Emotion and the Appreciation of Art

Abstract

Emotion concepts are linked to the concept of knowledge in ways often not adequately realized among philosophers. It is useful to construe appreciation as a cognitive achievement, so that the appreciation of art' is a kind of knowledge. At least one aspect of appreciation is emotional, and this not accidentally, but as a matter of the very nature of the concept of appreciation. My aim is to discriminate some important ways in which emotion or feeling concepts are relevant to the appreciation of art. Now the number of possible discriminations among ways in which emotion enters into appreciation of art is, one supposes, potentially unlimited. I cannot claim to make all the comparisons and contrasts worth making in this area. But the discriminations actually offered are meant to help toward understanding or even resolving some difficulties that have arisen in the philosophical theory of art. Moreover, these distinctions which make a difference will illuminate some specific ways in which works of art may be artifacts with ponderable significance for the education of the emotions. With each of the subsequent issues, there is an attempt to show how the practice of teaching or seeking to learn about art as art in its emotional aspects leads to insight into emotion concepts in general. Such insight doubtless connects with a deepened understanding of the use of emotion concepts outside the context of art appreciation. It is also true that insight into emotion concepts in general leads to a refined practice of teaching and seeking to learn about art as art in its emotional aspects. The issues treated follow a sequential pattern. We begin with a discussion of the relevance of the artist's emotions to appreciation which emphasizes the intimate union between an emotion and its