Aesthetic Experiences and Attitudes

Abstract

As was said above, there are now two directions in which our inquiry might move, toward an examination of the beautiful objects of nature and art or of the state which their contemplation induces in the beholder. However, what is said of the one will have a bearing upon what is said of the other, the difference lying in the placing of the emphasis. Modern thinkers have tended to place the emphasis on the experience. This, I think, is largely because the art of many different times and places has become available to us. This means that we can no longer look to the historical-geographical environment for clues as to the intention of the artist or to the demands of the community. We simply have the objects and our reaction to them. It is no accident that Clive Bell, who gives us our starting point, was deeply moved by the art of the Far and Middle East, Chinese pottery, and Persian rugs. His credo is embodied in the dictum, “There is no doubt that aesthetic theory must take its starting point in the personal experience of a peculiar emotion.”1