Dissertations / Theses: 'Philosphy and aesthetics'

1

Dugas, Alex T. "Beauty, Ever Ancient, Ever New: The Philosophy of Beauty of Plotinus and St. Augustine." Athenaeum of Ohio / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=athe1526051732407169.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

2

Warsop, David John. "Structure and aesthetic properties : an analysis of the notion of structure in aesthetics." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.296764.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

3

Spoor, Iris P. "Defending Perceptual Objectivism: A Naturalistic Realist Analysis of Aesthetic Properties." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1511799160442784.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

4

Gourova, Maria Andreevna. "The Aesthetic Idea and the Unity of Cognitive Faculties in Kant's Aesthetics." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2008. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/philosophy_theses/41.

Full text

Abstract:

In this paper, I will try to answer the question how the aesthetic idea in Kant’s aesthetic theory accounts for the universal validity of the subjective judgment of taste, and what the nature of the aesthetic idea is that makes such account possible. This claim about universal validity of the subjective judgment of taste in Kant’s philosophy is regarded to be problematic because of the seeming contradiction between the subjectivity of a judgment and its universality. What can solve this contradiction, from my point of view, is the role of the aesthetic idea that it plays in the judgment of taste and the subjective principle that puts cognitive powers of mind in a harmonious free relationship. The main feature that makes the aesthetic idea the source of the universal validity is its universal communicability expressed in the universally pleasurable feeling of the judgment of taste.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

5

Šparada, Renata. "Internet as Aesthetic Medium." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Avdelningen för estetik, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-452910.

Full text

Abstract:

The dissertation explains the internet as an aesthetic medium, authorship in the medium and platforms’ influence on the medium’s aesthetic function. This is achieved by analysing the actual art that uses the internet as an aesthetic medium. The aesthetic function of the internet as a medium is different from its informative and communicative function. It entails manipulation of the medium defined by the permanent and instant interconnectedness of the digitalised instances or representations of people, things, artificial intelligence and information to achieve a specific aesthetic aim. Internet as a medium, similarly to comics and film, allows for different kinds of authorship. A typical example of art that uses the internet as a medium is a meme. This is because memes involve meta-level discussions and group authorship, elements that are most easily facilitated by the internet as a medium. Art that uses the internet as an aesthetic medium can be single-authored if the sole author manipulates digital interconnectedness in an aesthetically significant way. Besides this general level of how the internet is characterised as a medium, there is a practical level that includes platforms on which artwork is made. These two levels are necessarily connected. Even though platforms also manipulate digitalised interconnectedness, they do not erase the internet’s potential as an aesthetic medium because artists manipulate this already manipulated content.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

6

Evans, Robert A. "An Aesthetic Attitude: An East - West Comparison of Bullough and Nishida." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1274279326.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

7

Gao, Weining. "A STUDY OF HUTCHESON’S AND HUME’S THEORIES OF AESTHETIC TASTE." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1871.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis examines the aesthetic theories by Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, two of the most influential philosophers of the eighteenth century. Focused on the interpretation of both theories, it concentrates on the issue of human taste, in particular, aesthetic taste, including questions concerning people’s external sense (sensation) and internal sense (sensations), what the differences are between better taste and worse taste, how people possible improve taste by practice, examples, customs, education, and the like. It concludes with a criticism on both philosophers’ works and a positive argument on the explanation of better and worse taste. Primary texts include Hutcheson’s Inquiry concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony and Design and Hume’s Of the Standard of Taste.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

8

Rowe, M. W. "Philosophy, psychology, criticism : A defence of traditional aesthetics." Thesis, University of York, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.377287.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

9

Razumovskaya, Maria. "Heinrich Neuhaus : aesthetics and philosophy of an interpretation." Thesis, Royal College of Music, 2014. http://researchonline.rcm.ac.uk/355/.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis investigates one of the key figures of Russian pianism in the twentieth century, Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus (1888 - 1964). Although Neuhaus is known, particularly in the West, as an important pedagogue of the Moscow Conservatory rather than a performing artist in his own right, this thesis seeks to address the tension between Neuhaus's identities as a pedagogue and his overshadowed conception of himself as a performer - thus presenting a fuller understanding of his specific attitude to the task of musical interpretation. The reader is introduced to aspects of Neuhaus's biography which became decisive factors in the formation of his key aesthetic, philosophical, pedagogical and performative beliefs. The diverse national influences in Neuhaus's upbringing - from his familial circumstances, European education and subsequent career in Russia - are investigated in order to help locate Neuhaus within the wider contexts of Russian and Central European culture at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition, this introduction will highlight ways in which Neuhaus's national identity has been oversimplified in recent literature by both Russian and non-Russian authors. Whilst this thesis draws on a range of contemporaneous and recent international sources throughout its investigation, it presents a substantial amount of Russian-language material that has previously been unavailable in an English translation: this includes many writings and articles by Heinrich Neuhaus, his colleagues and the leading musicologists and critics of his time. The core of the thesis traces Neuhaus's personal philosophical approach to the act of performance and explores the impact it had on his interpretations of Beethoven and Chopin. This will show that despite aspiring to a modern, Urtext-centred approach and sensibility to the score, Neuhaus's Romantic subjectivity meant that he was unafraid of making assumptions and decisions which often misinterpreted or transformed the image of the composer to reflect his own artistic identity. Thus, the investigation of Heinrich Neuhaus as a performing artist, alongside his role as a pedagogue, presents a powerful model of interpretation as a creative process, from which performers today can learn.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

10

Ozdemir, Ibrahim Soner. "Grasping The Space Of The Heart/mind: Artistic Creation And Natural Beauty In The Later Philosophy Of Kitar." Phd thesis, METU, 2011. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613515/index.pdf.

Full text

Abstract:

In this dissertation, focusing on the problem of &ldquo
aesthetic form&rdquo
and its relation to the distinction between natural and artistic beauty, it is argued that the Japanese philosopher Kitar

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

11

Bailey, Rowan. "The philosophy of sculpture : the sculpture of philosophy : casting bodies of thought." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2009. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/16898/.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis explores both the conceptual register and tropic play of sculpture as a fine art in some of the key writings of Plato, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottfried Herder, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. It serves to show how sculpture is both shaped by and reshapes in turn philosophy's explicit register of sculpture as an art form. The central argument within this thesis is that sculpture turns its back on philosophy as soon as philosophy casts sculpture out of its mould. Registering sculpture as a fine art within philosophy reveals that whilst specific examples of sculpture may appear to confirm the conceptual meanings ascribed to it by the philosophers Kant, Herder and Hegel, can equally show its unreliability and inconsistency as an art form. The title of this thesis The Philosophy of Sculpture: The Sculpture of Philosophy serves as a heading for an engagement with an explicit reading of sculpture as a fine ati and the sculptural as a trope. Therefore, the sculpture of philosophy is read as a heading for the presentation of sculpture as an object or art form in the writings of Kant, Herder and Hegel. The philosophy of sculpture appeals to an engagement with the use of the sculptural through the tropes of casting, moulding, sculpting, carving, modelling, shaping and forming in the writing of philosophy. This will show that there is something specifically philosophical about sculpture as a practice. Furthermore, the crossovers between these two approaches highlight the effects they give place to, particularly in the context of reading sculpture through a case study. Therefore, the latter half of this thesis engages with the ways in which the sculptural appears within architectural formations and explores an alternative reading of sculpture in relation to some of the themes generated out of a collaborative project between the philosopher Jacques Derrida and the architect Peter Eisenman.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

12

Letton, Shoko Yamahata. "Eiko and Koma dance philosophy and aesthetic /." Tallahassee, Florida : Florida State University, 2009. http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-05062009-160941/.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2009.
Advisor: Sally R. Sommer, Florida State University, College of Visual Arts, Theatre and Dance, Dept. of Dance. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed on Oct. 22, 2009). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 137 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

13

MacKinnon, John Edward. "Aesthetic and non-aesthetic : a study in critical epistemology." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.296708.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

14

Schellekens, Anna Elisabeth. "A reasonable objectivism for aesthetic judgments : towards an aesthetic psychology." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2003. http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/1056/.

Full text

Abstract:

This doctoral thesis is an examination of the possibility of ascribing objectivity to aesthetic judgements. The aesthetic is viewed in terms of its being a certain kind of relation between the mind and the world; a clear understanding of aesthetic judgements will therefore be capable of telling us something important about both subjects and objects, and the ties between them. In view of this, one of the over-riding aims of this thesis is the promotion of an ‘aesthetic psychology’, a philosophical approach, that is to say, which emphasises the importance of the psychological processes involved in the making of aesthetic judgements. One of the aims of this thesis is to develop a revisionary account of the distinction between objectivity and subjectivity in the domain of value. This revision will undertake to dismantle some of the assumptions implicit in a metaphysical framework which traditionally ascribes objectivity only to judgements about facts, and not to judgements about values and other concerns such as norms and emotions. Further, the thesis examines the intricate ways in which aesthetic properties, the focus of aesthetic judgements, depend on the (emotional and other) responses of the subjects of experience. The particular role played by first-hand experience in the making of aesthetic judgements is among the things critically investigated in the interests of reaching a clearer understanding of the manner in which aesthetic judgements may be objective in the sense of being justifiable. Eventually, a defence is outlined of the view that aesthetic judgements can be supported by good reasons, but not in the same way as ordinary cognitive judgements. Finally, I outline the main tenets of a proposed ‘reasonable objectivism’ for aesthetic judgements, an objectivism grounded on justifying reasons.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

15

Wraight, Christopher David. "On aesthetic judgement." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.289260.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

16

Browne, Paul Leduc. "Lukacs's aesthetics and ontology, 1908-23." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.339014.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis examines the development of Georg Lukacs's early philosophy, and specifically of his concept of the subject-object dialectic, from the History of Development of Modern Drama (1908) to History and Class Consciousness (1923). Between 1908 and 1918, Lukacs came to see as the only possible philosophical options either Hegel's ontology or a resolutely anti-ontological Neo-Kantian value-philosophy inspired by Lask, combined with a quasi-religious metaphysic inspired by Fichte, Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky. In the Heidelberg Aesthetics (1916-1918), the programme of Hegel's metaphysics (the phenomenology of the identical subject-object) is presented as only realizable within a resolutely non-metaphysical aesthetic, as one sphere of validity within a Neo-Kantian framework. History and Class Consciousness transposes the logical structure of this aesthetic theory into the ontological domain, articulating a Marxist critique of Neo-Kantianism which rediscovers in the proletariat the phenomenology of the identical subject-object as the logic of being, i.e. as ontology. This thesis is the first study in English to bring to light fully this dialectic, because it is the first to analyze Lukacs's Philosophy of Art (1912-1914) and Heidelberg Aesthetics (1916-1918), and their relation to History and Class Consciousness. It contributes not only to a new understanding of Lukacs's transition to Marxism, but also sheds light on the genesis of his later philosophy. Its detailed critique of History and Class Consciousness from a point of view inspired by the dialectics of labour in Lukacs's later Ontology of Social Being, lays new emphasis on the latter's relevance to contemporary social theory.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

17

Nzegwu, Nkiru. "Encounters in aesthetic appreciation." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/5553.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

18

McMahon, Melissa Jane. "Deleuze and Kant's Critical Philosophy." University of Sydney. School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI), 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/618.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis considers the status of Deleuze as a Kantian, and as such committed both to the critical destiny of philosophy, and the contestation of the sense of this destiny. The focus of Deleuze�s reading of Kant is an active conception of thought: the fundamental elements of thought are will and value rather than being or the concept. In the development of this idea we can note a progressive 'tapering' of the foundational instance of thought, in three stages: from the speculative field of being to the practical field of reason; from the intellectual category of the concept to the problematic category of the Idea; from the teleological notion of the organism to the aesthetic notion of the singular. Within each stage we can perceive a polemic between the two terms: it is in each case a question of the 'sufficient reason' of thought, its conditions of the actuality beyond its possibility. The highest expression of our reason, for Kant, is neither theoretical nor utilitarian, but moral: the realisation of our lawful freedom. For Deleuze, on the other hand, the ultimate secret of our freedom and thus all of our thought is to be found rather in the realm of the aesthetic.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

19

McMahon, Melissa Jane. "Deleuze and Kant's Critical Philosophy." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/618.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis considers the status of Deleuze as a Kantian, and as such committed both to the critical destiny of philosophy, and the contestation of the sense of this destiny. The focus of Deleuze's reading of Kant is an active conception of thought: the fundamental elements of thought are will and value rather than being or the concept. In the development of this idea we can note a progressive 'tapering' of the foundational instance of thought, in three stages: from the speculative field of being to the practical field of reason; from the intellectual category of the concept to the problematic category of the Idea; from the teleological notion of the organism to the aesthetic notion of the singular. Within each stage we can perceive a polemic between the two terms: it is in each case a question of the 'sufficient reason' of thought, its conditions of the actuality beyond its possibility. The highest expression of our reason, for Kant, is neither theoretical nor utilitarian, but moral: the realisation of our lawful freedom. For Deleuze, on the other hand, the ultimate secret of our freedom and thus all of our thought is to be found rather in the realm of the aesthetic.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

20

Van, der Berg Servaas de V. "On depiction and expression : two essays in philosophical aesthetics." Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/5203.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis (MA (Philosophy))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis consists of two essays, each focussing on a current topic in aesthetics in the tradition of analytic philosophy. First paper (On depiction) Given broad consensus that resemblance theories do not do well at explaining depiction, two alternative approaches have dominated the literature in recent decades: (1) Perceptual accounts try to ground depiction in the phenomenology of our pictorial experiences; (2) Structural accounts understand pictures as symbols in pictorial symbol systems. I follow Dominic Lopes in granting that the two approaches, often interpreted as each other’s rivals, both have merit and are successful in answering divergent questions about depiction. After taking stock of the most influential theories from both approaches, I turn to John Kulvicki’s recent work. He has made surprising progress as a proponent of the structural approach. His attempt to define depiction in structural terms is groundbreaking and, for the most part, successful. The paper measures some of his suggestions on picture structure and perception against the well-established “twofoldness”-thesis of the perceptual theorist on depiction, Richard Wollheim. Wollheim’s theory is defended and suggestions made to adapt Kulvicki’s theory accordingly. Second paper (On expression) Since Frank Sibley’s early papers in the mid-twentieth century, analytic aesthetics has broadened its field of inquiry to extend past the traditional focus on judgements of beauty or aesthetic merit, to peripheral terms, concepts, properties and judgements (e.g. of grace, elegance, garishness, daintiness, dumpiness, etc.). Nick Zangwill gives a traditionalist report of what binds the new, broad and heterogeneous category of the aesthetic together. He argues that purely evaluative aesthetic judgements of beauty or ugliness (i.e. “verdicts”) are fundamental. All other aesthetic judgements derive their evaluative aesthetic nature from them. In this essay it is argued that Zangwill’s defence of beauty’s supremacy in the category of the aesthetic, does not do justice to ostensible instances of non-evaluative judgements that ascribe expressive properties to artworks. Nelson Goodman’s cognitivist theory of expression in art is used as a foil for Zangwill’s claims.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis bestaan uit twee essays, elk oor ’n aktuele onderwerp in estetika in die tradisie van die analitiese filosofie. Eerste essay (Oor uitbeelding, oftewel “piktoriale representasie”) Gegewe ’n algemene konsensus dat ooreenkoms-teorieë nie slaag daarin om uitbeelding (“depiction”) te verklaar nie, is daar twee alternatiewe benaderings wat die onlangse literatuur oor die onderwerp oorheers: (1) die perseptuele benadering probeer uitbeelding begrond in die fenomenologie van ons piktoriale ervaringe; (2) die strukturele benadering verstaan beelde as simbole in piktoriale simboolsisteme. In navolging van Dominic Lopes neem ek aan dat dié twee benaderings, wat normaalweg as mekaar se opponente beskou word, altwee meriete dra en onderskeidelik sukses behaal in die beantwoording van heel uiteenlopende vrae oor die aard van uitbeelding. Na ’n bestekopname van die mees invloedryke teorieë onder beide benaderings, word John Kulvicki se onlangse werk oorweeg. Hy maak verrassende vooruitgang as ondersteuner van die strukturele benadering. Sy poging om uitbeelding in strukturele terme te definiëer is revolusionêr en bied stof vir nadenke. In hierdie essay word sommige van sy voorstelle oor beeld-struktuur en -waarneming gemeet aan die gevestigde “twofoldness”-tesis van Richard Wollheim. Wollheim se perseptuele teorie word verdedig en ’n voorstelle word gemaak om Kulvicki se teorie daarvolgens aan te pas. Tweede essay (Oor uitdrukking) Sedert Frank Sibley se vroeë essays in die middel van die twintigste eeu het die analitiese estetika sy visier verbreed om verby die tradisionele fokus op oordele van skoonheid en estetiese waarde te kyk, na perifere terme, begrippe, eienskappe en oordele (van bv. grasie, delikaatheid, balans, strakheid, elegansie, ens., ens.). Nick Zangwill gee ’n tradisionalistiese verslag van wat die nuwe, breë en heterogene kategorie van die estetiese saambind. Hy argumenteer dat suiwer evaluerende oordele van skoonheid fundamenteel bly. Alle ander estetiese oordele se estetiese aard word daarvan afgelei. In hierdie essay argumenteer ek dat Zangwill se verdediging van skoonheid (of estetiese waarde) as fundamenteel tot die kategorie van die estetiese, nie laat reg geskied aan aantoonbare gevalle van nie-evaluerende oordele, naamlik dié wat ekspressiewe eienskappe aan kunswerke toeskryf, nie. Nelson Goodman se kognitiewe teorie van van uitdrukking in kuns word gebruik as teenhanger en wegspringplek vir kritiek op Zangwill se aansprake.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

21

Roche, Jennifer Lynn. "Imagination in the Philosophy of Josiah Royce." OpenSIUC, 2012. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1038.

Full text

Abstract:

That Josiah Royce's philosophy relies on imagination has been acknowledged, but there has not yet been scholarship behind what this argument consists of or implies, both for imagination and Roycean loyalty. This project works to examine how imagination works in Royce's philosophy and, in particular, the ethical system of loyalty, as imagination serves in the creation and perfection of loyalty. The first level of this explores Royce's psychological groundwork for imagination and how this works into the development of the self. From there, this project works with the connections of aesthetics and beauty to Roycean loyalty, with particular interest in how beauty aids in the self's choice of cause. The final level of this project is concerned with how imagination informs the community and how imagination aids in the development of loyalty to a lost cause and thus loyalty to loyalty.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

22

Dixon, Martin J. C. "Composition as praxis : on Adorno's philosophy of aesthetic production." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1999. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272180.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

23

Gasperik, Dylan. "Balancing sustainable development philosophy of technology and aesthetic evaluation /." Diss., Connect to the thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10066/3728.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

24

Fisher, Linda. "The aesthetic origins of Hegel's dialectic." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/4937.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

25

Johnson, Carl Matthew. "Watsuji Tetsuro and The Subject of Aesthetics." Thesis, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3569117.

Full text

Abstract:

A central question in aesthetics is whether aesthetic judgment is subjective or objective. Existing approaches to answering this question have been unsatisfying because they begin with the assumption of an individual observer that must then be communalized through the introduction of a transcendent object or the transcendental reason of the subject.

Rather than introduce a vertical transcendence to account for the ideal observer, I propose an alternative account based on the anthropology of the Japanese philosopher W

ATSUJI

Tetsurō. According to Watsuji, human existence is a movement of double negation whereby we negate our emptiness in order to individuate ourselves and we negate our individuality in order to form communal wholes. Human beings are empty of independent existence, and thus open to create ideal aesthetic subjects in historically and regionally situated communal contexts.

I propose an account of aesthetic experience as a double negation in which we negate our surroundings in order to create a sense of psychical distance and negate our ordinary selves in order to dissolve into the background of primordial unity. I examine aesthetic normativity and find that the subject of aesthetics is active and plural rather than passive and individual. Aesthetic judgment and taste are, respectively, individual and communal moments in the process of double negation. Artistic evolution is a process by which the context of artist, artwork, and audience develop into a meaningful historical milieu. Genius is the ability to make public one’s private values through the creation of objects that can travel beyond their original contexts and create new contexts around them. Such an ability is the result of a double negation played out between the genius and critical receptivity.

Extended examples taken from Noh theater, Japanese linked verse, tea ceremony, and The Tale of Genji are also used to illustrate my arguments.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

26

Johnston, Jennene Louise Hooper. "Angels of desire subtle subjects, aesthetics and ethics /." View thesis, 2004. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20050527.155421/index.html.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

27

McAllister, James William. "The aesthetic evaluation of scientific theories." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1989. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/270424.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

28

Kovach, Vanya. "Judgement as play: revealing analogies between aesthetics and ethics." Thesis, University of Auckland, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/2292/2488.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis is about the similarities of process between aesthetic experience and ethical judgement. I claim that in both cases the activity is best described as a type of play in which elements interact in mutual adjustment and transformation. This conception of play has its roots in Kant's aesthetic theory. Describing aesthetic experience as play results in emphasis on three central characteristics. These characteristics become the basis of constraints on judgement. In the case of ethical judgement these are important because they save from subjectivism a moral theory, particularism, which relies on individual judgement rather than moral rules. Seeing the activity of judgement as play suggests a conception of the outcome of judgement as picturing. This conception helps to make sense of reason-giving within the particularist model. A further analogy with the grounds of aesthetic qualities is used to illuminate the problem of justifying the values put into play. These values are ultimately defended in terms of their relationship to human flourishing. Perennial problems for theories based on human flourishing are avoided by my account because prescriptions for action are not derived from the characterisation of flourishing but from the process of individual judgement which values based on flourishing merely inform. One positive effect of adopting my model of judgement as play is the reduction of problems concerning the motivation to act on ethical judgements.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

29

Bartlett, Mark. "Chronotopology and the scientific-aesthetic in philosophy, literature and art /." Diss., Digital Dissertations Database. Restricted to UC campuses, 2005. http://uclibs.org/PID/11984.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

30

Sharma, Shital. "Restoring Ānanda : philosophy, aesthetic, experience, and ritual in Puṣṭimārga Vaiṣṇavism." Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=99603.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis examines the interrelation between ritual (seva), aesthetic experience, and philosophy in the Puṣṭimarga Vaiṣṇava bhakti tradition of Vallabha (ca.1479-1531). In Vallabha's Suddhadvaita ("pure non-dual") philosophy, Kṛṣṇa is described as the embodiment of bliss or ananda. At the moment of creation, Kṛṣṇa manifests the world and individual souls (jivas) out of himself, but conceals the ananda within the jivas, and subjects them to his power of ignorance (avidya). Thus, jivas are in the search for restoring their ananda, which can only occur as a result of being in Kṛṣṇa's presence. I argue that it is by performing ritual that Puṣṭimarga devotees experience Kṛṣṇa's eternal lila ("play" or "sport"), transcend their states of avidya, and permanently restore their ananda. In Puṣṭimarga, emotion (bhava) is both the path to experiencing Kṛṣṇa and the goal of this path in and of itself. Puṣṭimarga theologians validate the salvific role of emotion by invoking Sanskrit aesthetic theory. I argue that aesthetic experience is central to Puṣṭimarga ritual (including offerings of music, food and ornamentation) on the one hand, and also qualifies liberation itself on the other.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

31

Capdevila, Werning Remei. "Construing reconstruction : the Barcelona Pavilion and Nelson Goodman's aesthetic philosophy." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39307.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-93).
This thesis explores Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion through the lens of Nelson Goodman's philosophical categories of the autographic and the allographic in order to determine what constitutes the building's identity. The Pavilion was originally designed as a temporary structure for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona and rebuilt in 1986 as a permanent building. The reconstruction of this iconic building provokes a complex questioning about the identity of the Barcelona Pavilion in particular and of any architectural work in general. Goodman's notions are unique criteria to deal with issues of identity and authenticity in architecture. The autographic identifies a category of works that cannot be replicated, i.e., every difference between a work and even its closest copy makes a difference to the work's identity. In contrast, the allographic identifies a category of works that can be replicated, i.e., the difference between an original and its duplication is irrelevant to the work's identity. By examining the Barcelona Pavilion through the lens of these notions, this thesis shows that Mies's building is a hybrid case in which the autographic and the allographic criteria are inextricably linked.
(cont.) To consider the 1986 Pavilion simply as a copy does not completely define its identity status; conversely, to conclude that they are two instances of the same work or that they are two different buildings is not accurate, either. This case illustrates the complexity that arises when trying to establish what constitutes the identity of an architectural work in general and, at the same time, allows us to reconsider Goodman's statements regarding architecture.
by Remei Capdevila Werning.
S.M.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

32

Bracewell, Pamel Joyce. "Space, time and the artist : the philosophy and aesthetics of Wyndham Lewis." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1990. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3027/.

Full text

Abstract:

My study, in Part I of this thesis, of Wyndham Lewis's philosophical principles outlined in Time and Western Man (1927), reveals a mode of thought which is inspired and determined by beliefs about visual art and its metaphysical significance. The ultimate rejection of the philosophies of Bergson, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and the 'Space-Timeists' such as Spengler, Whitehead and Alexander, in pursuit of a 'philosophy of the eye' was, I argue, fashioned according to aesthetic objections. 'Time-values' are challenged by 'space-values', ideally expressible for Lewis in the static, spatial medium of visual art. The aesthetics of Vorticism, discussed in Part II, was formalized in the two Blast journals (1914-15), and provides the key to an understanding of Lewis's later philosophy in its negation of Bergsonist-related doctrines. His aversion to chronologism' had emerged in various ways well before the public launch of Vorticism and had subsequently achieved a subtle, effective coherence in the 'logic of contradictions' which directed the theoretical strategies of Blast. But In modernism Lewis recognized 'empty' abstraction and thus the taint of the time-cult itself. As a method of working, abstraction was not abandoned, but was directed away from the sensational and emotional in the service of intellect and rational thought. In order to clarify the interdependence of art and philosophy in Lewis's thought, I propose two schematic models. The first characterizes Lewis's philosophical principles and posits the concept of the vortex as Lewis's noumenon. The second superimposes the aesthetic values and form of the vortex symbol itself as a prior justification of the philosophical schema: each 'model' is clearly incomplete without cognizance of the other. Since, for Lewis, the essential character of Vorticism was first expressed in art practice, the findings of this thesis support Lewis's own retrospective view (1956), that Vorticism was a 'new philosophy' in visual form.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

33

Ali, Zulfiqar. "Ethics as aesthetics : Michel Foucault's genealogy of ethics." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2010. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/35118/.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

34

Mckeown, Conor. "Videogame ecologies : interaction, aesthetics, affect." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8878/.

Full text

Abstract:

This project is driven by omissions at the intersection of ecological game studies and media-ecology. Although authors have studied videogames from a variety of ecological approaches, few have attempted to develop a holistic methodology, embracing videogames' specific attributes while recognising their role within larger physical systems. This thesis is an attempt to address this, reading videogames as simultaneously about and functioning as ecologies. My methodology draws on the agential-realist philosophy of Karen Barad whose theory of 'intra-activity' is abundant with ecological ramifications. Adapting Barad's 'intra-active' framework for use with contemporary videogames, I read them as assemblages of hardware, software and their human players. I explore three significant aspects of game studies: interaction, aesthetics and affect. Focusing on interaction, I analyse the game Shelter. Emphasising the role of hardware and software, I read these processes in conjunction with an understanding of gameplay. This encourages a shift away from seeing gameplay as 'interaction' as it is defined within human-computer-interaction, and instead promotes a view that is 'intra-active'. Siding with Barad, play is radically reframed as a phenomenon that produces the apparent objects of its inception. In the second study I approach a series of more experimental games illustrating how an agential-realist worldview influences aesthetics. Analysing high-concept puzzle games Superhot, Antichamber, and Manifold Garden, I suggest that these games place a focus on aspects of ecology often over-shadowed in so-called 'natural' imaginings of our world, such as time, space and their entanglement. Finally, bringing my focus to the role of the player in my ecological understanding of games I analyse a number of short, human-centred or biographical games. Seeing the role of the player in an ecological manner, designers deviate from traditional methods of generating pathos and affect. Rather than developing empathetic relationships between player and avatar through immersion, viewing the player as only a part of an ecological system demands a posthuman response from players. These designers ask players to empathise while acknowledging their role is small and not central. This thesis presents a novel point of view that draws attention to the ambitious design practices of artists while suggesting new avenues in the future.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

35

Rampley, Matthew. "Dialectics of contingency : Nietzsche's philosophy of art." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14775.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis examines the function of art in Nietzsche's philosophy. Its primary concern is with Nietzsche's turn to art as the means to counter what he terms metaphysics. Metaphysics is a metonym for the system of beliefs sustaining our culture whereby human judgements about the world are perceived as uncovering an objective truth antecedent to those judgements, with an implicit faith in the possibility of exhausting the totality of these antecedent truths. This thesis consequently has two principal strands. The first is to analyse Nietzsche's criticism of metaphysics. The second is to explore the way in which, using a specific understanding of art, Nietzsche attempts to reconcile extreme scepticism towards all forms of human knowledge with a continued belief in their necessity. The thesis argues that Nietzsche lays an importance on art as providing an aesthetic education to replace the misguided theoretical orientation of metaphysics. Nietzsche criticises metaphysics for its inability to recognise that its interpretations are mere interpretations, that logic and the rational serve as means to make the world meaningful from the human perspective. My thesis explores how he sees art, and in particular the tragic, as constituting a mode of world interpretation which declares its status as such. I argue that for Nietzsche this is crucial inasmuch as a failure to recognise the contingency of our interpretations results in a refusal to give value in any interpretations. For Nietzsche the advent of the Modern age heralds the danger of such refusal, and hence I argue that his turn to art is a response to the specifically Modern temptation to descend into mere cynical Nihilism.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

36

Auyer, Jonathan P. "Illusion in the commonplace| Reinterpreting Ernst Gombrich's concept of illusion." Thesis, State University of New York at Albany, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3565358.

Full text

Abstract:

In the dissertation I analyze and interpret Ernst Gombrich's book Art and Illusion, focusing on his view that illusion is involved in pictorial representation. Since Gombrich never gave a concise, systematic account of illusion, my goal will be to fill this void by using the text of Art and Illusion as well as Gombrich's subsequent writings in order to present a coherent account of how illusion might play a role in a picture's representing an object.

My goal is not to present an unassailable account of pictorial representation. Instead, I offer a version of Gombrich's theory that pushes readers towards a better comprehension of what a Gombrichian theory of illusion involves. In the process I introduce and defend a number of terms and concepts in the service of filling in those places where Gombrich is silent. Among other things, in response to Gombrich's notion of visual substitution I elaborate upon the claims that representational pictures function as relational models and afford recognition of the objects they represent; I reply to Richard Wollheim's "twofoldness" objection to Gombrich; and I contend that Gombrich's use of the notion of illusion is not open to the objections commonly made against it (e.g., that normal picture perception does not involve illusion because "illusion" is synonymous with "delusion").

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

37

Wood, Andrew J. "Makers and Breakers| Pre-Raphaelites, Punks, and Political Imagination." Thesis, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10829418.

Full text

Abstract:

Weaving together influences from philosophy, visual and sonic aesthetics, and radical political thought, this project argues that individual and collective imagination should be understood as important sites of politics—in cultural, discursive, institutional, and collectivist registers. Rather than proposing dogmatic adherence to any particular ideology, we find that imagining new possibilities, as well as the possibilities for more possibilities, is centrally important to the endeavor of seeking radical change in the contemporary capitalist/state system. By turning to the examples of two politico-aesthetic movements, the Handicraft movement of William Morris and the Hammersmith Socialist League of the 19th century and the 20^th/21^st century cultures of punk rock, we witness the successes and failures of attempts to intervene in political imaginaries. I focus on the anachronistic, non-capitalist mode of production of so-called ‘do-it-yourself’ (or D.I.Y.), I argue that such productive processes could represent such an inter-temporal rupture point of radical anachronism that I have theorized, and can therefore demonstrate the potentiality of wellsprings for the creation of new forms of politics, paradoxically contributing to the progress of inclusivity and egalitarian politics through the introduction of anachronistic performances, visuals, and music.

Specifically, they reveal the surprising ways in which inter-temporal rupture through anachronistic aesthetic forms and modes of productions can not only disrupt hegemonic notions of progressive linear time, but also question the radical imperative towards production of the new. These movements hence illuminate important implications for the tactics, tensions, and most of all thought—and preconditions for thought—that underpin contemporary progressive politics (e.g. Anti-globalization, Occupy, Black Lives Matter, revolutionaries in Rojava and especially, and most contentiously and controversially the contemporary Antifa movements) by demonstrating the radical potentialities of aesthetics, space, and anachronism for the introduction of historical rupture contained within politico-aesthetic shock. These movements are deeply concerned with democratic participation and social justice, and so we can use Morris and punk as a window in to deep analysis of tactics as utilized by the aforementioned anti-capitalist and anti-fascist movements.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

38

Wesselinoff, Catherine. "Kaleidoscopes, or Two Kinds of Beauty:The Anti-Aesthetic and Beauty Revival Movements." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2022. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/28627.

Full text

Abstract:

This doctoral thesis identifies and provides original descriptive accounts of two schools of thought in the philosophy of beauty: (i) the 20th-century ‘Anti-Aesthetic’ movement and (ii) the 21st-century ‘Beauty-Revival’ movement. I argue that the Anti-Aesthetic movement is devoted to a decisive negation of beauty—denying its importance as a philosophical notion and its significance as a lived experience. The Beauty-Revival movement affirms the value of beauty as a philosophical notion and as a lived aesthetic experience. Corresponding to these commitments, the Anti-Aesthetic and Beauty-Revival movements engage largely incompatible philosophical notions of beauty, which this dissertation constructs and places in parallel with one another. The Anti-Aesthetic movement suggests that beauty is a merely sensual experience, which can be used, at best, as a distraction from justice and, at worst, as an instrument of evil. Beauty-Revivalism advances arguments for beauty as an experience that extends primarily to sensual experience, but which also calls forth mental products and cognitive and affective states evoked by that experience. Ultimately, I argue that there are two contrasting modern views of the concept of beauty, only one of which gives way to an account of the experience of beauty. Therefore, this dissertation also includes (iii) a defence of the notion of beauty as a lived experience, or scene of encounter, extrapolated from Beauty-Revival descriptions of three key ‘moments’ which occur in the process of our experiencing beautiful objects. These moments are (a) the conditions that constitute an experience of beauty, (b) the attitudinal features most likely to lead to the experience of beauty, and (c) the results of the experience of beauty. Given the current sparse adumbration of (i) the Anti-Aesthetic movement, (ii) the Beauty-Revival movement and (iii) contemporary accounts of the experience of beauty, this doctoral thesis offers an original contribution to scholarship in the field of philosophical aesthetics.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

39

Reynolds, Christine Sara. "Past presence : aesthetics and the creation of origin /." Connect to title online (Scholars' Bank), 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/6783.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

40

Jörnvi, Malin. "Visionary Philosophy." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Avdelningen för estetik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-429020.

Full text

Abstract:

In this thesis I look at possible implications of the philosophical use of sight metaphors as rendered visible in the philosophy of Iris Murdoch. Through Murdoch’s reading of Plato, and together with the perspectives added by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Paul de Man, Carolyn Korsmeyer, and Mats Persson, I argue that some contemporary philosophy as shaped by science and logic might be partially blind to essential aspects of human life and human awareness. I show that this partial blindness becomes visible in an inability to acknowledge and understand the philosophical importance of that which cannot be seen from a distance, and I argue that this may be due to a modern understanding of clarity. I claim that this understanding of clarity essentially differs from that of Plato and that it becomes particularly evident in Plato’s reliance on metaphors and allegories, not as unclear and obfuscating aspects to be untangled, but as depicting essential dimensions of the inexhaustible complexity of life. I finally argue that it is vital to recover and to philosophically consider these obscurer aspects if philosophy is to stay relevant to actual human beings living in the muddle that is everyday life.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

41

Tanchio, Paul Albert. "Transcultural aesthetics and contemporary art." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/10225.

Full text

Abstract:

‘Transcultural aesthetics’, in Proceedings of the Pacific Rim Conference in Transcultural Aesthetics (1998), is a generic term used by comparative philosophers and aestheticians to denote a theoretical assessment of distinctive applied aesthetic concepts and experience of cultures. This thesis is concerned with transcultural art and transcultural aesthetics, and it uses the argument put forward by comparative philosopher and aesthetician Eliot Deutsch, in his On Truth: An Ontological Theory (1979), that its practitioners’ distinctive art forms, especially Anselm Kiefer, Imants Tillers, John Young, Gao Xingjian, Helmut Federle and Lee Ufan, all bear a consistent singular presentation of intentionality – crossing boundaries that are philosophical, material and aesthetic – one that draws its relationship of unity-in-diversity (an expression of unity without uniformity and diversity without fragmentation) to pure human experience. I will analyse these art forms creation with reference to key transcultural concepts such as ‘catharsis’ (cleansing), ‘kenosis’ (emptying) and ‘homeostasis’ (harmonising into equilibrium), as drawn from the Chinese, Indian and European aesthetics traditions (commonly known as unity traditions by Philosopher Karl Jaspers) and argue that transcultural aesthetics calls for critical theoretical reflexion on the hermeneutics of discourse and action, as well as on the ‘selves-as-agents’ hermeneutic: a cultivation of insight into one’s own approach to the one regulative ideal of inter-dialogue among multiple cultures. These three key concepts of transcultural aesthetics allow practitioners to regard a form of transcultural unity as the site of their final purpose and meaning in their art and practices. Finally, the actions of practitioners in their practices are not performed in a moment of impulse, but rather they stemmed from a concerted, unified motivation.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

42

Aloi, Michael Joseph. "Participation in the Play of Nature: A Hermeneutic Approach to Environmental Aesthetics." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2020. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1752360/.

Full text

Abstract:

Within the environmental aesthetics literature, there is a noticeable schism between two general approaches to understanding the aesthetic value of nature: the ambient approach and the narrative approach. Ambient thinkers focus on the character of aesthetic appreciation of nature, the way in which one is embedded in multi-sensory environment. These ambient theorists emphasize the importance of those aesthetic experiences that are difficult to articulate. Narrative thinkers argue that aesthetic appreciation of nature is enhanced and enriched by narratives that are relevant to the natural object or environment encountered. Certain narratives – usually those based on scientific knowledge – encourage a depth of appreciation that is inaccessible to those unfamiliar with the narratives. In this dissertation, I attempt to articulate an account of environmental aesthetic experience that does justice to both of these approaches by drawing on the resources of philosophical hermeneutics, and especially on the aesthetic theory of Hans-Georg Gadamer. The most important aspects of Gadamer's work for environmental aesthetics are his phenomenology of play, his revival of practical philosophy, and his emphasis on the interpretive character of all understanding. His discussion of play fleshes out the core of ambient accounts, his focus on interpretation explains the insights of narrative accounts, and the two accounts are tied together by his attention to practice.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

43

Bahar, Saba. "Mary Wollstonecraft's social and aesthetic philosophy : "an Eve to please me" /." Basingstoke [etc.] : Palgrave, 2002. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy02/2001054887.html.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

44

Kooy, Michael John. "Aesthetics and moral philosophy in the thought of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1808-1819." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.319145.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

45

Henry, Jon L. "Techniques of Sensual Perception: The Creation of Emotional Pathways." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1999. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2276/.

Full text

Abstract:

Some artists strive to create artwork that has aesthetic value. If a piece of artwork has the ability to capture the attention of an audience, it must contain strong sensual attributes. Thus, understanding how to design an art form to contain strong sensual attributes may increase the possibility of an aesthetic experience. Since aesthetics is an experience of sensations perceived when in contact with a creative form in any artistic discipline, it is necessary for an artist to understand the nature of the sensual experience. In understanding the sensual experience, artists may be able to create techniques to enhance the aesthetic experience of their work. My video piece, entitled Ararat is a study of methods to enhance the sensual experience. I hope to accomplish this by means of using techniques that optimize an audience's perceptual experience.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

46

Collins, Lorna Patricia. "Making sense : art and aesthetics in contemporary French thought." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610086.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

47

Gurciullo, Sebastian 1968. "Between art and philosophy : Adorno and Foucault as heirs and critics of Enlightenment." Monash University, School of Literary, Visual and Cultural Studies, 2000. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/7662.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

48

Smethurst, Coryn Russell Ronald. "Towards a creative aesthetics : with reference to Bergson." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2001. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/104996/.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis explores issues in aesthetics with reference to Bergson. The first chapter outlines and assesses Bergson's interesting and subtle theory of humour, which emphasises the necessary lack of sympathy in humour, and its generalising, external methodology. In doing so it explores the different ways the motif of 'something encrusted on the living' functions on various levels. This is ultimately found to be an interesting account which has many merits. The second chapter then begins to outline the theoretical structure of Bergson's account of humour in terms of vertical and horizontal movement. This leads to an account of Bergson's critique of 'ordinary' conceptual language and a consideration of other alternatives, including metaphor. The third chapter discusses Bergson's notion of intuition and levels of interpretation - assessing what, if any, relation there is between Russian Formalism and Bergson's own understanding of poetry. The notion of levels helps to define Bergson's anti-modernism, when modernism is understood as the self-referential exposure of the art work's own conditions of possibility. The fourth chapter examines several art forms. Music is discussed in some detail with particular attention being paid to the distinction between rhythm and melody, notions of repetition, creativity and difference. A comparison it then made between Bergson's thoughts on evolution and melodic creativity. This discussion is of importance not only for the light it casts on aesthetic issues, but also because music, or more specifically melody, is often given as an example of the heterogeneous continuity of duration. The thesis also examines painting, particularly in relation to duration, comparing it with photography. Bergson's arguments against cinema are then discussed. The thesis also examines how the role of sympathy functions in artistic production generally. Finally Bergson's ability to distinguish between art and philosophy is examined referring back to notions of self-reflexivity in art.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

49

Han, Gül Bilge. "“Distantly a part”: Wallace Stevens and the Poetics of Modernist Autonomy." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-119700.

Full text

Abstract:

This dissertation explores the social and political dimensions of aesthetic autonomy as it is given formal expression in Wallace Stevens’s poetry of the 1930s and the early 1940s. Whereas modernist claims to autonomy are often said to rest upon an ideological assertion of art’s detachment from socio-historical concerns, I argue that, in Stevens’s work, autonomy is conceived in relational terms, which gives rise to new lines of interconnection between his poetry and its cultural situation. Written over a period when the political efficacy of literature became a staple of discussion among a myriad of writers and critics, Stevens’s poetry offers an understanding of autonomy not as an escape from, but as a productive condition for imagining alternative forms of engagement with the historical crisis with which it has to reckon. In taking into account the cultural context from which Stevens’s poetics of autonomy emerged, my study aims to highlight the significance of the concept to the poet’s exploration of the tension between aesthetic and social domains, to his imaginative formations of collective agency, and to the vexed relationship between poetic and philosophical modes of thinking. By transposing the theoretical discussion of autonomy into the register of historical scrutiny, I hope to pave the way for a rethinking of autonomy and its relevance to the period’s radical and modernist writing, literary debates, and cultural politics. For this purpose, I draw on recent theories, such as those offered by Jacques Rancière and Alain Badiou, on poetry, politics, and (in)aesthetics, which serve to complicate the working definitions of modernist autonomy as literature’s immunity from the world, and to indicate an alternative path for analyzing its critical and contextual implications.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

50

Sweeney, Mark Richard. "The aesthetics of videogame music." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:70a29850-0c0d-4abd-a501-e75224fa856a.

Full text

Abstract:

The videogame now occupies a unique territory in contemporary culture that offers a new perspective on conceptions of high and low art. While the fear that the majority of videogames 'pacify' their audience in an Adornian "culture industry" is not without justification, its reductionism can be countered by a recognition of the diversity and aesthetic potential of the medium. This has been proposed by sociologist, Graeme Kirkpatrick, although without close attention to the role of music. Videogame music often operates in similar ways to music in other mixed-media scenarios, such as film, or opera. In the same way that film music cannot be completely divorced from film, videogame music is contingent on and a crucial part of the videogame aesthetic. However, the interactive nature of the medium - its différance - has naturally led to the development of nonlinear musical systems that tailor music in real time to the game's dynamically changing dramatic action. Musical non-linearity points beyond both music and videogames (and their respective discourses) toward broader issues pertinent to contemporary musicology and critical thinking, not least to matters concerning high modernism (traditionally conceived of as resistant to mass culture). Such issues include Barthes's "death of the author", the significance of order/disorder as a formal spectrum, and postmodern conceptions and experiences of temporality. I argue that in this sense the videogame medium - and its music - warrants attention as a unique but not sui generis aesthetic experience. Precedent can be found for many of the formal ideas employed in such systems in certain aspects of avant-garde art, and especially in the aleatoric music prevalent in the 1950s and 60s. This thesis explores this paradox by considering videogames as both high and low, and, more significantly, I argue that the aesthetics of videogame music draw attention to the centrality of "play" in all cultural objects.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Philosphy and aesthetics'

Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles