Aesthetic values are those things, objects, states and phenomena (for example, works of art or the natural environment) that can cause a person to have a positive or negative reaction in their aesthetic assessment.
The significance of the concept
Value can have different meanings. for example, in objects of art, it can be sentimental, historical or financial. In the desert, it can be economic as well as recreational. It is believed that great works of art have a kind of non-intellectual and non-utilitarian value, which is of central importance when they are considered as works of art. You might think that this property of aesthetic culture is based on beauty, but many works of art are not beautiful. Therefore, it will be more plausible to say that beauty is a special kind of the category in question.
Attitude to art
The artistic and aesthetic values possessed by a work of art (and most of which will extend to the environment) are associated with the experience that it provides when it is perceived accordingly. If this provides pleasure due to a person's perception of his beauty, elegance, grace, harmony, proportion, unity, etc., we will talk about the positive aesthetic value of culture. If this causes displeasure due to ugliness or disgust, we can say that this property in this subject will be negative from the point of view of aesthetics. It is important to note that the aesthetic value of pleasure or displeasure, which deserves attention, is best viewed as directed toward the object in question, and not simply caused by it.
Aesthetics in Philosophy
The term “aesthetic” (which comes from the Greek word “aesthetics,” which means sensory perception) acquired philosophical meaning in the 18th century thanks to theorists of British Enlightenment such as Shaftesbury (1711), Hutcheson (1725) and Hume (1757). They developed theories of the sense of beauty and the ability of taste - those properties that supposedly allow us to judge beauty or ugliness.
Baumgarten (1750), introducing the term “aesthetics,” emphasized the sensory rather than intellectual nature of such judgments. Then the idea grew into the concept of Kant's aesthetic judgments (1790), which were considered as conceptual and came solely from pleasure or displeasure. Kant distinguishes a subcategory of aesthetic judgments (namely, judgments of the beautiful), which he characterizes as disinterested, that is, regardless of interest in the existence or practical value of the object. This Kantian concept of selfless judgment, rooted in hedonistic experience, is the foundation of many modern theories of human aesthetic values.
The subjectivity of aesthetics in philosophy
The emphasis on pleasure and displeasure has always been a challenge to the objectivity of aesthetic value and aesthetic value judgments. This question has been the subject of controversy among philosophers. But although some believe that aesthetic values are a matter of personal preference, there has always been strong philosophical resistance against such radical subjectivity. In the end, people argue about aesthetic issues, and these debates seem consistent. If aesthetics were only a matter of personal preference, such disputes would seem unmotivated and irrational.
Kant, for example, considers subjective aesthetic judgments, since they are rooted in pleasure or displeasure, but he also argues that judgments about the beautiful are connected with the demand for universality; that is, the decision that something is beautiful (and therefore aesthetically valuable) is associated with the assertion that others must agree. And, as Hume emphasizes, people do not treat all judgments of taste justly. In addition, the ability of some cultural objects to pass the “test of time”, apparently, gives reason to think that the aesthetic values of art do not just apply to people or cultures.
Thus, radical subjectivism or relativism about aesthetic value seems implausible. Nevertheless, although many philosophers generally reject relativism, some believe that aesthetic value is an area characterized by a certain degree of relativism (Hume, 1757; Goldman, 2001; Eaton, 2001).
Philosophical debate
Inspired by Kant's dissociation about aesthetic judgments from practical judgments, the theorists of the aesthetic relationship of the twentieth century (Bullough, 1912, Stolnitz, 1960) defended the view that a special, non-practical way of contemplating an object allows you to recognize the aesthetic features of objects and, therefore, their aesthetic value. However, the idea of a specific relationship was criticized, both because of psychological implausibility, and because it overly separates aesthetics from cognitive and moral values.
Extending the categories of aesthetics in philosophy
Gradually, events led to the expansion of the category of aesthetics. Thus, aesthetic values are not only formal features of works of art, but it is increasingly believed that they depend on other properties or can interact with various other aspects, primarily contextual, cognitive and moral factors.
Another trend is the development of aesthetics of virtue, which explores the psychological and behavioral dispositions that are most conducive to the recognition and production of aesthetic value. Emerging areas of environmental and everyday aesthetics are expanding the realm of value far beyond the arts to include almost any object. Not being a simple theoretical venture, the central problem of these recent events is to understand as much as possible the role that aesthetic value can play in environmental policy, and the method by which it contributes to well-being and a good life.
Kinds
The formation of the values of aesthetic education takes place in the process of historical development of society. This determines their diversity. The quality of value relations is influenced not only by subjects and objects, but also by the conditions and circumstances under which this relationship is formed.
The allocation of various types of values occurs for various reasons. In particular, they can be pragmatic, that is, based on relationships that are associated with the pragmatic (material, vital, utilitarian) needs of a person. In this case, they can be determined by the usefulness of things. Values can also be super-pragmatic, that is, reveal the spiritual, non-utilitarian value of the world. Moreover, their specificity can be explained by such a thing as meaning.
Value relationships
The significance of the subject is formed when creating a relationship with a person. Therefore, within the framework of culture, special ways of consolidating and transferring values from generation to generation, represented by traditions or customs, special public institutions: the educational system, cultural institutions, etc. are being formed.
Saving and transferring them is one of the most important tasks. Both those and others can be easily lost, and their restoration can become very difficult. This explains a kind of “redundancy” of the mechanisms for the affirmation of moral and aesthetic values, which seek to identify the super significance of the latter. In particular, in religion, spiritual values come first, while pragmatic values, in fact, can even be ignored. This approach leads to the emergence of extreme forms of asceticism.
Moral values
This category, based on the content, is divided into species. In particular, ethics deals with the study of moral values, aesthetics - aesthetic and artistic, religious studies the study of religious. All these scientific disciplines are also engaged in the study of appropriate cultural methods, allowing to preserve and transmit their various types.
The most significant moral values are, in the first place, freedom, justice, and happiness. From the point of view of morality, man and his life are the most important categories. Moreover, they were often considered as values only in relation to a narrow circle of people and at the same time depreciated for everyone else.
At the level of interpersonal relations, this takes the form of violent methods of education, which are used as a restriction of freedom, humiliation of dignity or violation of justice in relation to a child. In a broader sense, this can take the form of racial and other discrimination, restriction of rights and freedoms on one or another basis, etc.
The value of morality
Morality ensures the transfer and preservation of its system of moral and aesthetic values. She is a kind of basis for these processes. The formation of values, aesthetic and moral, occurs during the creation of a particular type of person in the conditions of a particular era and cultural environment, which is the moral ideal of this culture, which ordinary people strive to realize in life.