Aesthetic categories are the first and most important milestones in the system of aesthetic concepts. They reflect the experience and traditions of culture, socio-political characteristics, spiritual values. Along with the laws and general concepts of aesthetics, they help to comprehend the properties of reality, beauty and harmony, the features of artistic creation and social being.
The concept of a category in aesthetics
Aesthetic categories mean the most general concepts that describe the processes of creativity (cultural, artistic, musical, cinematic and other). They simultaneously reflect the essence of the phenomena of being in philosophy. The system of aesthetic categories is a stable interconnection of basic concepts, where a change in some elements entails the transformation of others.
The analysis of the categories of aesthetics is inextricably linked with their consideration in historical retrospective, since their content has changed over the centuries. In the methodology of this science more than once nihilistic opinions arose about the possibility of a categorical description. Thus, the Italian philosopher and politician Benedetto Croce in his writings substantiated the idea that all aesthetic categories are individual in nature, are perceived by each person in their own way, and therefore are pseudo-concepts. Since they cannot be given a precise and unambiguous definition, they should be abandoned in philosophy.
One of the central categories or meta-categories associated with the variety of expressive forms of the world is aesthetic vision. It allows you to establish a relationship with the philosophy and sociology of art, to show the beautiful, as one of the most important dimensions of aesthetic perception inherent in the spiritual nature of man.
Categories
The main aesthetic categories include:
- beautiful;
- ugly;
- sublime;
- tragic
- comic
- base;
- terrible.
Additional categories can be added to this group: mimesis (imitation), chaos and harmony, irony, grotesque, allegory, as well as a large number of others. An exhaustive list does not exist, since aesthetics only indicate the way that allows a person to leave the realm of utilitarianism and join a higher, spiritual reality. Some of these categories are considered in the framework of the general principles of art - mimesis, motivation, artistic taste and objectivity, style, and others - in the analysis of the languages of art (art symbol and image, simulacrum).
Many of these concepts existed in antiquity. In modern aesthetics, their content was rethought, new categories appeared: absurdity, labyrinth, art space and time, and others. More general concepts of aesthetic quality or property are also introduced.
Beautiful
One of the earliest categories in aesthetics was “beautiful”, describing phenomena that have the highest aesthetic value. Ideas of what was beautiful were different in different cultures and eras.
In the days of antiquity, this term was understood as a property of the world - an ideal order. The ancient Greek thinkers Pythagoras and Aristotle saw the beautiful in harmony - proportionality, consistency of parts and orderliness of diversity. This idea was realized in the architecture of this culture - the temples of Ancient Greece differed in proportion to human proportions. Then the idea arose that beauty is created through inspiration and the mental transformation of reality.
A special role in the development of aesthetics was played by Aristotle. The aesthetic categories of beauty, tragedy and imitation in his writings acquired an ontological character. The main of them, he considered mimesis - a creative imitation of reality in art, able to present the image as beautiful or ugly. His point of view was different from the opinion of Plato, who meant by this category simple copying.
In the Middle Ages, the concept of beauty was identified with the divine. Only God gives inert matter aesthetic properties. The asceticism of that era denies the sinful enjoyment of works of art. The beautiful, it is also divine, should tame the desires of man and help him on the path to faith.
In the Renaissance, this aesthetic category in art returns to ancient traditions. The beautiful, including the beauty of the human body, has become a symbol of good, and the ugly - of evil. In the era of Classicism, the meaning of this concept acquired a different shade - it began to be identified with graceful and truthful. Thus, the beautiful largely depends on the subjective perception of the world, which explains the big difference in the aesthetic assessments of individuals.
Ugly
The ugly as one of the main aesthetic categories arose as a contrast to the beautiful, the sublime and the aesthetic. Dialectical negation is a characteristic feature of the ugly in reality and in art. It is associated with such characteristics as negative emotions, rejection, anti-value, disgust.
In the times of Greco-Roman antiquity, in reality, collapsing objects and dying, decaying creatures were ugly, in the concept of morality - immoral acts, in politics - abuse of authority, deception and other phenomena. In art, designating the ugly is more difficult, since it can be a fact of skillful imitation (image). Cicero and Aristotle also emphasized that the ugly and the ugly are always inherent in the comic.
Under ugly in aesthetics is understood the properties of objects that have a negative value in the universal plan, but do not carry a serious threat. The beautiful delights in contemplation, and the ugly repels.
Tragic
The tragic, as a category of aesthetics, first appeared in Aristotle. In his understanding, this was an insoluble conflict, the obligatory component of which is passion and suffering. Their causes are sublime.
Since then, in more than 2000 years, the concept of the tragic has changed dramatically. This problem in contemporary art and philosophy intersects with the awareness of mortality, sinfulness and imperfection of man, as well as the lack of freedom. At the same time, together with the tragedy of irrevocable death, the tragic affirms the infinity of the universe. This category is trying to solve the problems of life and death, the meaning of being, eternity of an ever-changing world.
Comic
The essence of the comic aesthetic category is controversy. It can be described as the result of a confrontation between the beautiful and the ugly, the sublime and the base, the stupid and the rational, the false and the true. The forms of such a contrast, and, consequently, of the comic, are very diverse.
The features of this aesthetic category in the literature are:
- grotesque;
- surprise effect;
- emotional criticism;
- variety of shades (humor, irony, sarcasm, satire and others).
Sublime
In ancient Greece, the lofty was understood not as a category of aesthetics, but as a stylistic figure of speech. In the Middle Ages, God was the highest good and exalted, and at the level of human existence, this meant the pursuit of the ideal and pure.
In modern understanding, this category has the connotation of the positive significance of objects that are not yet fully disclosed and hold a huge potential. This is something colossal, powerful and superior to human capabilities at the present stage of development.
Low
The base, like the ugly, is a contrast. It is the opposite of the category of the exalted and represents the extreme degree of the ugly.
The base is an extremely negative value for all of humanity, which carries great danger. An example of an aesthetic category of this type is fascism, militarism, nuclear war.
Horrible
The category of terrible is close to tragic in meaning. Its difference is that it is hopeless and leaves no hope for the best. The outcome of the terrible is hopeless, and death in this case does not carry an enlightening principle, since it is not subject to man. In medieval consciousness, this category was associated with the torments of hell and the coming Doomsday.
An example of the terrible French writer and philosopher Denis Diderot was a picture that depicts a man thrown to be torn to pieces by wild beasts. His suffering and death are completely meaningless and lead to a pessimistic attitude.
Chaos and harmony
The oldest aesthetic categories also include chaos and harmony. Reflections on these two concepts among philosophers often led to the question of the rational formation of the world from initial chaos. So, the German philosopher Hegel, wondering about chance, asked the reader: how many times do you need to scatter the letter set in order to make Homer's poem "Iliad"?
Harmony in the understanding of ancient Greek thinkers is a whole, consisting of a set of elements, which are often of the opposite nature. Harmony is a harmony between people (social sphere), between people and gods (spiritual sphere) and between natural phenomena (ontological sphere). It carries a positive characteristic that aims to reunite.
Chaos is the opposite of harmony, a mismatch between any elements. Both categories exist in a single world space. The most amazing thing is that chaos is able to generate harmony: from the collision of particles and their interaction, stars, planets and the world of matter as a whole are born.
Catharsis
The category of catharsis was of great importance in ancient culture. Her concept included primarily spiritual purification as a result of aesthetic experience. In those days, it was believed that art was able to treat mental and other diseases, to tame the harmful passions of man. In modern psychology, there is also a specific direction - art therapy, designed to solve internal problems, rehabilitation after mental and physical trauma, and reduce stress.
In the modern sense, catharsis borders on expressiveness, self-expression, sublimation through painting, sculpture, acting, playing music and other directions in art. In the perception of a work of art, a person should also experience catharsis, which leads to the emergence of a sense of beauty and the desire to be better. This category is closely related to the artistic image. It affects a person with its emotionality, calls for empathy.
Artistic image
An artistic image as an aesthetic category is a generalized picture that is created with the help of fiction and has an aesthetic value. It also serves as the only possible form of displaying reality in art. The fiction of the artist creates another reality in the context of the aesthetic ideal, which is based on life experience. The interpretation of the image can also be different, depending on the knowledge of the conceptual person and the historical era.
There are many tricks for creating an image: comparison, typification, generalization, fiction, and others. The artistic image has the following functions:
- reflection of the features of reality and the disclosure of spiritual life;
- expression of emotional attitude to the phenomenon or object;
- the embodiment of ideal, harmony and beauty;
- creation of aesthetic significance;
- the formation of the perception of the viewer, listener or reader;
- the embodiment of a certain kind of conventions in the reflection of evidence (creative role).