Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!escher
From: escher@Apple.COM (Michael Crawford)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Some views on Aesthetics
Message-ID: <10664@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 10 Oct 90 23:27:13 GMT
References: <1990Oct10.194910.23185@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 47

In article <1990Oct10.194910.23185@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> punch@pleiades.cps.msu.edu (Bill Punch) writes:
>But it still doesn't answer the question of what aesthetic IS,
>especially from the viewpoint of experience. Since I have neither blue
>sky nor sea here, what is it about say, Vaughn Williams Sym No 5 that
>evokes a sense of wonder in me, or reading to James Weldon Johnson's
>"Creation Story" or whatever.  Why doesn't "Mary had a little lamb" or
>"Jack and jill" do the same thing?

Robert Pirsig discussed this question is _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance_.  It is not a simple question.  Essentially the best answer
he could find (in defining quality, which I think is equivalent here), is
that "Quality is what you like."

Sounds circular, though, but he made a strong point for this being valid
and no better answer existing.

He made the point that quality could not be rigorously defined, but that this
did not mean it did not exist.  One can prove this by imagining what the
world would be like without quality -- nothing would be made except for
functional purpose, etc.  Certainly our world is not like this.

Aesthetic is a very personal thing.  There is a common aesthetic within a
society, but only to the extent that the people in the aesthetic are similiar.
Thus one cannot define what is "good" without having something to
experience the goodness.

Perhaps you should try to reflect on just what it is that distinguishes what
you like from what you don't like.  Perhaps you can get a sense of what
aesthetic is from trying to define what it _isn't_.

Consider that when a Javanese Gamelan master was played some Western music, 
and asked what he thought of it, he said:

"All I hear is space between notes."

Perhaps a more useful question might be not to define what aesthetic is,
but what it would take to construct a beast that would be capable of 
experiencing it.
-- 
Michael D. Crawford
Oddball Enterprises		Consulting for Apple Computer Inc.
606 Modesto Avenue		escher@apple.com
Santa Cruz, CA 95060		Applelink: escher@apple.com@INTERNET#
oddball!mike@ucscc.ucsc.edu	The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

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