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Final Paper
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Are judgments about art matters
of personal taste, or are there objective standards for gauging aesthetic
worth?’’

Salmane EL MANSOUR BILLAH

Aesthetics

FA24 – LIT 3370 01

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Introduction

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – this quote encapsulates the tension between
subjective and objective judgments of art. On one side, beauty appears to be absolutely local,
enclosed in a subjective approach and context. But on the other side, many philosophers have
advocated for universal conditions that guide aesthetic assessment. This paper discusses this
issue by analyzing the accounts and comments on aesthetics artwork value made in ancient
Greek and in the modern post-Romantic era as well as the positions of Nietzsche and the
phenomenological existentialists to suggest that if it is really possible to distinguish between
purely subjective aspects of the aesthetic experience, on one hand, and objective criteria
governing the judgments passed on aesthetically valuable objects, on the other one.

Ancient Aesthetic Accounts: Plato and Aristotle

It was Plato and Aristotle who began the systematic attempt to define aesthetics as well as
posed questions on art and truth, and the values of art. Plato believes that beauty is real and exists
beyond this world in the World of Forms. In the Republic, he has a word of disparagement to say
about art as imitation which are fake in terms of the Form, and dangerous in that they can stir
passions in the wrong manner (Plato, 2017). Beauty, according to Plato, will be an eternal form
that contemplating can lead the soul to broader knowledge. Hence it can be inferred, conclusions
drawn concerning the aesthetic sense are not completely subjective but are associated with an
understanding of transcendent reality (Grant, n.d.).

Mimesis was also cherished by Aristotle who had a less strained vision of art. In Poetics
he stresses the fact that art, especially the tragedy, has a specific kind of usefulness, such as the
catharsis or the purging of certain emotion like pity and fear. The criteria of perfection that
Aristotle has discerned in a work of art –harmony, proportion, and unity– offer an early
formalistic structure to the question of how ‘well-made’ things are thought to be ‘beautiful’
(Grant, n.d.).

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Thus, it becomes clear that Plato and Aristotle have distinct but legitimate ideas that
reject the idea that judgement of art are only personal preferences. Plato asserts that there is an
aesthetics of pursuing and aiming for the idea that beauty of art is found in fact. He backs up this
viewpoint by analyzing art's structures and emotional functions, such as catharsis and harmony,
which demonstrate the aesthetic value of art within specific bounds as defined by Aristotle. Both
schools of thought firmly support the idea that, A uniform set of moral principles serves as the
foundation for aesthetic judgments, without relating to the subjectivity of personal preferences.

Modern Aesthetic Accounts: David Hume and Immanuel Kant

The Enlightenment introduced a new perspective in the concept of aesthetics-humanist

concern with discrimination. In the essay “Of the Standard of Taste” David Hume tries to deal
with the subject of taste and the given fact of the existence of an agreement over some works. He
speaks categorically saying that it is true that every person has his own taste though trained
critics notice such elements that make some art works admirable in every conceivable manner
(Böhme, 2021). Therefore, before discussing the problem of the standard of taste, Hume puts
forth the concept of standard of taste based on human experience, education and practice
(Osborne, 1971).

Critique of Judgment, by Immanuel Kant brings forward a more systematic way of

viewing things. He also distinguishes between judgments of the sublime which only concerns the
individual experience and judgments of the beautiful which claim to be valid for everyone
(communis-sensus). Kant believes that beauty is the harmonization of free play between the
imagination and the understanding hence producing purposiveness without a purpose. That is
why it is regarded as something not empirical, but psychological, as the result of our common
human reason. Thus, Kant pays due attention to disinterestedness, meaning that people’s
aesthetic interests cannot be tied to any self-interest or self-love, which underlines the objectivity
of the aesthetic judgment. Sublime describes beauty that transcends the real world and evokes an
almost indescribable emotion or feeling(Grant,n.d).

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Thus, Hume like Kant demonstrates that sophisticated aesthetics is defined by the
interplay between personal impression and reason. Individuals that appreciate the beauty of art,
focus on art work that evoke feelings and ideas, which appeal to human enjoyment and
satisfaction. Kant continues by claiming that although opinions on beauty are subjective, they are
justified by human reasoning and imagination and are expressed in a form that other people
could understand. Both articles make the argument that beauty transcends personal preference
and establishes a link between the universal and the individual.

Romanticism

Romanticism was in opposition to Enlightenment because it focused on emotion,

individuality, and the sublime. Several painting groups exhibit the Romantic movement's concept
of individuality and passion as the essence of beauty. An excellent illustration of this is Edmund
Burke's idea of the sublime, which holds that individuals experience both awe and fear as they
gaze upon the vastness of nature (Böhme, 2021).

Romantics contend that art continues to be a manifestation of the subjectivity of the artist
and an expression of self. William Wordsworth, a Romantic, for instance, described poetry as
"the spontaneous effusion of strong emotions." Nonetheless, it is important to remember that
attempts to express broad concepts, such as the pursuit of authentic and distinctive ideas, were
not entirely absent during the Romantic era. Thus, the drive for personal expression and the urge
to communicate oneself to others constitute a primary antinomy of Romanticism.

Romanticism labels feeling and personality as the essence of the beautiful, which is in
opposition to the orderly perspective of the universe. But when considering the movement's
authenticity, it becomes clear that it is pointing toward the sublime, which emphasizes that art
does not reflect personal emotions and views but rather undescribable experiences. Therefore,
Romanticism is a paradox which emphasizes individualism, of course, but it also does not reject
the importance of human emotion in art.

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Nietzsche

One author that is credited with laying the groundwork for anti-aesthetics is Friedrich
Nietzsche. In Greek Mythology, Nietzsche distinguishes between the Dionysian spirit, which
represents the anti-order or chaotic passion or the earth, and the Apollonian spirit, which
represents order, beauty, and reason, in relation to the tragic theater. He believes that when these
two aspects collide, amazing art is created. Nietzsche declared that morality and reason
contradicted life and had to be overturned, dismissing a culture that prioritizes restraint over
redressing sin or transgression. Nevertheless, Nietzsche uses art to escape nihilism and give the
meaningless outside world purpose (Osborne, 1971).

Nietzsche's commentary on the seperation between Dionysian and Apollonian illustrates

the contrast between passionate, chaotic, and logical art forms. His philosophy of art holds that
art provides a path away from nihilism, which is universal, and away from morality and reason.
In order to demonstrate once more how art may compel subjects to become one, there appears to
be a relationship between the subjective experience-based creativity process and the objective of
dualism in life.

Phenomenology and Existentialism: Heidegger, Sartre and

Blanchot

The fourth viewpoint for aesthetic investigation, which takes into account the essence of
human life and existence on Earth, is offered by the phenomenological and existential
perspectives. Martin Heidegger, the author of The Origin of the Work of Art, asserts that
existential ideas are revealed through art. According to this viewpoint, art is an occurrence that
reveals the world and our place to ourselves rather than a physical object (Jerrold, 2010) .
According to Heidegger, art is about a work's capacity to offer a fresh perspective on existence
rather than on personal preference.

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For Jean-Paul Sartre, authenticity and independence are two concepts that are very
important to him. He claims in What is Literature? that art is one of the means by which people
can express their freedom to another. According to Sartre, the process of making aesthetic
decisions at work is a dynamic space where the freedom of the creator and the freedom of the
audience are intertwined. As a result, while opinions about art are clearly subjective, they do
have existential implications for questions of freedom and meaning (De Pater, 1968).

On the other part, Maurice Blanchot explores the issue of art and language in the face of
the infinite, drawing on phenomenology and existentialism as well as the study of literary and
artistic creativity. He similarly describes art in The Space of Literature as an encounter with the
other, which has nothing to do with well-known categories of thought. The topic of how
Blanchot views art as influencing consciousness must be revisited, especially in light of the roles
ambiguity and openness play in defining the aesthetic experience both objectively and
subjectively (Osborne, 1971).

Existentialism and phenomenology both take the pragmatic stance that art demonstrates
existence truths independent of people's preferences. Heidegger shows art as the essence of truth
when he analyzes it as a potential tool of revealing the world. Blanchot sees art as an encounter
with the infinite and the Other, while Sartre emphasizes freedom as the shared ground of the
artwork and the observer. Together, these viewpoints contend that while subjective sensory
perceptions are the basis for aesthetic judgments, these impressions are connected to completely
objective inquiry such as questionning the essence of existence.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that the disagreement over whether beauty is a culturally
conditioned phenomenon or an objective visual experience demonstrates the complexity of the
subjectivity-objectivity debate. Plato and Aristotle believed that the best way to comprehend art
was to look for universals, but as contemporary philosophers like Hume and Kant investigated

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the possibilities of art and aesthetic judgment, they aimed to show how one could distinguish
between personal preference and the universal human endowment. The significance of
individualists' voices and emotions was stressed by both Romanticism and Nietzsche;
phenomenology and existentialism are concerned with demonstrating how art reveals facts about
the world.

Finally, the philosophy of life, beauty, and truth, as well as basic human needs, support
the aesthetics of art, which introduces cultural, historical, and personal bias. This implies that the
debate over what constitutes an aesthetic value in art will be dependent on the one’s perspective
not the other.

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References

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for morality. The Senses and Society, 16(3), 351–355.
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De Pater, W. A. (1968). Art Criticism and the Objectivity of the Judgment of

Taste. Philippine Studies, 16(1), 60–98. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42720574

Grant, J. 1. Plato’s Philosophy of art. (n.d.). University of Oxford Podcasts.

https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/1-platos-philosophy-art?audio=1

Grant, J. 4. Kant’s Critique of Judgement: Lecture 1. (n.d.). University of Oxford

Podcasts. https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/4-kants-critique-judgement-lecture-1

Grant, J. 5. Kant’s Critique of Judgement: Lecture 2. (n.d.). University of Oxford

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Jerrold, L. (2010). Artistic Worth and Personal Taste. The Journal of Aesthetics
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Kant, I. (2005). Critique of Judgment. Courier Corporation

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Plato. (2017). The Republic. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

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