Making the Knowledge Profile of CS Peirces Concept of Esthetics (original) (raw)
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Abstract Is Peirce’s esthetic relevant for the philosophy of art—what is usually referred to today as aesthetics? At first glance Peirce’s idiosyncratic esthetic seems quite unconcerned with issues of art. Yet a careful examination reveals that this is not the case. Thus, rather than attempt to “apply” Peirce’s views to some aspect of the practice or the theory of art (e.g., creativity, historiography of art, style, genre), or even to a particular work of art, my intention is to examine how art fits into Peirce’s own conception of his esthetic theory. The argument is divided into two parts. In the first section I present Peirce’s conception of esthetics in the context of the normative sciences. I argue that esthetics connects with various strands of Peirce’s philosophy, most notably his cosmology, his agapasm and with the way that important aspects of them hang together around the principle of abduction and the corresponding notion insight. In the second section, I consider in what way art may be said to be admirable, to contribute to the summum bonum. I try to show that Peirce’s esthetic suggests that what attracts us towards art is first and foremost a semeiotic quality qua quality of mind or quality of Thirdness.
The Dialogicality of Peircean Esthetics
Cognitio, 2023
This article explores the dialogicality of the subject-matter of Peircean Esthetics. Following Herbart, the American pragmaticist, in his maturest account (1911), conceives of Esthetics as a science that deals with the two kinds of τὸ καλόν, namely with the nobility of conduct (realized in action) and with sensuous beauty (experienced in art and nature), though he systematically predilects the former, i.e. the study of the conditions of the imagination of an ultimate end that is admirable in itself (thus considering the end esthetically in its firstness, as a possible quality) and which is presupposed in the study of the conditions of its actualization as a summum bonum (thus considering the end ethically in its secondness, as a norm grounding dyadic relations of conformity of self-controlled conduct to it). As the esthetic (dis)approval of ends reveals the ultimate ground of imagining the unity of a possible practical identity, Esthetics uncovers the conditions of an inner freedom that makes self-governed conduct possible in the first place; not, however, as a transcendental given, but as the result of pedagogic practices (Sect. I). Next, we analyze how esthetic dialogicality originates from the first-personal stance of the fundamental question it asks: “[W]hat am I after?” (II.1); we differentiate the parties, phases, and presuppositions of this dialogicality (II.2); and analyze the role an ideal – in its methodeutic concretization as a habit of feeling “grown up under the influence of a course of self-criticisms and of heterocriticisms” – plays for the semeiotic causality involved in shaping conduct (II.3).
Unrepresented and ethical value in contemporary esthetical paradigms
It is not a new question whether art is an ontological field or an ethic value field. But when this question is asked, it is understood that it is closely related with several parameters such as what art and artist do and do not represent, ethics and readability of representation. Especially, whole art history made art works, artists and style of eras dependable on how to read what they represent and/or represented. All this representation character in some instance requires the implemented relation of art with reality and meaning to be dealt with both formal and ethic value. In this study, modern esthetics which is purely ontological and autonomous field with elitist behavior is criticized; an essay containing contemporary discussions is done on new paradigms and their representation formats which developed a new esthetics on what they do not represent through ethical value within the frame of historic dynamics.
Rethinking Esthetics: Some Aspects of a General Science of Culture
Different Elements of a General Science of Culture, 1990
Different Elements for a General Science of Culture is the first step towards the setting up of a general science of culture. It is an interdisciplinary enterprise which combines an axiomatic, a philosophical, an esthetic and a historical approach.The aim is to work out a theoretical framework for cultural activities which are increasingly relevant all over the world. The phenomenon of art and artistic elements in the different spheres of individual and social life, form the common starting point of the different approaches. It is hoped that this book will better the understanding of the role of culture in modern life and help to conceptualize cultural phenomena and cultural processes. It also aims to establish a philosophy of cultural sciences and to recognise esthetic experiences in social and historical life.
Charles Peirce’s First Visit to Europe, 1870-71
European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, 2009
has been commonly identified as the most original and versatile intellect that America has ever produced (Weiss, 1934: 403; Fisch 1981a: 17; etc.). He was not only a philosopher, but a true polymath. His reflections cover a wide range of disciplines. Peirce's thought combines a rich knowledge of the philosophical tradition and the history of science with his valuable personal experience as a logician and as an experimental researcher. His deep involvement in scientific activity over a period of several decades provided him with a genuine acquaintance with scientific practice that enabled him to develop a theoretical understanding of scientific creativity and of the real logic of discovery. Moreover, Peirce was also sensitive to the artistic dimension of creativity. Even though his theoretical remarks about Art are sketchy at best, he always remained fascinated by the phenomenon of art. In this respect, one ought to keep in mind that, as a youngster, he read and studied Friedrich Schiller's theory of art as expressed in his Aesthetische Briefe. But, as Peirce confesses in 1905: "As for esthetics, although the first year of my study of philosophy was devoted to this branch exclusively, yet I have since
Remarks on James Liszka's Charles Peirce on Ethics, Esthetics and the Normative Sciences
Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 58(3), 2022
Peirce held a convergence theory of moral truth, as James Liszka persuasively argues in Charles Peirce on Ethics, Esthetics, and the Normative Sciences (2021). Here I emphasize: (1) that Peirce’s convergence theory follows from the application of the maxim of pragmatism to the concept of moral goodness or rightness; (2) that in connection with Peirce’s account of the ethical summum bonum, morally right action can be understood as action that conforms or contributes to the growth of concrete reasonableness; and (3) that, for Peirce, the growth of concrete reasonableness seems to be a movement or development toward “God”. While I broadly agree with Liszka’s approach, I highlight some disagreements. As do many readers of Peirce, Liszka seems to regard the convergence of beliefs and habits as necessarily a convergance among the “indefinite community” of distinct persons or inquirers; however, there is sufficient evidence that Peirce came to think that, if any given person were to live long enough, they would come to the same conclusions or rest in the same habits on their own. With respect to morality, even the most evil person would eventually come around to the moral truth.
Comments concerning the artist in a Peircean perspective
Semiotica, 2009
According to C. S. Peirce, aesthetics has nothing to do with the fine arts. Peirce never fully developed an aesthetic theory, and he only put forth very sparse remarks concerning the artist and his work. In the following article however, we will tentatively relate the artist and his activities to a part of Peirce’s aesthetics. We will do this by identifying some consequences from Peirce’s concept of the aesthetic ideal, the objectively admirable, and throughout the article, we will lean on Peirce’s few remarks concerning the artist and the work of art. Keywords: C. S. Peirce, the aesthetic ideal, contribution to the growth in the concrete reasonableness, the artist, the work of art
The Est-hetics of Esthetics: Pedagogy as a Science of Life (2014)
The Est-hetics of educating is not a new “special field” in philosophy, but an attempt to move away from the pedagogic experience of art towards a philosophy of experience that surpasses the limitations of a paideia entirely centred on the tenet of what man ought to be. The study of the concept of beauty, from the kalokagatia of the ancient Greeks, to the crisis of esthetic formalism in the 20th century, help us to understand that, to make pedagogy a science of life, it is necessary to move away from the discon- nect between form and content and think again about the dialectic between critical thinking and that awareness of reality and beauty which is as much a part of our daily life as breathing.
HUMAN VALUES IN ESTHETICS - a draft of a RESEARCH PROPOSAL (from 1985 / 92)
The notion of "aesthetics" is understood in connection with art and beauty and the word is today used to imply the philosophy of art. It will be maintained in the proposed research that, in order to approach the problem correctly, art and beauty should be taken in their restricted sense to refer only to human experience and human creativity. The idea is put forward that art and beauty are tightly connected to human experience and creativity and that the main purpose of art is to promote, justify and actualise human life through all aspects of humanly accepted values. Art is understood as human creative and intellectual activity, highly sophisticated but understandable. Relativism of values is rejected and proposed that only values linked to human life are to be accepted if we are to comprehend modern developments of art. The first paragraph of the investigation is developed to certain extent, and the rest of work is given only in outlines, with relevant references proposed in the text and at the end of the research proposal. II. RESEARCH PROPOSAL PROPER 1. That art is human, there is little doubt. Nature normally does not belong to the realm of art. But not everything made by man we are prepared to call art either. The works of art make up a special category of objects. To describe the works of art we use language as a universal mean to express our impressions, our ideas, and our thoughts. When we describe nature we use also language and most of the time do not have a special terminology for that
Peircean Seeds for a Philosophy of Art 1
It is well known by the scholars of Peirce's philosophy that he didn't leave, among his huge work, something like a 'philosophy of art'. Notwithstanding this fact, I claim that