A Kantian Analytic of the Ugly

Kant’s theory of taste, as expounded in the Critique of Judgment, deals exhaustively with judgments of beauty. Rarely does Kant mention ugliness. This omission has led to a debate among commentators about how judgments of ugliness should be explained in a Kantian framework. I argue that the judgment of ugliness originates in the disharmonious play between the faculties of imagination and understanding. Such disharmony occurs when the understanding finds that it cannot in principle form any concept suitable to a representation as it is presented by the imagination

The ugly in fine arts. The sensory nature of terror in the tales of the Brothers Grimm

The author, inspired by philosophical aesthetic reflection, presents one of the aesthetic qualities: ugliness. Based on the assumption that “Grimms’ Fairy Tales” directly reach the realm of the unconscious, utilising towards that end not only symbolic meaning, but also a wide range of operations through imagined sensory perception, she identifies in the texts such fragments of the stories which relate to specific sensations caused in the real world using physical stimuli. The analysis constitutes only a case-based introductory study of the issue of senses in literary texts. She does not focus on the tale as an independent existential creation, which carries a multitude of interpretative references and meanings, only the possibilities offered by the analysis of a work, which consists of a transfer of a literary description to the imagination of the sensory experience occurring (hypothetically) in the receiver’s imagination

Aesthetic value: beauty, ugliness and incoherence

[FIRST PARAGRAPHS] From Plato through Aquinas to Kant and beyond beauty has traditionally been considered the paradigmatic aesthetic quality. Thus, quite naturally following Socrates' strategy in The Meno, we are tempted to generalize from our analysis of the nature and value of beauty, a particular aesthetic value, to an account of aesthetic value generally. When we look at that which is beautiful, the object gives rise to a certain kind of pleasure within us. Thus aesthetic value is characterized in terms of that which affords us pleasure. Of course, the relation cannot be merely instrumental. Many activities may lead to consequent pleasures that we would not consider to be aesthetic in any way. For example, playing tennis, going swimming or finishing a book. Rather it is in the very contemplation of the object itself that we derive pleasure. As Kant puts it: We dwell on the contemplation of the beautiful because this contemplation strengthens and reproduces itself. The case is analogous (but analogous only) to the way we linger on a charm in the representation of an object which keeps arresting the attention, the mind all the while remaining passive. Thus contemporary philosophers have, following this tradition, defined aesthetic value in terms of our delighting in and savouring an object with pleasure.* An object is of intrinsic aesthetic value if it appropriately gives rise to pleasure in our contemplation of it. Of course background knowledge of particular art movements, cate- gories or artistic intentions may be required to perceive an artwork appropriately. Nonetheless, given the relevant understanding, it is in attending to and savouring uhat is presented to us that we are afforded pleasure

One-, Two-dimensional Model of Personal Identity and Personal Being, as an Accumulator of “Zombies” Ontology (Regressive Tendency of Combining a Living Body and a Corpse Within a Semantic Field of the “Body” Concept in 19 European Languages and in All Hie

The aim of research is revealing the correlation of one-, two-dimensional models of personal identity and the ontology of a dead body without signs of consciousness (“zombies”). Research methods are hermeneutic and systemic structural. The author pays special attention to the phenomena of “philosophical, social, soulless zombies”. It is specified that such concepts as anima (Latin), fren (Greek), 灵魂 (Chinese), 精神 (Chinese), आत्मन (atman) (Sanskrit), बुद्धि (Buddhi) (Sanskrit), رُوحٌ (ruh) (Arabic), הנשמה (Hebrew); רוח (Hebrew), ψϋχ'ή (psyche) (Greek), spirit (English), esprit” (French), gemüt (German), geist (German), Körper (German),body (English),corpus (Latin), Le corps (French), chair (French) contribute most to the deformation of personal identity. Both the transcendental form of identity (spirit, soul) and material (human body) are subject to deformation. Using the example of the substitution of the “god of the morning” (Lucifer) for the “devil” (Satan) within the Latin language, the practice of influencing the collective consciousness of people of the transformational power of letters-symbols relating to the structure of the alphabetical plan of two-dimensional dimension (as understood by A. Sviridov). It is revealed that the concepts of transformation of personal identity within 19 European languages and all hieroglyphic languages are created today by critical masses of people whose consciousness is congruent with the phenomenon of "social zombie"

The Aesthetics of Theory Selection and the Logics of Art

Philosophers of science discuss whether theory selection depends on aesthetic judgments or criteria, and whether these putatively aesthetic features are genuinely extra-epistemic. As examples, judgments involving criteria such as simplicity and symmetry are often cited. However, other theory selection criteria, such as fecundity, coherence, internal consistency, and fertility, more closely match those criteria used in art contexts and by scholars working in aesthetics. Paying closer attention to the way these criteria are used in art contexts allows us to understand some evaluative and developmental practices in scientific theory selection as genuinely aesthetic, enlarging the scope of the goals of science

Aesthetic Dissonance. On Behavior, Values, and Experience through New Media.

Aesthetics is thought of as not only a theory of art or beauty, but also includes sensibility, experience, judgment, and relationships. This paper is a study of Bernard Stiegler’s notion of Aesthetic War (stasis) and symbolic misery. Symbolic violence is ensued through a loss of individuation and participation in the creation of symbols. As a struggle between market values against spirit values human life and consciousness within neoliberal hyperindustrial society has become calculable, which prevents people from creating affective and meaningful attachments to symbols in relation to our retentional apparatuses, technology and memory. Such tension can be thought of as a dissonance between overlapping domains of social life, private and public. New Media is a reflection of aesthetic dissonance, an experience such as being bored and entertained at the same time, between antagonistic experiences, values, and behavior. Moreover, new media is at once a medium of customizing aesthetic experience individually as well as the threat and practice of prioritizing calculability and modeling of consumer behavior in favor of capitalistic effectiveness, which results in the simultaneous categorization of an individual as a data point, putting those who do not fit an algorithm’s premises at a disadvantage