On the Four Keystones of Ecological Aesthetic Appreciation

Abstract

Since the initial publication of Joseph W. Meeker’s paper “Notes Toward an Ecological Esthetic“ in 1972 (4–15), ecological aesthetics (ecoaesthetics hereafter) has become one of the leading disciplines in the field of aesthetics. However, there is still some dissent among scholars about the exact object of ecoaesthetic study. Many scholars within and out of China confuse ecoaesthetics with environmental aesthetics, and some scholars still question the legitimacy of ecoaesthetics. We can consult the more mature discipline of environmental aesthetics to help define and develop ecoaesthetics. The objective of the study of environmental aesthetics is “environmental appreciation,“ which is clearly different from “art appreciation.“ It critiques and transcends the Hegelian philosophy of art, which views an artifact as an object of study. For scholars of environmental aesthetics, the main issue concerns the distinction and relationship between environmental appreciation and art appreciation. As for the study of ecoaesthetics, its object of study concerns how to appreciate aesthetically and ecologically. While it disapproves of traditional aesthetic appreciation that is not ecologically oriented (or without an ecological awareness), it does not necessarily oppose a form of aesthetic enjoyment based on artistic form, so to speak. In a nutshell, the argument of environmental aesthetics centers on the issue of the aesthetic object: is the object for the study of aesthetics artwork or the environment? By the same token, the argument of ecoaesthetics concentrates on the issue of the aesthetic way (or manner) and asks how to engage an aesthetic activity governed by an ecological awareness. In other words, it asks how to form an ecological aesthetic way (or manner) by letting ecological awareness play a leading role in human aesthetic activity and experience.