Key concepts

Plato questioned the idea of beauty

It confuses the authentic from the fake

Suited for representing vile and violent matters

Capable of influencing people to act in life as we would be ashamed to do

Aristotle wrote Poetics

Depicting pity and fear was good for Athens

There was a way to depict plays good and bad

Plays were constructed and thus poets did know what they were doing

He focused on tragedies

Believed in unity of action, time, and place

Renaissance

Beauty was synonymous with god

Neoclassical aesthetics began to evolve

Battista Alberti

Beauty is harmony and reflection

Laws

Principle of formal order

18th century england lays the foundation for current aesthetics

First system

Formulation of aesthetics disinterestedness

Joseph Addison

On the pleasures of the Imagination marks the beginning of modern aesthetic theory

Francis Hutchesons wrote Inquiry concerning beauty

Writes that order, harmony, and design is the first systematic philosophical treatment of the subject

Alexander Baumgarten

Art and beauty belonged to a sensitivity and reason

Immanuel Kant wrote critique of practical reason

As long as the realms of nature and of freedom are separated the individual is torn apart

No science of beauty

Kant revered artists for their interpretations of beauty

Fredrich von schiller wrote an aesthetic education

Designed to imbue students with appreciation for and understanding of the arts

Art makes us more human ad is the necessary condition for any social order based on rational freedom as opposed to totalitarian constraints

Romantics considered personal talent to be of value in itself and took it to be innate

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel-Bages of historian art believed in three types of art

Eastern and symbolic

Classical

Romantic

Art was able to present the values that defined human life in symbolic embodiments in statuary  or in images

He represents a turning point because he rejected representation of all theories of art

Arthur Schopenhaurer

Fabric of appearances woven by our intellect

Inspired by hinduism

Music was the highest of the fine arts

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote will to power, the birth of tragedy

Art is a resounding yes to life which goes beyond the logical and the rational

Two principles of art

Apollonian

Dionysian

The combination of the two creates the greek athenian tragedy

The 20th century questioned the notion of art itself

Expression theory

Art is the expression of emotion with expression and emotion defined in ways that are particular to the theory

Ludwig wittgenstein

Philisophical investigation 1954

In order to understand a word one must first consider its customary uses

Morris weitz 1956

There were no necessary and sufficient condition that made something a work of art

George dickie

A work of art could be anything that the institution of the art would designated as such

In the 20th century

Beauty was no longer a central idea when composing art

Art is endless

Walter benjamin

The concept of art had been radically altered by technological advances that enable unlimited reproduction of an artistic object

Contemporary aesthetics involve the observer in the creation of the artistic object

Demanding a new sensibility for both audience and artist

What does it mean to appreciate art?

I believe that Plato in the 4th century was the most significant.  Plato was the first to questioned the arts and what they may mean to humans.  Plato held a low opinion of artists and poets, but he wrote what he saw at the time.  He argued that art was a copy of reality and he believed in authenticity.  He also believed that art was representing things that could not be explained.  He contributed the notion of philosophy to art and started what will become the foundation of art and knowledge. 

Changeux and Ramachandran have clearly invested their interests in the science of art and theory.  I think that they both lay the foundation for why we appreciate art and how it became  worthy of scientific study.  Their importance to the art and science community is impressive.  Jean-Pierre Changeux states that art is in constant evolution and I completely agree.  Throughout the ages art has changed and evolved through meaning and techniques.  Ramachandran supplies that there are eight universal laws of aesthetics.  One of his laws is that aesthetics is perceptual or problem solving.  When you look at a piece of art there is problem solving that happens. Why did this artist create this? Was there a meaning? How did he make it? What were they trying to convey to me? These questions enhance the artwork and add complexity to the piece. 

The videos relate to the text in way of laying a scientific foundation.  The video express the importance and information that aesthetics and art are linked to brain function and why people have composited the applications to art.  The text informs us that there are fundamentals that every artists employs intentionally or not, but the videos are why we create the art.  These equally important factors contribute to the artwork. 

My opinion on the videos is that they are a great source of information.  The second video from CARTA was difficult to understand for its science applications and merely their intense accents! However, the videos are an asset in continuing to understand art and their impact on the human.