The Aesthetics of Mirror Reversal

Philosophical Studies -     

The Critical Aesthetics of Disney World

ABSTRACT An analysis of Disney World as an aesthetic environment provides important insights. I ts many distinct areas constitute a multiplicity of environments —futuristic, ethnic, fantasy, adventure. Each shapes time, space, and movement in distinctive ways, making Disney World a microcosm of America's cultural pluralism and at the same time the kitsch of postmodernism. Yet Disney World is more than an entertainment park but conceals disturbing meanings behind its glittering images. In numerous ways it both illustrates and epitomises kinds of thought and practice that characterise the industrial-commercial culture of our period. Disney World, in fact, openly but subtly purveys the culture of consumption. Everything is converted into matter for consumption: national and ethnic traditions, science, technology, education, the family, history. This is an environment in which nothing is as it appears to be. Spectacular in scale and brilliant in execution, Disney World is a 'masterpiece of falsification, a megamonument to the commodification of culture.' The aesthetic analysis of Disney's worlds, by showing how realities are created and subverted, confronts us with the pervasiveness of the normative and the inseparability of the moral and the aesthetic. The challenge of our time is to reform knowledge and value in a way that is pluralistic and open-ended, and yet provides the basis for both decision and action.     

自然美学与环境美学:生发语境和哲学贡献

从审美角度观照自然和环境,早在古希腊时代就已经开始,但是从笛卡尔以来的现代哲学、现代科学和环境思想当中却缺失了这一维度.当代的"自然关学"与"环境美学"的出现,就是要超出以艺术为研究中心的"分析美学"传统,而去寻求审美观念曾经退场的新的生长空间.如从这两种关学对哲学的贡献来看,则具体包括如下四个方面:1.对"康德美学原则"的当代辩驳;2.对"环境伦理学"的本体论推动;3.对于"自然-文化"之辩的哲学反思;4.对中国古典"生态智慧"的阐发.     

Excess in Art: The Case of Oversinging

“Oversinging” is singing that is excessive in one or more dimensions: too loud, too ornamented, too melismatic, too expressive, or employing too much vibrato. I begin with a characterization of oversinging and establish a context for discussion (Section I). Next I consider performances by Christina Aguilera and Michael Bolton as examples (Section II). In light of these examples, I consider how oversinging might be both aesthetically and morally problematic (Section III). Along the way I raise concerns about authenticity and sincerity (Section IV). Finally (Section V), I consider a “paradox” of oversinging involving the role of skill in artistic performance. My discussion touches on the aesthetics of performance, aesthetic judgment, virtuosity, and taste.     

Qur'anic Recitation and The Aesthetics of Piety

Qur'anic recitation and azan (the call to prayer) are heard everywhere on the Muslim–Arabian Peninsula. Even those outside the Islamic tradition find Qur'anic recitation (tilawa) very beautiful. This article is an attempt to work out some of the puzzles—aesthetic and moral—of appreciating tilawa from outside the tradition. I defend an appreciation of tilawa that is aware and admiring of its piety, but appreciates it as an object of beauty. I further attempt to show how this does not violate Islamic precepts on the “art” of tilawa.     

“美学的多样性”:第18届世界美学大会综述

2010年8月9日至13日,美学界的盛会-第18届世界美学大会在北京大学召开,来自国内外的千余名学者参与了这次会议,诚所谓"群贤毕至,少长咸集".本届美学大会的主题为"美学的多样性",由于牵涉议题广泛,参加会议学者众多,本文择其大端,概述如下.     

第六届全国美学大会暨"全球化与中国美学"学术研讨会综述

中华美学学会第六届全国美学大会暨"全球化与中国美学"学术研讨会于2004年6月25～27日在吉林省长春市举行,本次会议由中华美学学会、吉林大学文学院和中国文化研究所联合举办.与会代表围绕主题从多个方面展开如下探讨.     

The Question of Internationalism in Philosophy and Aesthetics

In this article aesthetics is treated purely as a branch of philosophy, and the points made are intended to apply both to philosophy more generally and aesthetics more specifically. The manner in which internationalism obviously has to do with the organization of the disciplines is discussed. Does it have any bearing on their content or substance? The distinction between organization and content is probed and seen to be much less obvious than at first sight apparent and is doubtfully tenable. Nations are foreign to philosophy in two respects. First we would remain philosophically impoverished if we attended only to the philosophy produced in our own nation. Secondly, and more interestingly, nations cannot be the subject of philosophy since they are individuals. Individuals can only be of philosophical interest in so far as they can be identified under general categories; then what matters is the category, not the individual. Philosophy, including philosophy of art, can only be interested in individuals as first-order examples or illustrations of more general second-order claims or theses. So nations must be excluded from the domain of philosophy. It does not follow that such exclusion amounts to internationalism. Indeed though internationalism itself might be a philosophical idea the dismissal of nations as philosophically irrelevant more obviously represents a commitment to universalism than to internationalism. Internationalism and universalism should not be confused though they overlap. Universalism is the ideal of the so-called enlightenment project which is defended in this paper against post-modernist criticism and also against the charge that it constitutes a view from nowhere. The view from nowhere is in the strictest sense utopian and for that reason is to be championed as a means for criticising our current assumptions and beliefs and not dismissed. Overt bias including national bias is not a problem, though the writer of philosophy must strive against it on pain of failing to write philosophy. A writer, however, can only guard against overt prejudice and bias. But a text, whether or not philosophical, is also silently exclusionary, that is, there are groups it silently excludes. At a later date the reader can often detect examples of silent exclusion. Since these silences are indefinitely many, it is always possible for a group to feel excluded. The important philosophical point is to concede the possibility of linguistic and indeed conceptual exclusion, to study its mechanisms and to consider on what principles, if any, a moral charge of exclusion is justified and when not.     

爱留根纳的神学美学

作为西方极其重要的哲学家和基督教思想家,爱留根纳的独特之处,在于他从“无”或“不存在”的概念对上帝的理解和思考,这种空前深刻的考量集中体现为一种辩证关系:上帝既是绝对的隐匿,又是通过自我显现的创世!如何在绝对的分裂中保证上帝的独一和完善?如何使上帝在绝对超然的隐匿之无中自我显现和创世?这既是最重要的基督教神学问题,也是形而上学关切的根本。爱留根纳通过他的神学美学给出了天才的回答。