I think it is the word "taste" which tips me off,whose composition is one of reflection and the passage of time instead of the suddenness of delight.
-----Original Message----- From: Cheerskep <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, Dec 23, 2013 6:50 pm Subject: Re: Aesthetic experience Saul wrote:
A.E.s need not be associated with ones taste - for it is judgement - reflection that leads to evaluation and preference
In response, Kate queried:
Then can we safely claim that an aesthetic experience takes place before judgement?
My guess is Saul is saying just the opposite. His line suggests to me he feels an a.e. is the result of reflection and evaluation. To try to keep this clear: I use 'a.e.' to indicate the ecstatic reaction-feeling that swarms over me when I'm contemplating certain works. This feeling is preceded by only the sound or vision. the feeling certainly may thereafter be succeeded by reflection, ratiocination, analysis (I mean all three of those to be the same sort of cerebral mulling). Unfortunately, 'a.e.' arose as short for "aesthetic experience", but I now see many listers would, when they say 'experience', have in mind more than just the ecstasy. They'd include the preceding-to-simultaneous sound or vision. Some might even include the discussion thereafter. "Last night was a great experience!" The aural or visual input always starts before the ectasy begins, but they c an certainly be effectively simultaneous thereafter. When Susan Boyle hit her stride with those long notes in "I had a dream", when Pavarotti held his "Vincero!", when the last few minutes of Beethoven's Ninth catch us up, the sound and the ecstasy are persistent together through time. It is that ecstasy that I have in mind when I talk of my "reaction". I save the word 'response' for not the reaction, but the audience EXPRESSION of their reaction -- the applause, the croons of approval.
