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The aesthetics of nature and its limits

Ανακοινώσεις/papers/articles

• Αποστολοπούλου, Γεωργία

The aesthetics of nature, as the new orientation for aesthetics, ascribes priority not to art and analytic consciousness but to nature and perception. Gernot Böhme’s aesthetics of nature is an important example of this. Böhme defines the existence of the human as an open fact embracing qualified perceptual and emotional awareness and creativity. On the one hand, à human being is aware that he exists as a living body within space with things and other human beings, and on the other hand, he has to modify his environment according to his own needs. Therefore, nature is not beyond historicity and society, but is present for us under conditions of human activity and social constitution.In view of this situation the aesthetics of nature includes theory, critique and proposal. The theoretic endeavour consists in investigating the conditions under which the human exists within environments. The critical aspect concerns the evaluation of aesthetic economy. Last but not least, the aesthetics of nature propose an alliance between technique and nature and invites us to a novel aesthetic education. Within this framework, art is interpreted not only as an activity of creating environments but also as a contribution to aesthetic education.Böhme’s significant contribution leaves some open questions indicating the limits of aesthetics of nature in general. These questions concern the function of the aesthetics of nature as a quasi philosophia prima, the exclusive emphasis on perception at the cost of intuition and reflection, and the role of law in creating human environments. Nevertheless, the aesthetics of nature makes it obvious that discovering nature still remains as important for our culture as the discovery of spirit.

• Arts
• Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

• Αισθητική
• Τέχνη

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