Ruminations on Aesthetics

[An old post after a tutorial]

Today's KI lesson reminded me of why I would not, under the most dire circumstances, attempt to write an essay on aesthetics. This blog entry will also serve to consolidate the issues we talked about.

Moral Truth vs. Moral Meaning

(Picture from http://www.normanrschultz.org/Courses/Ethics/Kantian_hero.jpg)

In ethical debate, much attention is given to the establishment of moral truth. It has raged on for centuries and fostered many different camps. However, they all attempt to establish their case by appeal to some sort of fact or goal, but this is misguided because facts and goals are arbitrary human conventions - a social fact of Durkheim's definition - and any appeal to factual foundations ultimately rings hollow.

Facebook Activism Against religious Bigotry

(Image from http://www.neatorama.com/2009/11/30/corduroy-skirts-are-a-sin/)

Wittgenstein's Beetle Eats Ethnography

   

Wittgenstein's Beetle is an analogy about the nature of language. Suppose we all had a box and we're told there's a beetle inside each one. However, we can't see each other's boxes and the term 'beetle' eventually refers to the contents of all the boxes. It is, in other words, a misnomer that attaches a common label to different things.

Simulative Engagement in Literary & Dramatic Works

(Picture of Iago, NYJC Drama Night '07)

I've always wondered why people are drawn to literary and theatrical arts even though they can be so tragic, destructive or inspire outright horror. It is clear that these arts have a dramatic dimension that distinguishes its plot from the humdrum of normal everyday living - and that is the point: I hypothesise that we are so drawn towards these arts because they engage by way of simulating experiences that we may rarely experience.