Evolution of Aesthetics

The concept of Aesthetics has become familiar in our society, however, most people do not feel comfortable enough to give a clear definition of the concept; they tend to have an abstract notion difficult to explain. That is why, the first step will be to provide a concise and understandable definition of aesthetics: it is known as the branch of philosophy, or a field of study that deals with the humans' response to art and its evaluation. This discipline started in 18th century, opposed to the reason imposed during the enlightment. Due to its huge extension, there are several objects of study within the field of aesthetics, and each of them are closely interrelated, so the task of putting them together is not an easy one. That is why I will just focus on two relevant concepts which are, in my opinion, the basis of this discipline: "aesthetic experience" and "perception of beauty". The main purpose of this paper will be to discuss to what extent these two concepts are subjective, or are tied to cultural factors.

The term aesthetic experience refers to a positive and desirable experience which provokes the individual a huge pleasure. From this definition we can consider that anything can be the detonating of an aesthetic experience. However, this term has been object of study since the beginning of the aesthetics' discipline, and many philosophers and psychologists have worked on that, making it variable or even ambiguous. Adorno, was the first to rescue the psycho analysis of the aesthetic experience in a philosophical way; in his work, he based his argument in Hegel's opinion about the concept, who claimed that the beauty of art was better than the beauty of nature and, consequently, nature was not a source of aesthetic experience. Adorno tried to find out an explanation to this idea and to refute it, by claiming that the incapability of the human beings to appreciate the beauty of nature was related to the fear they feel for it. This makes sense if we take into account that in the past most people lived from their lands, so they could not see them as a source of pleasure, but as an utilitary tool, which sometimes went against them. This fact leads Adorno to reach a witty conclusion which stated that people would not be able to appreciate nature as a source of aesthetic experience until they learned to live in harmony with it.

Most philosophers and psychologists seem to agree with the fact that an aesthetic experience is something exclusively subjective and not universal, that the individual experiences without taking into account external factors such as ideologies, culture or thoughts. According to Santayana, it is something completely subjective, and the claim to universality would transform this perception into judgement. However, we can also find not so radical positions; that is the case of Monroe C. Bardsley, who says that an aesthetic experience is something emotional, but also intellectual, which implicitly suggests