Aesthetic Experience

[moselle]

Empathy
1: the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it
2: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and

Comments

Beauty

[zarqoun]

The question of "what is beautiful" has troubled humanity for centuries... and the answer seems to change from era to era.
some say it's what's most natural, some say it's what's closest to the truth, others say it's what depicts human emotions best.
I had a lecturer that, I think, put it best: beauty is something that fits and serves well the internal rules of the system in which it exists. (I'm probably not putting it as accurate as he did)
I think the best example of this is how an elegant mathematical/physics equation is beautiful. it's not aesthetically pleasing (lets disregard calligraphy for a sec), but the idea behind it is so concise, so true, displayed so elegantly, - it's so simple - it's beautiful (to whoever understands it).

What I'm trying to say is, that if an artwork makes you feel its emotions, and it shows that emotion deeply and in a strong way - then it creates empathy within you, i.e. - beautiful.
Am I making any sense?

Re: Beauty

[moselle]

Hi!
Right. I've been making a list of things that people often or might consider aesthetic experiences (an empathetic response to art is just one of these), and I think you can have an aesthetic experience with mathematics, but not an empathetic one. I'm thinking that by definition aesthetic experiences are experiences with beauty. As for what beauty is, it seems to me that most people experience it and value it, but have a hard time talking about it, me included.

[max243732]

I really like the concept of wabi-sabi, thanks for the link

[moselle]

I wonder what the relationship is between art, empathy, and communication. The artist infuses an object with her subjective state. The observer looks at the object and the subjective state is transferred to that observer. That process seems to me to be a communicative act.

I think that empathy is also an imaginative act; I can empathize with people in Haiti in part because I can imagine their loss. With art, an observer looks at an object and the artist's subjective state is transferred to that observer, but only insofar as he is able to imagine it.

In TNG, Data didn't experience empathy, did he? It seems to me that emotion, empathy, and imagination are closely tied.