New Formalism and the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature

Abstract

Pretheoretically, our aesthetic appreciation of focuses primarily on the appreciation of formal both art and nature consists of the appreciation properties and is typically labeled formalism. of a wide range of different kinds of properties. The latter may be called cognitivism since For example, we appreciate the representational it stresses that part of the range where properties of a work of art such as Hieronymus appreciation seemingly requires greater cogniBosch's The Tribulations of St Anthony (1505), tive resources. marveling at the work's portrayal of the temptaIn recent years, the natural animosity tions and tortures the endurance of which are between formalism and cognitivism has come the price of sainthood. Alternatively, we appreto a head concerning the aesthetic experience of ciate the sensuous properties of the sky at sunnature. In the aesthetics of nature, formalists rise, marveling at the brilliant array of pinks and have traditionally focused aesthetic appreciturquoises. Within this range, which stretches ation on the kinds of formal compositional from the sensuous to the representational, we properties characteristic of scenic views, such may appreciate other kinds of properties: we as unity or balance. Cognitivists, on the other may find either the Bosch or the morning sky hand, have attempted to direct such appreciation richly textured, harmonious, balanced, powerful, toward a much wider range of aesthetic properawe inspiring, or expressive of God's wondrous ties, the appreciation of which requires knowways. ledge about the natural world.' The current There are a number of philosophical questions controversy between formalism and cognitivconcerning this range of properties. Chief ism in the aesthetics of nature stems from the among them are the questions of which of such fact that certain cognitivist-inspired arguments properties are the proper focus of genuine against traditional formalism have recently aesthetic experience, and of those that are, come under attack by individuals advocating a which are the most significant-the heart, as it new version of formalism concerning the were, of aesthetic experience. One tradition in aesthetic appreciation of nature. In this essay, philosophical aesthetics claims that the properwe first reassess the cognitivist-inspired arguties of the more sensuous nature hold title to ments in light of these recent criticisms. We being the sole focus of aesthetic experience, show that these arguments are still effective or at the very least that the appreciation of such against traditional formalism, although the new properties is a central and significant dimension version of formalism can to some extent escape of such experience. Another tradition champions their full force. Second, we develop a new, a different part of the range, claiming that the although related, line of thought that both appreciation of properties far removed from the directly challenges new formalism and provides sensuous ones is the heart of aesthetic experiadditional grounds for the cognitivist point of ence. The former tradition characteristically view.