tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825055425170299721.post3962982376758610909..comments2024-03-20T16:34:04.414-04:00Comments on Alex Zorach's Tea Blog: Aesthetics: What Purposes Do They Serve?Alex Zorachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08335878680429494039noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825055425170299721.post-7522051344721100412011-11-04T15:21:29.425-04:002011-11-04T15:21:29.425-04:00Careful, I did not say that anyone "should&qu...Careful, I did not say that anyone "should" do anything, I <em>asked them to do something</em>. I stopped using the word "should" some time ago, which I explain in my post <a href="http://cazort.blogspot.com/2011/09/there-is-no-should.html" rel="nofollow">there is no should</a>. It's sort of like Yoda's "There is no try, only do or do not."<br /><br />I also like the picture of the river too, even though it is polluted (and this isn't necessarily so evident without looking closer than the resolution in the photo allows). But you pointed out that you like the look of this photo because of the colors and such, not because of the details. I don't think this necessarily means you can't choose your aesthetics.<br /><br />Choosing which aesthetic you like isn't so much a function of choosing to like certain colors or patterns, so much as it is about <em>choosing where to look for beauty and appreciate beauty</em>. There is beauty nearly everywhere, even in polluted scenes, as you point out. The choice lies in where we choose to focus.<br /><br />To go back to the lawn analogy, an overwhelming majority of people seem to find violets beautiful when they look at a violet up close...yet a large number of people treat their lawns with herbicides, killing those same violets. It's a simple question of focus. People treat the lawns because they're choosing to focus on the uniformity of the grass, rather than the violets and other flowers, the intricate shape of the leaves, the biodiversity.Alex Zorachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08335878680429494039noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8825055425170299721.post-74204607544176031302011-11-04T12:16:42.957-04:002011-11-04T12:16:42.957-04:00While I agree with your general argument (that hum...While I agree with your general argument (that humanity's drive for a certain perhaps unnatural aesthetic can be harmful to the world around us), I'm not sure I can agree that the final thought isn't a matter of personal taste.<br /><br />For me, at least, almost all aesthetics have their place. Like yourself, I prefer the second sampling of grass, for many of the same reasons. And yet if I were in charge of presenting a college campus, I would indeed strive to make my lawns the sort of "perfection" shown in the first photo, because it adds a certain feeling to the campus aesthetic. Not necessarily better or worse aesthetically, but fundamentally <i>different</i>.<br /><br />As a further example, I actually like the final picture of the polluted river <i>more</i> than the picture of the sunset. I certainty don't enjoy polluted rivers (either conceptually or actually), but that doesn't mean it can't be beautiful in its own way. It's <i>aesthetically</i> pleasing to my sensibilities (as in I find that scene calm and relaxing), even though I understand that it is an environmental atrocity.<br /><br />I'm not disagreeing that our culture's aesthetic sensibilities are having a negative effect on our environment, but your post, for me, fell apart at the very end. I <i>can't</i> really choose my aesthetic sensibilities. The picture of the polluted river will always be more beautiful to me than the picture of the sunset, due to the way my mind processes color, form, and environment. So, in a sense, it's less about choosing my personal aesthetics and more about realizing when it is and when it isn't appropriate to unnaturally change the course of things to achieve a certain result. Sometimes a polluted river or industrial facility can actually be aesthetically pleasing, but that doesn't validate their existence in view of the harm they cause.<br /><br />So it's not really about aesthetic taste. Aesthetics, to me, is about the appreciation of beauty, which I believe can be found in all things, even those we revile. It's about holding our responsibility to our surroundings higher than our need to achieve aesthetic "perfection." I agree with you that we <i>should</i> hold that responsibility higher...but I don't think it has to do with choosing our aesthetic sense.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com