different views on this issue constitute the basic schools of China's early aesthetics.

One is subjectivism, which holds that beauty is people's subjective consciousness.

The second is objectivism, represented by Cai Yi. He thinks beauty is objective. The beauty of things lies in the things themselves and has nothing to do with our consciousness.

The third is the unity of subject and object, represented by Zhu Guangqian. He believes that beauty is the unity of subjectivity and objectivity in the relationship between mind and matter.

Fourth, the unity of objectivity and sociality, represented by Li Zehou. He first affirmed that beauty is an attribute, image and law of human social life. It objectively exists in human social life and is the product of human social life. Social existence is objective, so beauty is the unity of objectivity and sociality.

Aesthetic significance of beauty

The first meaning is the aesthetic object; The second meaning is aesthetic essence (quality); The third meaning is the essence and root of beauty.

The everyday meaning of beauty

People often use the word "beauty" in their daily lives, some in the aesthetic sense and some in the non-aesthetic sense. The use of non-aesthetic meaning mainly includes two aspects. One is to sigh when the physiological needs are met, and make a positive evaluation of the objects that meet the physiological needs. Second, it is used for ethical evaluation, which is a positive evaluation and recognition that people's speech, behavior and thoughts conform to ethical norms.

The use of the word "beauty" in aesthetic sense is generally used for aesthetic judgment or evaluation.

Beauty is a value.

The word "beauty" is an evaluation term in both aesthetic and non-aesthetic sense, which inherently expresses a value relationship between subject and object. Aesthetic activity is essentially a kind of value activity, so beauty is a kind of value produced or formed in this activity. This kind of value is the value corresponding to people's aesthetic needs. Therefore, this kind of value can be called aesthetic value.

Levels of aesthetic value

The satisfaction and satisfaction of different levels of aesthetic needs make aesthetic value hierarchical, with different language expressions such as beauty, beauty, beauty and beauty.