Aesthetic Insight: The Aesthetic Value of Damaged Environments Cover Image

Aesthetic Insight: The Aesthetic Value of Damaged Environments
Aesthetic Insight: The Aesthetic Value of Damaged Environments

Author(s): María José Alcaraz León
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Helsinki University Press
Keywords: Kant I.; environment; environmental aesthetics; aesthetic experience; aesthetic experience of nature; aesthetic judgement; aesthetic pleasure; landscape

Summary/Abstract: In this article I start by assuming that positive aesthetic experiences of damaged nature are possible and I argue for the idea that the aesthetic pleasure derived from that contemplation might reveal something of the environment’s overall character. I hope to show that positive aesthetic experiences sometimes help to promote emotional attitudes that can lead to insight into the configuration of other non-aesthetic attitudes. In order to do so, I critically appeal to some of the thoughts Kant articulated about the notion of aesthetic experience and its relationship to cognition and morality. I think that the sort of experience I am after in this article cannot be easily accommodated within a Kantian framework and that the possibility of positive aesthetic experience of damaged nature will show that the relationships between the aesthetic and the cognitive or the moral are more complex and enriching than they have so far been acknowledged to be.

  • Issue Year: L/2013
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 169-186
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English