Aesthetics & Art

In Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts, the main concept i grasped was the meaning of aesthetics and  art and the different views and reflections of past philosophers regarding the topic. Aesthetics, defined by the video, is the philosophical study of beauty and art. Theories from great philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Frances Hutcheson and more were shared and their vast views on aesthetics and art was rather interesting. Plato possessed the idea that art works are just replications of an original piece, Aristotle analyzed tragedy in art form, order and symmetry, and Immanuel Kant's aesthetic experience makes possible the reconciliation of natures determination with human moral freedom.
In the second video, Carta: Evolutionary origin of art and aesthetics, French speaker Changeux and Indian speaker Ramachandran discuss their scientific views on aesthetics and how our brains work when we see art. They discuss how seeing art effects our emotions.

I could not pick just one philosophers theory that I felt most important because I agreed with multiple aspects of a few of the philosophers. Plato's, of the 4th Century B.C, idea that most art possess no true originality settled with me due to my beliefs that most things in art such as paintings, fashion, music and dance are all recycled and redone. The manifestation of something beautiful attracts someone who sees it, a statement I greatly agree with. Plato contributed to the aesthetic theory immensely being one the first to take his opinions in a different direction than most people during his time.

As for Changeux and Ramachandran their views on aesthetics and art are very interesting. Changeux's 4 points on art were was most interesting to me. Especially the 3rd and 4th ones which state the aesthetic efficiency of art that have staggering effects on reasons and emotion also how art is in constant evolution. I found his slide on the brain imaging of surprise most intriguing, he is incredibly scientific in his studies.  Its most interesting how in depth Ramachandran is about art when initially he had no interest in art at all, until he took an art class. He says that the place where art and science meet is in the human brain.

The videos support alot of the reading material. I found it best to read before having watched the videos, that way i have a foundation and it is much easier to understand the videos if I already have previous knowledge of the key concepts and vocabulary.

The films overall were very educational, however, incredibly tedious in certain aspects, especially due to the length of the videos and depth of information. The first video was easy to follow, the one with Changeux was difficult because although his accent was pretty awesome it was so difficult to understand! I had to replay his speech a few times to grasp what he was trying to say. Ramachandran on the other had was very alive, clear and humorous, so it was a good balance to have him speak after Changeux. The videos add depth to the topic in our readings because it added imagery to the concepts, and imagery always provides and easier way of learning.