Luc writes: "But then, if that is the case, [i.e. if what people like me have been calling an aesthetic experience is "experienced" during what Luc calls "perceiving" and I call "processing"] we might have a problem with the association of the 2 words: aesthetic + experience, since it is not an aesthetic experience per se."
This sounds very like it's based on an assumption of what an "aesthetic experience" "IS". Or what the proper "name" of my experience is. This I can't accept for many reasons that I want to believe I've conveyed, but, again, it's largely a disagreement about labeling. Largely but not totally, however now I'm not commenting on any confusion in Luc, but in me. I know I've had experiences when listening to certain Mozart, seeing certain paintings and sculpture, reading certain poems, watching certain plays, that I'm inclined call "aesthetic experiences". Why? They're not "identical", the way I'll temporarily say that the experiences of red, blue, yellow etc are "identical" in the sense of all being "color experiences". And, to compound my uncertainty, I've also had experiences while contemplating certain natural scenes, and even certain moments in sporting events, when I've had to concede to myself the feeling was very like ones I wanted to call a.e.'s. Why? There is something that is common and unique in these feelings that prompts me to suspect there is something sui generis here. What? Notice: I'm talking about the feeling. It is irrelevant how the occasion for that feeling is produced. I say this because I know there are some who would insist that if the occasion is not something man-made and thus, in their view, "cannot be art", the experience cannot "be aesthetic" because "aesthetic" entails "art". And notice also that I'm not asking, "IS my experience before a natural scene, or something in a sporting event, an "aesthetic experience"." What I'm interested in is the common element in all those experiences that prompts me -- in silly thrall to language as I am -- to want to call them aesthetic experiences? Luc writes: "But then, if that is the case, [i.e. if what people like me have been calling an aesthetic experience is "experienced" during what Luc calls "perceiving" and I call "processing"] we might have a problem with the association of the 2 words: aesthetic + experience, since it is not an aesthetic experience per se." This sounds very like it's based on an assumption of what an "aesthetic experience" "IS". Or what the proper "name" of my experience is. This I can't accept for many reasons that I want to believe I've conveyed, but, again, it's largely a disagreement about labeling. Largely but not totally, however now I'm not commenting on any confusion in Luc, but in me. I know I've had experiences when listening to certain Mozart, seeing certain paintings and sculpture, reading certain poems, watching certain plays, that I'm inclined call "aesthetic experiences". Why? They're not "identical", the way I'll temporarily say that the experiences of red, blue, yellow etc are "identical" in the sense of all being "color experiences". And, to compound my uncertainty, I've also had experiences while contemplating certain natural scenes, and even certain moments in sporting events, when I've had to concede to myself the feeling was very like ones I wanted to call a.e.'s. Why? There is something that is common and unique in these feelings that prompts me to suspect there is something sui generis here. What? Notice: I'm talking about the feeling. It is irrelevant how the occasion for that feeling is produced. I say this because I know there are some who would insist that if the occasion is not something man-made and thus, in their view, "cannot be art", the experience cannot "be aesthetic" because "aesthetic" entails "art". And notice also that I'm not asking, "IS my experience before a natural scene, or something in a sporting event, an "aesthetic experience"." What I'm interested in is the common element in all those experiences that prompts me -- in silly thrall to language as I am -- to want to call them aesthetic experiences? ************** New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out (http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000002)
