The Beauty of Environment: A General Model for Environmental Aesthetics Page: 14
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something for purely personal reasons, because the object brings to mind something related to our
private life. And on the same basis, though we like something we can censure it at the same time. In
the same way we can recognize something as being beautiful without liking it (for example ascetic
interior furnishing), just as we may find ourselves acting in opposition to our accepted ideals of
behavior. - The analysis of activity can be misleading in that the grounds for the activity belong to
another area of values (e.g. economic reasons in choosing clothes). It is possible to be forced to act
in contradiction to one's own system of taste.
Value judgments are generally applicable in the sense that they must - in order to be valid - be
testable: another person must be able to repeat the same process of reasoning. The difference in
judgments of taste is in part due to the fact that our criteria differ. Apart from that, it is possible
when applying them, not only to make mistakes, but also to apply discretion, and make different
kinds of choices. What is decisive is the convincingness of the reasoning (it is not usually binding),
not the final result. In mathematics too the calculation only is significant, not the correct answer,
which may depend on chance.
Sibley states that the observation of objective properties demands only sense activity, whereas
the observation of aesthetic properties demands taste. His basic thesis is that there are no such
non-aesthetic features which definitely would justify the use of aesthetic terms. Aesthetic terms are
not in this sense regulated by conditions. It is never possible - no matter how accurately the object
is depicted - to lead to the conclusion that the object would have the aesthetic properties claimed;
it is only possible in this way to present support for the claim, no more than that. [Sibley 1959:424-426 ]
Non-aesthetic properties do not thus automatically lead to particular aesthetic properties. But
aesthetic properties have some kind of parasitic connection with non-aesthetic properties (with
objective properties). The task of the one who presents the claim (a critic or other such) is to help
others to see the aesthetic properties of the object: to demonstrate the relevance of some of the parts
from the point of view of the whole, to direct observation, to give terms for speaking of
observation. What is decisive is to talk about the properties of the object, not the internal
experiences or states of mind of the observer.
Thus it is possible to speak of knowledge of taste. The observer then has knowledge of what the
object is like in an aesthetic sense; he has this knowledge from the experience of the use of language
and other objects that belong to the same class as that being examined. Aesthetic level is spoken
about in aesthetic terms. This level of secondary properties must be linked with the primary
properties by giving specific reasons, even though there is no definite connection. If the connection
is not made the matter is one of subjective aesthetics. - Monroe C. Beardsley distinguishes
depictive and evaluative elements. Evaluative is aesthetic approval - aesthetic value is positive
-depictive is the presentation of grounds for aesthetic approval. (Beardsley 1973: 208.]
Value judgment or description? Is beauty/beautiful a value judgment of an object or its description?
If a value judgment is conceived of as conformity with criteria, this tells nothing about the object,
but only about the relation of the object and the criteria (the object has criterion properties if the
value judgment is logical); a person, the recipient, is the one who provides relations. If on the other
hand beauty is conceived of as an immediate description of the object, such synonymic terms as
'harmonic,' 'ordered,' 'functional,' are used - it only has to be made clear what is the synonym at
any given time. These then are simultaneously descriptions of the object, and reasons for its
aesthetic approval. A separate system of taste is also needed, within the framework of which
harmony or whatever is considered a good property.
But the question in the latter is of more than the description of the object: of its interpretation.
The difference is made concrete if the claims "this is blue" and "this is harmonic" are compared.
The further question "in what way is it blue?" can be answered by a more accurate classification:14
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Sepänmaa, Yrjö. The Beauty of Environment: A General Model for Environmental Aesthetics, book, 1993; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc52173/m1/32/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Center For Environmental Philosophy.