• skyblack
    545
    To quickly finish what was said here , as indicated in the same:

    A critique

    Though one spoke warmly about the aesthetic experience in the above thread, it was simply on account of its efficacy and suitability for most people ( if gifted with minimal aesthetic sensibility)

    However, an aesthetic contemplation/experience has certain limitations.

    To begin with, art experience is transient. Secondly, aesthetic contemplation may prove so seductive to man that, in his zest for the pleasure it brings, he may grow negligent of his obligations (and use/abuse it like any other drug). Lastly, the impersonal joy of art experience is induced artificially from outside.It is dependent for its continuance upon the presence of the external stimulus which has evoked it.

    Looking deeper one finds, aesthetic contemplation then is simply a foretaste of something else. The unique kind of delight (mentioned in the linked thread) is simply a passing shadow of something else. What then is the source, is the question, right?

    Looking at the issue thus one is faced with a natural question, what then is the nature of an aesthetic contemplation, if we will care to call it that, which is free from the dependencies on external stimuli, the risk of addiction, and the desire for its continuity in time? An aesthetic contemplation which is free from the residues of “experience” (ironically) and “knowledge”?
  • skyblack
    545
    @Hanover

    For the record, i am also pinging you.
  • Hanover
    12.9k
    To quickly finish what was said here , as indicated in the same:skyblack

    To begin with, art experience is transient.skyblack

    In the initial thread, it seemed the discussion related to how one could have a meaningful aesthetic experience, but then there was, in my opinion, an evasion of what it meant to have an aesthetic experience and some amount of combativeness in terms of offering an explanation, and that then resulted in that thread being closed.

    This post appears to be a more specific discussion of Schopenhauer's aesthetics, if I've read this correctly, although there isn't any mention of him. Other than recognizing it as such, Schopenhauer isn't someone I know enough about to really contribute.

    What I can say about the general idea of the thread is that I don't share your despondency, and so the need to find an escape (through art or otherwise) has no appeal. I appreciate the need by some for self-medication and vice in order to numb themselves from reality. It's also obvious that dependency or addiction could be a consequence and that would lead to a greater unhappiness.

    I think the typical response to the question of how much and how often one should take a metaphorical drink of alcohol without exposing themselves to the negative consequences would be to drink in moderation. Moderation means rationally controlling your urges, which for some is easy and others impossible.

    But like I said, you premise the conversation that that there is this need to escape the reality we're in, and unless one buys into that basic premise, this discussion becomes a conversation about finding a cure for which there is no illness.
  • baker
    5.6k
    Looking at the issue thus one is faced with a natural question, what then is the nature of an aesthetic contemplation, if we will care to call it that, which is free from the dependencies on external stimuli, the risk of addiction, and the desire for its continuity in time? An aesthetic contemplation which is free from the residues of “experience” (ironically) and “knowledge”?skyblack

    That would be pure art.

    (Leaving off at this one sentence precisely because to say anything more would negate pure art.)
  • I like sushi
    4.8k
    Drink all of the wine, drink none of the wine or drink some of the wine.

    The question of moderation is then understanding what drinking all of the wine is like and what drinking none of the wine is like. Moderation can only truly be moderate if the extreme ends are understood to some relative degree.

    How much should ‘some wine’ be for one to drink a moderate amount. Can we assess such without first drinking too much and too little.
  • Tom Storm
    9.1k
    How much should ‘some wine’ be for one to drink a moderate amountI like sushi

    Moderate drinking is defined fairly clearly in clinical services as 2 to 4 standard drinks in a single day. No more than 10 standard drinks a week. You don't even need to be a drinker to understand this. But standards such as these are intended as guidelines only, they are not divine judgement.
  • Hanover
    12.9k
    The question of moderation is then understanding what drinking all of the wine is like and what drinking none of the wine is like. Moderation can only truly be moderate if the extreme ends are understood to some relative degree.I like sushi

    Sure, and I can't know what cyanide does unless I try it because there's no other way to obtain information.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    cyanide — Hanover

    Choking...chemically! :fear:
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Transcendentalia

    1. Verum (Truth/Satyam)
    2. Bonum (Good/Shivam)
    3. Pulchrum (Beauty/Sundaram)

    We're all, men & women, in search of the ideal mate: a looker, good, and truthful (faithful?).

    We all want to tie the knot as it were. Monogamy as a subtext.

    Whaddaya know, Freud hit the bullseye (eros/libido)!

    It's all about the two backed beast! There's sex and there's Tantric Sex!
  • I like sushi
    4.8k
    @Tom Storm@"Hanover” a metaphor is not meant to be taken literally.
  • Tom Storm
    9.1k
    OK. I was actually responding to your comment on his comment about the need for personal experience :up:
  • jgill
    3.9k


    You intentionally avoid the aesthetics of physical movement. To sit and stare at paintings or sculptures or listen to music while in a recliner, in the long run seems boring. But I suppose there are those who enter some kind of zone of contemplation, pleasing and seductive.

    As you watch a skilled gymnast you become active in a sense, and the gymnast experiences a kinaesthetic pleasure from performing.
  • Hillary
    1.9k
    Transcendentalia

    1. Verum/Satyam (truth)
    2. Bonum (Good/Shivam)
    3. Pulchrum (Beauty/Sundaram)
    Agent Smith

    Dear AS, maybe it's better to stick to your lemonade! :lol:

    Although. Ethics, aesthetics, ontology!
  • Tom Storm
    9.1k
    However, an aesthetic contemplation/experience has certain limitations.skyblack

    I generally find art more confronting and uncomfortable than real life, so I generally avoid it. The idea of aesthetic contemplation does not seem restful or preferable to just getting on with it.
  • skyblack
    545


    The linked thread, especially the last para, will clear your objection.
  • Hillary
    1.9k


    Being a moderator, he knows...
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    Dear AS, maybe it's better to stick to your lemonade! :lol:Hillary

    :lol: Sound advice!
  • skyblack
    545
    Addendum to OP:

    Just like the initial thread (linked in op) can't be thoroughly understood unless opened, likewise this thread (the critique) cannot be understood unless elaborated. The first thread is for those who are walking and exploring the aesthetic experience. This thread is for those that have reached the frontiers of aesthetic contemplation and now wondering about the beyond. This thread is completely related and in context with the first thread, simply a completion.
  • skyblack
    545
    Beauty is unpossessed Wholeness. Seen and desired as an object it is used, perverted and lost by incompleteness, the partial ego, the dualistic mind: by beauty the ego is challenged; it must either surrender or devour.

    For achieved Wholeness, all is beauty: rather, one lives the essence of beauty-Delight: Beauty is no longer formal, an object for the ego, but pure experience; then all form is lyrical.
  • Jackson
    1.8k
    art experience is transient.skyblack

    All experience is transient.
  • Jackson
    1.8k
    To sit and stare at paintings or sculptures or listen to music while in a recliner, in the long run seems boring.jgill

    Then you do not like paintings.
  • skyblack
    545


    All experience is transient.Jackson

    Right.
  • Jackson
    1.8k
    An aesthetic contemplation which is free from the residues of “experience” (ironically) and “knowledge”?skyblack

    Why would anyone want that?
  • skyblack
    545
    Right.skyblack

    Which is why one had pointed it in op.
  • skyblack
    545
    Why would anyone want that?Jackson

    Both threads have explained the "why".
  • Jackson
    1.8k
    Both threads have explained the "why".skyblack

    Then nothing further to discuss.
  • skyblack
    545
    Then nothing further to discuss.Jackson

    That is correct. Unless one feels there is a genuine interest to explore, accompanied with the right attitude that facilitates such inquiry.
  • skyblack
    545
    For Reason every actual beauty must be accidental.

    So long as it does not recognize its limits Reason is romantic.

    Actual beauty is rational only by complete freedom from egoism. That is, it is transrational, Magical
  • Jackson
    1.8k
    For Reason everyactual beauty must be accidental.skyblack

    Why must it be that way for Reason?
  • skyblack
    545
    To continue from above, prevent systematization,

    The complete artist, for whom all forms and mode of expression have become arbitrary, is now completely present in his own right, he possesses his inaccessibility beyond them, his secrecy and immediacy are complete. He appears only formally, he has become what he always was, Invisible.
  • Deletedmemberzc
    2.5k
    you clearly are not here for discussionJackson

    Not everyone is here to discuss. The forum makes a fine notebook. :smile:
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