Eric Huggins - Art as Cognition, Aristotle

Unlike Plato, Aristotle sees art (including music, dance, literature, painting, and sculpture) as representational. He claims that we see art as pleasurable in the sense of the virtue in which it is represented. So when you view something that looks very aesthetically pleasing, and you can’t understand why, this is a good explanation. I can understand how a painting, or a sculpture is representational; but what about music? Music without lyrics is nothing more than tones, strung together in melody and sometimes harmony to produce a coordinated noise that we find pleasing. Can it represent the pain of a wronged lover, or the joy of a new season? How do we distinguish between these? Beauty is certainly in the eye (or ear) of the beholder, especially when it comes to music.

When it comes to poetry, or literature produced in a play or opera, Aristotle argues that a more successful tragedy has a wronged character that an audience can identify with. This can explain why women can relate to stories about a woman being wronged by a man and thus the phrase, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” came from. Also, this would explain why men relate to a story about a man who tragically loses his family and seeks vengeance.

It’s amazing how each philosopher makes a legitimate case for their view of art. Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder, but how do we determine what art is more beautiful than another? When I have kids, my little girls’ drawing of her and her daddy – to me – is going to be so much more beautiful than any Monet or Picasso. Maybe there is something there…

Rachel Worthington: Art and the Divine

Religious art communicates emotions and messages to the audience. This image tells the story of human existence. In the center is Brahman. The entirety of life comes from Brahman. As the painting shows, the souls who did not reach enlightenment are again reborn through the earth, as we are now. Once the souls have reached enlightenment, they divorce the worldly and can be free from rebirth. This painting illustrates the connection between nature, beauty, humans and the divine. Since the divine and nature share a relationship, we all are one with nature and the divine, yet we are separate as well. As we spring from nature, the way in which we can find Brahman is through nature.

Sarah Firth, Beautiful Companionship

Reality is tricky. Sometimes you can be so sure that you have a firm grasp on it but you truly are living behind the smoke screen of your own bias. The only thing that we have to keep us grounded to reality is our own experiences and the reflection of our selves that other people show us. If our ego gets in the way of our better judgment and experience, we only have our trusted friends to bring us back to our true form. Plato thinks of degrees of reality as a line. The least real is images, then bodies, and then concepts then true forms. If we only rely on our experience to guide us in life, experiences can only be created by objects, so we only rely on the physical images and the body of these things to guide us. Thus, according to Plato, we are relying in things that are less real. When we rely on the companionship of a true friend we are relying on the encounters we have had between our selves and another person. These encounters are more real because another person also has an ego and experiences thus they can relay concepts and reciprocate ideas. In this way it is easier to appreciate a companion in their true form which is the ultimate reality in Plato’s theory.

Sarah Firth, The Cupid and Psyche Syndrome

In class we had a discussion about the story of Cupid and Psyche. The story goes that the most beautiful princess in the land was said to be more beautiful then The goddess of beauty her self, Aphrodite. This rumor angers Aphrodite so she sends her son, Cupid, to go make Pshyche fall in love with the ugliest beast in the land. In the process of doing this task Cupid pricks himself on one of his love arrows and falls instantly in love with Psyche. He then whisks her away to his “castle” in the far away mountains. Psyche's sister comes to visit her and sees that she is not living in a castle but a terrible raggedy place. Some how, over time Psyches’ sister also falls pray to the delusions until a guide brings her back to reality with the power of reason. The guide is not able to bring Psyche back into reality because Psyche is in love with the world that she exists in. In a sense her lack of reason is her longing for death because she longs to be closer to the gods and her love cupid. The moral of the story, those who are deluded by their own fantasies and refuse reason are suicidal in a sense. From the religious point of view the message could be perceived as; one must see reason before delving completely in to blind faith. This story however reminds me of much of the sheltered life that college students live, and could be extended to the comfortable life that most Americans live. We are so distracted by the beautiful world that we make around our selves that we don’t see that the rest of the world is rotting right in front of our eyes.

Rachel Worthington: A Wilderness Experience

When I lived in Montana, it was impossible to not see beauty in nature every day. I recall an experience I had one warm summer night. It was the night after graduation, a girlfriend and I went for a walk in the valley near school. A heat storm had been brewing all evening, and it was dark by now. Every few moments the sky would escape the darkness, as the lightning illuminated it with flashes of purple and white. All the stars seemed to twinkle as brighly as the lightning bolts. On the mountains ahead, little fires were igniting from nature's electricity. Trees would burst into flames, simmer to a steady burn and moments later, the fire would vanish. We stood there together, but it felt as if we were in two different worlds. I watched as the fires danced across the mountains. I felt an essence all around me, not a presence, and it felt divine. I don't necessarily believe what I was experiencing came from a spiritual being, but I think beauty in nature captured me that night. it opened all of my senses at once and allowed me to have an experience with a phenomena that I will never forget.

Sarah Firth, Ugly Nature

I could never perceive the natural world as a whole as being ugly, though there are so many things in nature that are terrible looking. There are so many beautiful things in nature that can’t be ignored even though there are many perils that are ready to attack at any moment. The beauty of a flower, the warmth of the sun, the smell of fresh air, how could anyone have ever thought of the outdoors as disdainful? These times when nature was so close it was an ugly enemy are so different then today, where nature is an exotic stranger. This might not be so in other parts of the world where nature’s bad temper still has the lives of some people hanging in the balance, such as Niger and Somalia. Nature may have also recreated it self as an enemy in places such as Japan and Thailand. Though nature may be overwhelming it is still beautiful. The fact that nature is so overpowering may be why it was once so hard to see in the past. We have been taught that beauty that is sublime is often also feared in some way. When artists started painting nature scenes in art people started admiring nature. Perhaps art served as a looking glass that people could safely stand behind to view nature as beautiful.

Lauren Achtemeier: Leaving nothing behind

Discussion in class about the Appalachian Trail hiker called CC leaving his poles behind got me thinking about the “leave no mark” philosophy. I agreed with his decisions to throw the sticks away so as not to degrade the experience for others, since it was not his mountain to claim. I feel like similar acts can be applied to other things in nature. In some circumstances, the photography of wild animals seems to leave a huge mark upon the poor animals subjected to out of control human curiosity. It also tends to imply that a person is claiming that space as their own through picture taking domination, instead of sharing it with the animal. I witnessed someone camera bully a raccoon the other day on the edge of campus First off, guy seriously invaded the animals space by coming within a couple feet of it, then proceeded to snap three pictures with flash in the animals face, the whole while it was prevented from escaping due to construction fencing. It is plausible that the animal was temporarily blinded the guy’s lack of respect. The guy with the camera does not own the lawn anymore than the raccoon. It was simply out scrounging for food. The camera bullying was the guy’s way of leaving a mark upon an act of nature, instead of simply enjoying the moment. It may not be the Appalachian trail, but leaving marks upon animals in a local environment only continues destruction of the nature around us, instead of letting it be.