The Meanings in History by Alban G. Widgery

Author:Alban G. Widgery [Widgery, Alban G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Historiography, General
ISBN: 9781317274612
Google: M1v7CwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-04-14T16:14:16+00:00

V

Have human beings a need for the beautiful? Certainly not for any merely Naturalistic aim of physical survival and physical enjoyment. Science with its analysis may distract from the synoptic view of things, the view of them as wholes. Whatever the scientific conceptions of their cause, it is the seen sunrise and sunset that arouses aesthetic response. It is interesting to know the structure of a flower, but it is almost impossible to repress a feeling of sacrilege when by dissection its beauty as a whole is destroyed. History gives plenty of evidence in the efforts of artists and of the contemplative enjoyment of the beautiful for us to maintain that there is such a need in men's psychical or spiritual nature. There have been a few suggestions that the aesthetic is instrumental. It has been urged that the beauty of the plumage of the peacock arouses the sex interests of the peahen. Incidentally, one could ask: Has the peahen aesthetic appreciation? The beauty of the human form may have some such biological effects, but only if that beauty is appreciated. Clothing might be just as physically useful if it were un aesthetic, yet much attention has been given to the production of beautiful fabrics and artistic dresses. That beautiful buildings and music have been used in religious communities does not involve that their beauty is simply instrumental. They are not beautiful because they are so used: they are so used because they are beautiful.

There can be no help for the interpretation of history in Idealist efforts to arrive at a general concept of the beautiful, connoting a sort of common factor in all we judge beautiful. Who could possibly arrive at a common factor in the odour of a perfume, (as Chanel No. 5); the taste of a luscious fruit (as a fine mango); the sound of a piece ofmusic(as a song by Caruso)? If a general concept of beauty is supposed to connote the com prehensive totality of all that is beautiful, what human being has ever known that or had any hope of so doing?

Aesthetic value-experiences are possible by inherent capacities of the individual mind. However much physical objects and instruments may be involved, it cannot be shown that those experiences are merely forms of sense perception. It could be assumed that all individuals have such capacities, as it is impossible to prove that any of them have not. Their apparent absence may be due to some lack of the kind of attention required, or of a necessary external stimulus. Aesthetic capacities can be—and require to be—cultivated. Children—and, of course, adults-can be taught to appreciate the beautiful. Artists of all kinds in painting, sculpture, architecture, music, dancing, and so on generally have training in their arts, often prolonged and arduous. With individuals created as distinctive some have outstanding artistic capacities.

Aesthetic value-experiences are particulars: what is distinctive in each is of significance. This is evident in all forms of art. Music may be taken as an example. There are some common characteristics of form in what has come to be called 'classical music'.

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