Style, Eternal Objects, and the Melancholy of Beauty

Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics, 2011

Alfred North Whitehead published no book or article strictly on aesthetics. Nonetheless, in his philosophical writings he mentions several times that aesthetic experience is the key to his metaphysics. In fundamental places of his philosophical system, moreover, he uses expressions like 'aesthetic experience' , 'aesthetic fact' , 'aesthetic unity' , and 'aesthetic order'. These expressions do not, however, refer to human conscious experience alone, but to all entities of the universe. That has led some scholars to the conviction that these terms are used in a purely technical sense and therefore do not refer to the sphere of aesthetics. The author of the current article seeks to demonstrate that these terms do refer to the sphere of aesthetics. The argument set out here consists in three steps. In the first, the author presents Whitehead's philosophical method of imaginative generalization. In the second step, the author presents the fundamental ontological unit (the actual occasion) of Whitehead's philosophy, and points out that Whitehead describes it using aesthetic terms that are employed in a broad sense. In the third step the author presents Whitehead's view of aesthetic understanding. At the end of the article, it is demonstrated that although Whitehead did not develop his analysis of aesthetic understanding into a consistent theory, it forms the background to all his metaphysical books. Die Ästhetik in der Philosophie Alfred North Whiteheads Alfred North Whitehead hat sich weder in einem Buch noch eigenen Aufsatz gesondert mit Ästhetik beschäftigt. Nichtsdestotrotz erwähnt er in seinen philosophischen Texten mehrmals, dass die ästhetische Erfahrung der Schlüssel zu seiner Metaphysik sei. An Stellen, die für sein philosophisches System grundlegend sind, verwendet er zudem Ausdrücke wie "ästhetische Erfahrung", "ästhetische Tatsache", "ästhetische Einheit" oder "ästhetische Ordnung". Sie verweisen nicht nur auf die bewusste menschliche Erfahrung, sondern auf alle Entitäten des Universums. Dadurch gelangten einige Forscher zur Überzeugung, dass die Verwendung der genannten Ausdrücke rein technisch ist und sie sich also nicht auf das Gebiet der Ästhetik beziehen. Der Autor dieser Studie versucht hingegen zu zeigen, dass diese Ausdrücke sehr wohl auf das Gebiet der Ästhetik Bezug haben. Die Argumentation ist dreigeteilt: Erstens wird Whiteheads Methode der imaginativen Generalisierung vorgestellt. Zweitens wird das grundlegende ontologische Element (das wirkliche Ereignis) von Whiteheads Philosophie vorgestellt und darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass Whitehead bei seiner Beschreibung ästhetische Begriffe in ihrer weiten Bedeutung verwendet. Drittens wird Whiteheads Auffassung des ästhetischen Verstehens vorgestellt. Schließlich wird gezeigt, dass die Analyse des ästhetischen Verstehens, obwohl Whitehead sie zu keiner konsistenten Theorie ausgearbeitet hat, den Hintergrund aller seiner Bücher zur Metaphysik bildet. Alfred North Whitehead several times reiterated the view that aesthetic value and aesthetic experience could be the 'key to the metaphysical synthesis of existence'. 1

Catherine Timotei 's Art work Abstraction in French theory and why Catherine Timotei paint Abstract:

The influence of process metaphysics on the development of abstraction between 1800 and the second half of the 20th century can best be exemplified with the case of the American Expressionist painter and theoretician Robert Motherwell (1915-1991). Taking as its starting point Motherwell’s exposure to the History of Idea of Romanticism, Arthur O. Lovejoy’s yearlong seminar at Harvard (1937-38), the artist’s affinity with fluid forms through motion brushstrokes in Romanticist painting is analyzed as a preformative stage of his own transitory creations. This is done by structural comparison between Motherwell’s written reflections and Romanticist art theory. Motherwell’s specific perception through Bergson’s and Whitehead’s lens of immanence and multiplicity, I argue, resonates Lovejoy’s principle of ‘‘Romantic Evolutionism,’’ in its turn from being to becoming, derived from the philosophies of the Spiritualist Maine de Biran and the Idealist-Empiricist George Berkeley.

2005

This thesis is an investigation of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's notion of style via the individual, artwork, and the world. It aims to show that subject-object, self-other, and perceiver-perceived are not contrary, but are reverses of one another each requiring the other for meaningful experience. In experience, these cognitive contraries are engaged in relationships of communication and communion that render styles of interaction by which we have/are a world. A phenomenological investigation of Merleau-Ponty's notion of style via existential meaningfulness, corporeal and worldly understanding, stylistic nuances (with respect to the individual, the artwork, and the world), and the existential temporal dynamic provide the foundation for understanding our primordial connection with the world. This phenomenological unpacking follows Merleau-Ponty's thought from Phenomenology of Perception through The Visible and the Invisible.

2019

The term style is commonly associated with high art.1 One popular use of it refers to artistic movements, like the various isms of twentieth century art. These movements often passionately advocate the exploration of special themes and the use of certain techniques. Another frequent use of 'style' emphasizes marks of authorship, the manifestation of the artist's individuality in a work of art: `a real Picasso'. The more artists are able to express these marks consistently in their entire oeuvre, and the more complex the oeuvre is, the higher their work is appreciated by many. Style in these two examples tells us more about the alleged psychological make-up of the artist, e.g. an Adlerian need for recognition, than that it clarifies qualities of the art work or its resemblance to other works. Let alone that it sheds light on the emotional experience that art works provoke, the subject of this paper. Fortunately, there is a definition of style that 1) does touch on sim...