A Virtue Theory of Aesthetics

Abstract

edness on the other. These three virtues, sensitivity, insight, and vision, make up the upper level on the hierarchy of virtue aesthetics, but more virtues are needed to get a full understanding of aesthetic appreciation. I suggest the following three as a partial list of these additional aesthetic virtues. The next level of the hierarchy is comprised of creativity, persistence, and courage. Creativity is another aesthetic virtue that has a relation to intellectual and moral virtues. The root of creativity is the precise expression of ideas. Intellectual creativity seeks new ways to provide more exacting insight into truth. Aesthetic creativity seeks the expression of ideas related to appreciation. The creative process as an aesthetic concern is directed at expression for the sake of appreciation. I put creativity at a level below sensitivity, insight, and vision, because each of these virtues requires the exercise of the creative process.19 Creativity need not be understood exclusively as the motivation that results in the action of the production of works. Seeing creativity as a part of interpretation and criticism is crucial to understanding this trait as an aesthetic virtue. The vice of lack associated with aesthetic creativity is, for want of a better word, unimaginativeness. This is not to be confused with the actions that result in forgery or copying. Works lacking imagination can be new works that do nothing to expand on existing works. The excessive vice of creativity is disassociatedness. Creativity as an aesthetic virtue is distinct from creativity as an intellectual virtue in so far as the aim is appreciation as opposed to understanding.20 At the same level as creativity in this hierarchy is persistence. Exercising upper-level virtues necessary for the full appreciation of a work requires persistence in two areas. First, because works are produced in a context, to appreciate them fully one must have an idea of the context. For example, This content downloaded from 157.55.39.104 on Sun, 19 Jun 2016 06:32:37 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Virtue Aesthetics 29 the first time I listened to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 I can recall being overcome by its beauty. As I have continued to listen to music, I can now more fully appreciate this work as it fits into Beethoven's other works and as it fits into the historical development of music. It is not that when I first heard it I failed to appreciate the work, but that as I continued to experience more music I came to appreciate it more fully. At the other end of the spectrum is the persistence needed to stay with a work. One has to work at appreciation. Through the exercise of persistence we get deeper into a work and discover what is there. Great works of art do not get boring when they are viewed, or otherwise appreciated, repeatedly. I have argued elsewhere that to appreciate a work of music fully, and other art forms as well, one needs to have repeated exposure to the work with the differences that are found in different instances of that work.21 The desire to appreciate the work fully by examining it repeatedly with an awareness of its context is produced by the virtue of persistence. Aesthetic persistence has a different set of vices than moral persistence. The vice of lack of aesthetic persistence is tractability or being easily distracted. The vice of excess is obsessiveness. Obsessiveness occurs when one is only interested in one work, understanding and appreciating other works only as they relate to the work that is the object of the obsession. Finally, there is an aesthetic manifestation of courage. Aesthetic courage, like creativity, is not merely involved in the production of works, though it is most evident there. One must also have aesthetic courage to evaluate new works and look for new insights in works that have been previously considered. One feature common to many great works is that they tell us about ourselves and about reality. Courage is needed to face what the work is saying. This overlaps with moral courage, but it is an aesthetic virtue when the motivation is to face what the work tells us about ourselves in order to appreciate the work. Aesthetic courage fits between the vices of timorousness and recklessness. There are, no doubt, other aesthetic virtues on this level in the hierarchy or even on another level. My goal here has been to give a framework for understanding the nature of a virtue theory of aesthetics. I think this framework provides the grounds for the discussion of the rest of my theory and for further fruitful considerations of aesthetic virtues and virtues as a