On Sep 13, 2007, at 3:20 PM, Paul Stenquist wrote: >> The logic of your statement is that there is no definition of art, or >> beauty, that is not entirely subjective. > > There are many definitions of art, and all of them are in some way > subjective. But there can be a consensus.
Consensus does not change whether something is subjective or objective. Words mean certain things due to a consensus on their meaning, not because a given symbol or utterance has an a priori meaning. >> Is that qualitative judgment, "in the eye of the beholder", a product >> of nature or nurture? > > Your choices are far too limiting. It's a product of many things: > environment, experience, nature, nurture and more. The shorthand of "nurture or nature" means "is it something a part of the animal (genetics, physiology, atomic structure, what have you) or a learned behavior (which includes experience, environment, teaching, etc)". There are no other choices to these two classes of kind other than possibly the supernatural, which we have yet to see a proof of existence for. > It's quite simple really. If it's pleasing to the eye, it's > beautiful. To one > individual, that makes it personal art. If the consensus of opinion > finds it beautiful, it can be said to be art. But that is still > somewhat subjective. Because we are unique individuals, the > subjectivity of these kinds of judgments can never be eliminated > completely. However, over time, the consensus can become very broad > and far reaching. Your statement presumes that pleasing equals beautiful, that things considered beautiful are art, and that a consensus of opinion on the beauty of something defines it as art. By your definition, everything can be art, because nearly everything can be pleasing to someone's eye. There is plenty of work out there that is considered art which is not considered beautiful or pleasing to the eye, from virtually every major recognized artist. That would seem to make your definition insubstantial. How do you account for this conflict between consensus of art and your definition of same? Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
