I hope against hope that someday \u201caesthetic\u201d might be widely understood as something that is NOT always, inevitably, associated with art. If that were the case, perhaps more people would see that we are all making aesthetic judgments, decisions, \u201cgestures\u201d as Flusser put it, all the time (\u201cgestures\u201d include speech and writing as well as, say, genuflection). For human beings\u2019 most logic-resistant loyalties, ranging from harmless preferences to the fiercest commitments, are fundamentally aesthetic. \u201cI like it\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t like it\u201d is probably the most familiar expression of an aesthetic judgement (although it can, sometimes, misleadingly refer to a logical or ethical decision). An aesthetic judgment aligns the speaker on his or her own grounds, without implying any logical or ethical foundation or imposing any tacit obligation to explain or defend. There is invariably some aesthetic dimension in any of our judgments, whether other people, ideas, rituals, institutions, substances, sounds or tastes. It is NOT restricted to arts!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are in conversation with someone about an activity that involves aesthetic decisions (this is likely to be cooking or gardening or shopping for clothes, but it could be anything), the sentences in the exchange will probably include plenty of logical or ethical propositions: does the object or material or plant or fabric serve an intended purposes, fit in a given space, appropriately mark an occasion? But there will also be statements about aesthetic preferences. When you hear a phrase such as \u201cIf it were me, I\u2019d buy that one\u201d or, \u201cThat recipe is too complicated for me,\u201d your conversation partner is acknowledging the aesthetic dimension in what you are doing, expressing an awareness that aesthetic responses will differ, and offering reassurance that he or she is prepared to accept this particular difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suppose that big commitments, such as religious belief or sexual orientation are just as aesthetic at heart as more familiar, less binding ones, such as what you like for breakfast, or which art works resonate with you, or how you feel about trying something new. If the aesthetic dimension really is critical with respect to the big questions, it would be worth building it into even the most basic education. If people could be more aware of their own aesthetics \u2013 their own sense of themselves \u2013 and of how it compares and contrasts with the ways other people do the same, we might be able to heal some of the rifts that currently make us so miserable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I hope against hope that someday \u201caesthetic\u201d might be widely understood as something that is NOT always, inevitably, associated with art. If that were the case, perhaps more people would see that we are...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1681,"parent":841,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1682","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1682"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1851,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1682\/revisions\/1851"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyannroth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}