In a message dated 10/11/08 11:27:45 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Most philosophers say that whatever the aesthetic "experience" is, it > cannot be fully explicated because to do that is to describe it in terms separate > from the experience. > For William's sake, I'll say this as quickly as I can: Any philosopher who hunts for what something allegedly "IS" -- i.e. what non-verbal "thing" a given word in some way "signifies" -- is doomed, not only in the particular pursuit, but in useful work in general in many sub-divisions of philosophy. But William's core point is right. In general, the only successful way to convey what we have in mind when it's experiential is by ostensive definition -- "pointing at" the thing. Picture someone who's been blind for the first twenty years of his life. He undergoes a curing operation, and wakes up in a totally white room. There's no conceivable way that someone can convey to him with words what the visual experience of red is. You have to "show" him. How one "shows" him is a bit more complicated than it sounds -- for example, you have to make sure he's connecting your utterance "Red!" with the color and not, say, with the shape of the object you hold up -- but it can be done. Something of the same sort of difficulty obtains when trying to convey what you have in mind with "aesthetic experience". It has complications of a different sort. It's a commonplace in philosophy that, in fact, even when you and I agree a given object is red, I can never know for sure that your visual sensation is the same as mine. You may be "seeing" what I would call blue if I could somehow have your visual sensation at that moment. But I can't. If you and I stand and look at Van Gogh's SUNFLOWERS together, I know I will be feeling something I call an "aesthetic experience". It's something of a combination of being awestruck and quietly ecstatic. But I may have looked the same way standing in front of the nursery window in the hospital the day our first child child was born. If I look at you, and you are nodding and smiling, I can't be sure your feeling is (roughly) what I'd call an a.e.. I say "roughly" because no two experiences are ever absolutely identical even those of raw sense data. And note that my total experience at that moment is multiplex. I can identify in my consciousness the portions that are "visual sense data", and the portion that is the exultant feeling I'm calling an "a.e.". So as we gaze at SUNFLOWERS together, your smiling and nodding may be out of admiration, not exultation. You may be admiring, say, Van Gogh's technical skill with the brush and paint, without being "moved" in the peculiarly ecstatic way I am. In truth, though, if we talk about it enough, we can usually clear up any confusion about that. However, though I may become convinced you are experiencing what I'd call an a.e., I could never claim it's identical in character with my a.e. -- but I could feel it's close enough. When Luciano absoslutely nailed his "Vincero!", my wife and I could look at each other know we had "shared" an a.e. If I do become convinced of your feeling in front of SUNFLOWERS, I could say, "THAT'S what I mean by 'aesthetic experience'!" In sum, I would not have conveyed my notion of a.e. by using words; I would have done it ostensively. ************** New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Di ning, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out (http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000002)
