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Ancient aesthetics refers to the perception of beauty and form in the ancient world and the importance it was given in many ancient cultures.
Aesthetics is defined as the perception of art, design or beauty. [2] Aesthetics is derived from the Greek word "aisthetikos" [3] defined as a perception of the senses. In aesthetics, there is a process of individual analysis, perception and imagination. [4] Perception is defined as an individual's neurophysiological process of awareness and interpreting external stimuli. [5] Therefore, aesthetics is highly subjective and differs by individual. [6]
Aesthetics can also be used as a synonym to define taste or style [3] encapsulating artistic expression and activities such as rhetoric, tone, harmony, painting, composition art and music. [4] Aesthetics also encapsulates the look, feel, or sound of natural forms. [4] Aesthetics also encompasses the science of how an individual or a society perceives, feels, senses or knows an external stimuli. [5]
As a philosophy, aesthetics was developed in 18th century Germany by Emmanuel Kant. [7] However, Greek and Roman philosophers such as Aristotle [8] and Plato [9] engaged in the rhetorical debate of aesthetic perception and properties as a separate branch of philosophy in defining the parameters of art and beauty. [7] Ancient aesthetics shows the origin of aesthetic debate and influences modern aesthetic definitions. [4]
Ancient is defined as an early historical period that is identified by the oldest known civilizations. [10] Ancient history is the study of life and events during this period. [10]
Civilizations that fall under classification of ancient are: Ancient Greece (800 B.C. and 500 B.C.), the Incas (1438 A.D – 1532 A.D.), the Aztecs (1345 A.D – 1521 A.D), the Romans (550 B.C. – 465 B.C.), the Persians (550 B.C. – 465 B.C.), Chinese civilization (1600 B.C.E. – 1046 B.C.E.), Mayan civilization (2600 B.C. – 900 A.D.), Ancient Egypt (3100 B.C.E. – 2686 B.C.E.), Indus Valley civilization (3300 B.C. – 1900 B.C.) and Mesopotamia (3500 B.C. – 500 B.C.) [11]
Ancient or archaic Greece is the time period between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C. [13]
Beauty in ancient Greece (800 – 300 B.C.E.) was referred to as κάλλος. The history of ancient Greek aesthetics spans centuries. Philosophical theories of beauty through this era are proportion, functionality and form. [7]
Influence of beauty was derived from the gods. [7] who took a divine human form and inspired their perception of beauty. Temples were created to worship gods, contained their lifelike images. [14]
Ancient Greeks focused on the aesthetic form of the ideal human body. [14] captured through the art. [15] Sculptures were initially inspired by the monumental art of the Ancient Egyptians. [14] Sculptures were considered at their peak of aesthetics when the human form was captured in a unique way and emphasized a divine or godlike quality. Proportion, poise and perfection of the human form were the artistic and aesthetic ideals. [16] Stone and bronze monuments are iconic of this civilization. [16]
Ancient Egyptians regarded physical beauty of the utmost importance and performed rituals to enhance their appearance. [18] Recovered artifacts support ancient Egyptian beauty ideals [19] including makeup, copper and silver handheld mirrors, and combs. Makeup was created using siltstones palettes to grind minerals such as green malachite or kohl. [19] Human hair was used to create extensions and wigs. [19] Jewelry enhanced beauty such as a string of beads and carnelian pendants in the shape of poppy heads. [19]
The Ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife. Tombs were created for the dead and decorated with the highest form of their aesthetic principles. [20] Mummy masks and coffins emphasized painted eyes lined with dramatic black outlines. [19]
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and its resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and the nature of taste; and functions as the philosophy of art. Aesthetics examines the philosophy of aesthetic value, which is determined by critical judgements of artistic taste; thus, the function of aesthetics is the "critical reflection on art, culture and nature".
Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, one of the major branches of philosophy. As a positive aesthetic value, it is contrasted with ugliness as its negative counterpart.
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. Psychological or motivational hedonism claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decrease pain. Normative or ethical hedonism, on the other hand, is not about how humans actually act but how humans should act: people should pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Axiological hedonism, which is sometimes treated as a part of ethical hedonism, is the thesis that only pleasure has intrinsic value. Applied to well-being or what is good for someone, it is the thesis that pleasure and suffering are the only components of well-being. These technical definitions of hedonism within philosophy, which are usually seen as respectable schools of thought, have to be distinguished from how the term is used in "everyday language". In that sense, it has a negative connotation, linked to the egoistic pursuit of short-term gratification by indulging in sensory pleasures without regard for the consequences.
Protagoras was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and rhetorical theorist. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue Protagoras, Plato credits him with inventing the role of the professional sophist.
World history or global history as a field of historical study examines history from a global perspective. It emerged centuries ago; leading practitioners have included Voltaire (1694–1778), Hegel (1770–1831), Karl Marx (1818–1883), Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), and Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975). The field became much more active in the late 20th century. It is not to be confused with comparative history, which, like world history, deals with the history of multiple cultures and nations, but does not do so on a global scale. World history looks for common patterns that emerge across all cultures. World historians use a thematic approach, with two major focal points: integration and difference.
Erotic art is a broad field of the visual arts that includes any artistic work intended to evoke erotic arousal. It usually depicts human nudity or sexual activity, and has included works in various visual mediums, including drawings, engravings, films, paintings, photographs, and sculptures. Some of the earliest known works of art include erotic themes, which have recurred with varying prominence in different societies throughout history. However, it has also been widely considered taboo, with either social norms or laws restricting its creation, distribution, and possession. This is particularly the case when it is deemed pornographic, immoral, or obscene.
In aesthetics, the sublime is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation.
This is a history of aesthetics.
Moral sense theory is a theory in moral epistemology and meta-ethics concerning the discovery of moral truths. Moral sense theory typically holds that distinctions between morality and immorality are discovered by emotional responses to experience. Some take it to be primarily a view about the nature of moral facts or moral beliefs —this form of the view more often goes by the name "sentimentalism". Others take the view to be primarily about the nature of justifying moral beliefs —this form of the view more often goes by the name "moral sense theory". However, some theorists take the view to be one which claims that both moral facts and how one comes to be justified in believing them are necessarily bound up with human emotions.
Philosophy of music is the study of "fundamental questions about the nature and value of music and our experience of it". The philosophical study of music has many connections with philosophical questions in metaphysics and aesthetics. The expression was born in the 19th century and has been used especially as the name of a discipline since the 1980s.
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings or other structures. The term comes from Latin architectura; from Ancient Greek ἀρχιτέκτων (arkhitéktōn) 'architect'; from ἀρχι- (arkhi-) 'chief', and τέκτων (téktōn) 'creator'. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.
In logic, reductio ad absurdum, also known as argumentum ad absurdum or apagogical arguments, is the form of argument that attempts to establish a claim by showing that the opposite scenario would lead to absurdity or contradiction. This argument form traces back to Ancient Greek philosophy and has been used throughout history in both formal mathematical and philosophical reasoning, as well as in debate. The equivalent formal rule is known as negation introduction. A related mathematical proof technique is called proof by contradiction.
The following outline is provided as an overview of a topical guide to ancient Egypt:
Aesthetics of nature is a sub-field of philosophical ethics, and refers to the study of natural objects from their aesthetical perspective.
Carolyn Korsmeyer is an author and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buffalo in New York. She is generally recognized for her study and research on aesthetics, feminism, and emotion theory.
Feminist aesthetics first emerged in the 1970s and refers not to a particular aesthetic or style but to perspectives that question assumptions in art and aesthetics concerning gender-role stereotypes, or gender. Feminist aesthetics has a relationship to philosophy. The historical philosophical views of what beauty, the arts, and sensory experiences are, relate to the idea of aesthetics. Aesthetics looks at styles of production. In particular, feminists argue that despite seeming neutral or inclusive, the way people think about art and aesthetics is influenced by gender roles. Feminist aesthetics is a tool for analyzing how art is understood using gendered issues. A person's gender identity affects the ways in which they perceive art and aesthetics because of their subject position and that perception is influenced by power. The ways in which people see art is also influenced by social values such as class and race. One's subject position in life changes the way art is perceived because of people's different knowledge's about life and experiences. In the way that feminist history unsettles traditional history, feminist aesthetics challenge philosophies of beauty, the arts and sensory experience.
Medieval aesthetics refers to the general philosophy of beauty during the Medieval period. Although Aesthetics did not exist as a field of study during the Middle Ages, influential thinkers active during the period did discuss the nature of beauty and thus an understanding of medieval aesthetics can be obtained from their writings.
The values that a person holds may be personal or political depending on whether they are considered in relation to the individual or to society. Apart from moral virtue, examples of personal values include friendship, knowledge, beauty etc. and examples of political values, justice, equality and liberty. This article will outline some current ideas relating to the first group – personal values. It will begin by looking at the kinds of thing that have value and finish with a look at some of the theories that attempt to describe what value is. Reference will be made solely to Western sources although it is recognised that many, if not all, of the values discussed may be universal.
Absolutism, in aesthetics, is a term applied to several theories of aesthetics with the same inherent approach. This being that beauty is an objective attribute of things, and not merely a subjective feeling of pleasure to the one who perceives it. It follows from this that there is an absolute standard of the beautiful by which all objects can be judged. The fact that, in practice, the judgments even of connoisseurs are perpetually at variance, and that the so-called criteria of one place or period are more or less opposed to those of all others, is explained by the hypothesis that individuals are differently gifted in respect of the capacity to appreciate.
