The Principles of AestheticsParker, De Witt H. (De Witt Henry)
Philosophy
The Principles of Aesthetics
Parker, De Witt H. (De Witt Henry)
Aesthetics
Yet the dependence of beauty upon utility in the industrial arts is
not at variance with the freedom from practical attitudes which we
have claimed for it. For the beauty is still in the realm of perception,
of contemplation, not of use. It is a pleasure in seeing how the purpose
is expressed in the form and material of the object, not a pleasure
in the possession of the object or an enjoyment of its benefits. I may
take pleasure in the vision of purpose well embodied in an object which
another man possesses, and my admiration will be as disinterested as
my appreciation of a statue. And even if I do make use of the object,
I may still get an aesthetic experience out of it, whenever I pause and
survey it, delighting in it as an adequate expression of its purpose
and my own joy in using it. Then beauty supervenes upon mere utility,
and a value for contemplation grows out of and, for the moment,
supplants a value in use. I now take delight in the perception of an
object when formerly I took delight only in its use; I now enjoy the
expression of purpose for its present perceived perfection, when once
I enjoyed it only for its ulterior results. Such intervals of restful
contemplation interrupt the activity of every thoughtful maker or user
of tools. Thus the practical life may enter into the aesthetic, and
that which grows out of exigence may develop into freedom.
There is one more objection which may be urged against the aesthetic
character of the expression of practical purpose, namely, that the
appreciation of it is an affair of intellect, not of feeling. This
would indeed be fatal if it were necessarily true; but all men who
love their work know that they put into admiration for their tools as
much of warm emotion as of mind. There remains, however, the genuine
difficulty of communicating this emotional perception of useful objects,
of making it universal. It must be admitted that the attitude of the
average beholder towards a useful object is usually practical, not
contemplative, or else purely intellectual, an effort to understand
its structure, with the idea of eventual use. Most works of industrial
art produce no aesthetic experience whatever. But to be a genuine and
complete work of fine art, an object must be so made that it will
immediately impel the spectator to regard it aesthetically.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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