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Nature Aesthetics and the Respect Argument: Parsons Nature Aesthetics and the Respect Argument
Abstract
In recent debates about how we ought to aesthetically appreciate nature, one important argument (the Respect Argument) claims that appropriate aesthetic appreciation of nature involves taking nature “on its own terms.” Some object that, while respect morally constrains the actions we take toward certain people or things, aesthetically appreciating nature does not involve action, but only mere contemplation. The Respect Argument therefore fails. In this article, I reply to this objection, arguing that the concept of respect can yield a kind of moral constraint even upon contemplative activities such as aesthetic appreciation.
... While few, if any, philosophers hold the view that aesthetic value ought to trump other values in environmental decision-making, some have argued more explicitly that justice, respect, and other ethical concepts and attitudes must have a role alongside aesthetic appreciation, or be integrated into aesthetic concerns (Carlson, 2018;Parsons, 2018;Saito, 2017a). A significant barrier to giving a prominent role to aesthetic value in environmental decision-making and conservation is the claim that aesthetic value is subjective, as expressed through the common-sense belief that 'beauty lies in the eye of the beholder'. ...
The main aim of the article is to provide up‐to‐date knowledge of environmental aesthetics for an interdisciplinary audience, and to signal the importance of research in this area for studying people–nature relationships.
Environmental aesthetics has emerged in the last 50 years from the philosophical fields of aesthetics and environmental philosophy. Other disciplinary perspectives have also shaped environmental aesthetics, including landscape architecture, human geography, restoration ecology and empirical studies on landscape preferences in developmental and environmental psychology.
This review and synthesis mainly addresses the theoretical approaches and concepts that provide a framework to the key debates in the field, but also considers how empirical approaches have shaped recent developments, and how conceptual issues arise with respect to empirical cases.
We outline the background and context of environmental aesthetics, its key concepts, and provide a critical review of contemporary theories in the field. We then consider how aesthetics features in issues pertaining to the conservation, preservation, and restoration of nature.
Finally, we identify some new directions for environmental aesthetics scholarship that can productively contribute to ongoing debates regarding various relationships between people and nature.
A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
How should we characterize the interaction between moral and aesthetic values in the context of environmental aesthetics? This question is important given the urgency of many environmental problems and the particular role played by aesthetic value in our experience of environment. To address this question, we develop a model of Environmental Virtue Aesthetics (EVA) that, we argue, offers a promising alternative to current theories in environmental aesthetics with respect to the relationship between aesthetics and ethics. EVA counters environmental aesthetic theories that focus more narrowly on scientific knowledge and ground aesthetic value in ways that obfuscate pluralistic modes of appreciation of and relationships with natural and semi-natural environments. To develop EVA, we work with a revised notion of respect and engage with ideas concerning the development of aesthetic sensibilities, care, and virtuous aesthetic appreciation. EVA has the potential to support forms of human-nature co-flourishing, as well as constituting an aesthetic grounding for ecological citizenship.
The aesthetic appreciation of animals in China is different from that in the West. In this paper, I identify these differences by tracing the various definitions of the word ‘animal’ in Chinese, and by illustrating the special aesthetic values advocated within Chinese aesthetics. Further, I argue that, when animals are aesthetically appreciated against the background of Chinese culture, they may be viewed as both physical and spiritual objects, and as symbolizing the harmony between humanity and nature. At the same time, many Chinese animal images are shaped and appreciated in an ever-changing and interdependent pattern. I conclude by noting differences between China and the West in the aesthetic appreciation of animals with respect to the importance of physical attractiveness, the roles of interaction and imagination, and the aesthetic context of appreciation.
Certain voices in environmentalism stress a harmonious aesthetic connection with nature, and believe that doing this may have a beneficial effect on moral environmentalism. However, there is also a fair sprinkling of opposing voices that think difference and striving over of sameness and harmony. In alliance with them, and because I am poststructurally inspired, I have taken upon myself the task of thinking aesthetic differentiation and its implications for environmentalism. My hypothesis is that the performative act of constructing and discerning surface differences effectively creates meaning, and that we should not underestimate the degree to which the desire for meaning in general and aesthetic meaning in particular, impacts, for better or for worse, on the natural environment. Optimistically, I champion investment in green cultural capital through aesthetic differentiation.
According to radical feminist theory, pornography serves to further the subordination of women by training its users, males and females alike, to view women as little more than sex objects over whom men should have complete control. Composite variables from the General Social Survey were used to test the hypothesis that pornography users would hold attitudes that were more supportive of gender nonegalitarianism than nonusers of pornography. Results did not support hypotheses derived from radical feminist theory. Pornography users held more egalitarian attitudes-toward women in positions of power, toward women working outside the home, and toward abortion-than nonusers of pornography. Further, pornography users and pornography nonusers did not differ significantly in their attitudes toward the traditional family and in their self-identification as feminist. The results of this study suggest that pornography use may not be associated with gender nonegalitarian attitudes in a manner that is consistent with radical feminist theory.
This major collection of essays stands at the border of aesthetics and ethics and deals with charged issues of practical import: art and morality, the ethics of taste, and censorship. As such its potential interest is by no means confined to professional philosophers; it should also appeal to art historians and critics, literary theorists, and students of film. Prominent philosophers in both aesthetics and ethics tackle a wide array of issues. Some of the questions explored in the volume include: Can art be morally enlightening and, if so, how? If a work of art is morally better does that make it better as art? Is morally deficient art to be shunned, or even censored? Do subjects of artworks have rights as to how they are represented? Do artists have duties as artists and duties as human beings, and if so, to whom? How much tension is there between the demands of art and the demands of life?
Rousseau's Confessions are presented here in the publishing classic of Jacques Voisine, the only one to take into account the three known manuscripts.
Rousseau's Confessions are presented here in the publishing classic of Jacques Voisine, the only one to take into account the three known manuscripts.
Moralism involves the distortion of moral thought, the distortion of reflection and judgement. It is a vice, and one to which many – from the philosopher to the media pundit to the politician – are highly susceptible. This book examines the nature of moralism in specific moral judgements and the ways in which moral philosophy and theories about morality can themselves become skewed by this vice. The book ranges across the problem of the demands of morality; the conflict between moral and other values; the contrast between the practice of moral philosophy and other modes of moral thought or reflection; moralism in the media; and moralism in the public discussion of literature and art. This highly original and provocative work will be of interest to students of philosophy, psychology, theology and media, and to anyone who takes a serious interest in contemporary morality.
I propose that the appropriate appreciation of nature must include the moral capacity for acknowledging the reality of nature apart from humans and the sensitivity for listening to its own story. I argue that appreciating nature exclusively as design is inappropriate to the extent that we impose upon nature a preconceived artistic standard as well as appreciation based upon historical/cultural/literary associations insofar as we treat nature as a background of our own story. In contrast, aesthetic appreciation informed by our attempt to make sense of nature, such as science, mythology, and folklore, is appropriate because it guides our experience toward understanding nature's own story embodied in its sensuous surface.
This book studies the relationship between function and aesthetic value, breaking with the philosophical tradition of seeing the two as separate. It begins by developing and defending, in a general way, the concept of Functional Beauty, exploring how the role of function in aesthetic appreciation has been treated by some notable thinkers in the history of aesthetics. It then considers the relationship to Functional Beauty of certain views in current aesthetic thought, especially what is called 'cognitively rich' approaches to the aesthetic appreciation of both art and nature. Turning to work on the nature of function in the philosophy of science, it argues that this line of enquiry can help solve certain philosophical problems that have been raised for the idea that knowledge of function plays an important role in aesthetic appreciation. Although philosophical discussions of aesthetic appreciation tend to focus largely and sometimes almost exclusively on artworks, the range of aesthetic appreciation is, of course, much larger. Not simply art, but also nature, architecture, and even more mundane, everyday things - cars, tools, clothing, furniture, and sports - are objects of frequent and enthusiastic aesthetic appreciation. Accordingly, the second half of the book considers the place and importance of Functional Beauty in the aesthetic appreciation of a broad range of different kinds of things. The final chapters explore Functional Beauty in nature and the natural environment, in architecture and the built environment, in everyday artefacts, events, and activities, and finally in art and the artworld. In each case, the book argues that Functional Beauty illuminates our aesthetic experiences and helps to address various theoretical issues raised by these different objects of appreciation.
In environmental aesthetics a variety of proposals have been advanced about relevant norms that constrain appropriate aesthetic appreciation of nature. Some of these proposals are about cognitive or epistemic norms in that the authors claim that nature ought to be cognized in certain ways or that we ought to form certain beliefs about nature rather than others, and that when we do so, it will significantly constrain our aesthetic appreciation of nature. Another proposal is that moral norms rule out certain forms of aesthetic appreciation of natural objects and promote others. If these proposals are correct, then different kinds of value interact in the realm of environmental aesthetics. Evaluation of these proposals inevitably involves two parts. One first has to ask whether the purported norms exist. If they do, one has to assess their bearing on evaluative aesthetic judgments. Although there are weak epistemic norms of nature appreciation, they lack important implications sometimes associated with them. The situation is even less promising for moral norms: no one has successfully identified a moral norm that constrains aesthetic appreciation of nature.
Aesthetic preservation is the idea of sparing natural areas from development because of their aesthetic value. In this article I discuss a problem for aesthetic preservation that I call the ‘hidden gems problem’: in certain cases, the natural area under consideration is so remote and/or fragile that few people can actually experience it. In these cases, it becomes unclear how nature's aesthetic value can justify its preservation when development promises practical human benefits. After rejecting some potential responses to the hidden gems problem, I offer a different solution. I argue that we have an aesthetic reason to preserve nature's hidden gems because they are required to produce ‘true judges’ of aesthetic value, who are capable of improving the general quality of taste for landscape. I develop this argument using the example of recent preservationist efforts to save the isolated landscape of Sable Island, Nova Scotia.
The aesthetics of nature is a growing sub-field of contemporary aesthetics. In this article, I outline the view called ‘Scientific cognitivism’, which has been central in recent discussions of nature aesthetics. In assessing two important arguments for this view, I outline some recent thinking about key issues for the aesthetics of nature, including the relationship between nature and art and the relevance of ethical considerations to the aesthetic appreciation of nature.
Philosophy and Literature 25.1 (2001) 87-95
It is generally agreed that aesthetic objects do not constitute a set of special objects, but rather are determined by our attitudes and experiences. A consequence of this view is that, as Jerome Stolnitz claims, "anything at all, whether sensed or perceived, whether it is the product of imagination or conceptual thought, can become the object of aesthetic attention." The same point is made by Paul Ziff, who contends that "anything that can be viewed is a fit object for aesthetic attention," including "a gator basking in a mound of dried dung."
In light of this consensus, it is both curious and noteworthy that today's aesthetics is mostly concerned with art. As Thomas Leddy observes, "although many aestheticians insist that aesthetic qualities are not limited to the arts, even those thinkers generally take the arts as the primary focus of their discussion." Indeed, the subject matter of aesthetics is dominated by the definition of art, expression in art, artist's intention, art and reality, art and ethics, as well as the issues specific to each artistic medium. As a result, the aesthetics of non-art is marginalized, attended to only when we discuss beauty and aesthetic experience.
But even discussions of non-art objects and activities often focus on their likeness to art, conflating art and aesthetics. For example, discussing the aesthetic in sport, one author questions whether "any sport can justifiably be regarded as an art form." Another contrasts most artists who "do not equate art with cooking . . . nor . . . hold cooking in such high theoretical esteem" with "chefs through the centuries who have seen themselves as artists."
It is understandable that the aesthetics of non-art objects and activities are explained through comparison to art, simply because, for better or worse, aesthetics of art is our familiar frame of reference. However, there is also a risk in such comparisons. Non-art objects tend to be regarded as "wannabe" art, which often turn out to fall short of those features characterizing art, such as formal coherence, expressive power, embodiment of an idea, and creativity and originality. Consequently, non-art objects are regarded, at best, as something "like art" or as second-rate art. I find this implicitly hierarchical procedure to be problematic. Particularly with respect to aesthetic matters, pursuing and celebrating diversity is more rewarding and constructive than limiting what counts as worthy aesthetic objects. Just as Paul Ziff reminds us about the different "aspections" required for various works of art, I believe that diversity of aesthetic objects in general requires diversity of analyses and approaches.
Ignoring the rich diversity of aesthetic objects impoverishes the scope of aesthetics in two respects. First, it represents a rather parochial viewpoint unique to modern Western aesthetic theories, which presupposes the institutionalized artworld and certain cultural and economic conditions. Second, it unduly limits the range of aesthetic issues by implying that only those related to art are worthwhile for theoretical analysis. I intend to address these limitations in what follows.
The first limitation is simply based upon observation. Most non-art objects and activities concern our everyday experiences of eating, clothing, dwelling, cleaning, and dealing with natural elements. Unlike the institutionalized artworld, these are shared universally. In a culture like ours with a distinct artworld, the experience of art is usually limited to special occasions set aside for that purpose, although not all of us have access to or knowledge of the artworld. In contrast, all of us engage in everyday activities and handle non-art objects. Arnold Berleant thus remarks: "the custom of selecting an art object and isolating it from its surroundings . . . has been . . . most pronounced since the eighteenth century, with its aesthetic of disinterestedness. Yet it is at variance with the ubiquity of the aesthetic recognized at other times in the West and commonly in non-Western cultures." Other writers also point out that Balinese and Inuit culture lack the Western notions of art and artist because they embrace the aesthetic concerns in everything they do and make. Likewise, traditional Japanese culture aestheticizes everyday objects, phenomena, and activities, providing a fertile ground for examining those issues neglected by art-centered aesthetics.
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