Aesthetic consciousness is a systemic image of reality with several features. It exists along with religious, moral, scientific, and so on. The specificity of the aesthetic consciousness of the person lies in a close connection with emotions. Many philosophers tried to reduce it to changing emotions.
The properties
Aesthetic consciousness includes feelings, needs, relationships, perceptions, tastes, judgments, and so on. Aesthetic feelings are close to the natural being of a person, since emotions do not belong to just one person. In fact, this is a reality studied by the psychological sciences. At the same time, it is the subject of generalizations, as it was in the concept of catharsis, which arose in ancient times.
It is noteworthy that during the examination of art, the aesthetic consciousness and emotions of a person will differ from similar ones if a person considers objects of reality. The painted death depicted in the sculptures creates a completely different impression than the same phenomenon in reality. In the same way, a person perceives absolutely everything - in different ways in reality and in art.
At the same time, emotions arising during the evaluation of works are not artificial. A person is able to sympathize very much with what he saw, literally believe in what is happening on the screen or on canvas. So a person enters the game that art has offered him.
During catharsis, a person experiences relief. This shows how aesthetic and moral ideals are linked. Emotions of this kind can exert a strong influence on the physiology of the body. At the same time, emotions themselves are generated by physiology, because it is impossible to experience them without having the corresponding centers in the brain.
The formation of aesthetic tastes and needs of a person is important, since emotions experienced during the evaluation of art can both benefit and literally kill a person.
Sometimes a person is treated by interacting with art. He uses his own aesthetic consciousness to evoke the emotions he needs.
Forms
In the field of aesthetics has its own well-developed terminology. According to her, several forms of aesthetic consciousness are distinguished. These include perception, experience, enjoyment, ideal, appreciation, judgment, taste, views and theory.
The general categories in aesthetics are beautiful and ugly, sublime and base. Very carefully, it considers patterns in art.
Aesthetic need is the desire to find beauty in the surrounding reality, to highlight the beautiful component of visible objects. It is supposed to change the situation, as well as directly the subject - the individual. Feeling helps to specify the need; thanks to it, a person is aware of it.
Aesthetic perception is a holistic interpretation of the visible. It is both rational and emotional. Relations in aesthetics are considered correlation of feelings with phenomena.
Taste is the ability to see differences in qualitatively different aesthetic phenomena, to separate the beautiful from the ugly, and so on.
Imagination allows us to see behind the visible another meaning, to represent qualities in other forms. As psychological science develops, more and more ways are opening up to study the imagination.
Judgment has a logical form. Its foundation will be determined by how the subject directly looks at the world, how he feels at the moment. This raises the most important question: is it possible to achieve a single judgment by means of generally accepted means of assessment?
Norms are a model that consolidates traditions, allows you to accumulate a certain experience, not starting perception from scratch. This is an important part of aesthetic culture. At the same time, the norm is able to have a destructive effect.
Art
Considering the structure of aesthetic consciousness, one cannot but note how much a role art plays in it. It contains a great many opportunities for the individual to join spirituality, develop a sense of taste, creative abilities.
Art is a special kind of spiritual mastery of reality. Through it, a person expresses life, creating artistic images. Their origins lie in the objects of real life. The peculiarity of art lies in the ability to influence its aesthetic qualities on a person ideologically. Throughout human history, it has been of great importance in the development of society. Art performed cognitive, educational functions. Works of art vividly affect public consciousness.
The educational function is manifested in how art demonstrates the beautiful and the ugly, forming the perceiver's ability to distinguish between them. Also, art has a hedonistic function, according to some experts. After all, it gives a person joy, awakens his spiritual strength.
Ideal
The ideal is an example of the highest value. This is what the person strives for, a criterion for evaluation, an object of judgment and a means of developing aesthetic consciousness and taste. The ideal is very concrete, it has a number of pronounced features. It is not always true, since each person as an ideal is able to choose something of his own. In order for an ideal to be formed, the original material in reality is necessary. It always has traits that were borrowed from real life, even if the ideal is unusual.
In the aesthetic culture of the Middle Ages, there was a way to approach the experience of perfect things. A person chose an object that has features that are interesting to him. In imagination, he brought these features to the maximum extent. The formation of aesthetic ideals is the same process. The ideal comes from reality, but it is separated from it, because it went through the process of idealization.
It is embodied in different ways, and if one subject in the object sees the ideal, the other will find in the same mockery of him. There are many options to realize the ideal, and this is a consequence of this fact. Its formation takes place in reality at various levels of society, including in the sphere of economics and politics. They are in this case a substrate. A measure of the value of the ideal that has been embodied is its character, the degree to which the object corresponds to the ideal, the cost of translating it.
In the religious realm, ideals are associated with objects of worship. So, it is God. If the religion is theistic, the way to realize this ideal is the saints.
Structure
Like any form of social consciousness, the aesthetic is structured. There are many variations. Most researchers distinguish the following structure of aesthetic consciousness.
Firstly, it is an ordinary consciousness. Secondly, specialized aesthetic consciousness. The first level is based on empirical experience - emotions, experiences and so on. They are characterized by variability, inconstancy.
Specialized consciousness is based on general philosophical ideas about the surrounding reality, the concept of a person’s place in the world.
It should be borne in mind that the boundaries between the two levels are quite vague. The specificity of consciousness at any level includes both sensuality and emotionality.
Harmony
Harmony in aesthetics is the proportionality of the components, their coherence, organic unity. In the philosophical teachings of ancient Greece, it manifested itself in the organization of space. Philosophers considered the harmony of the world from different perspectives. So, Heraclitus found her in dialectical unity. While the history of aesthetics recognized the harmony of the world as a characteristic of beauty. In the Renaissance, the creators believed that it was based on contrasts. That is, a balanced picture of the world will be harmonious.
Aesthetic culture of personality
It demonstrates the degree of development of spiritual forces in a person. Both personality and society are interested in developing it. It includes rational ideas about what is beautiful and what is not, as well as a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment of the aesthetic aspects of reality.
Authorship of A.P. Chekhov belongs to the phrase "everything should be beautiful in a person." It is noteworthy that although a statement about the difference of opinion is proclaimed, objective concepts of good taste and bad taste exist. In the human mind there is a certain ideal of the beautiful. If a person has a taste, she will qualitatively distinguish between the beautiful and the ugly.
At the same time, there is no formula for good taste, since the creation of criteria occurs during the upbringing of feelings. They are beyond aesthetic phenomena. At the same time, the phrase “everything should be perfect in a person” includes someone’s position, and there is always a place for relativity.
Activities
Consciousness in the field of aesthetics is very closely intertwined with activity. The latter is practical and spiritual-intellectual. The practical include contemplation, awareness of reality in the aspect of aesthetics. In no case will it come down solely to practice, and this is where the peculiarity of aesthetic activity is manifested. Practical aesthetic activity happens in the sphere of everyday life, production, religion, profession, science.
The highest form is considered professional and artistic practical activity.
The beginning of contemplative activity lies in natural objects. It manifests that beautiful that is in reality surrounding a person.
Aesthetic activity in the broad sense is considered a transformation of reality. For example, it may be the improvement of nature - the activity here is utilitarian and contemplative. Regardless of whether the person made the shrubbery part of the park or simply captured it in the picture, the activity takes place, and no matter how bright its results.
Understanding production aesthetic activity is not just about giving a beautiful look to objects related to production. Each object created by man has an initial aesthetic content. And despite the current tendency not to add jewelry to technology, as was done, for example, in the 18th century, yet each production facility has grace, a special shape.
Sometimes it’s enough just to emphasize the existing properties of the object, which are beautiful in themselves. Aesthetic production activity is a design object in the first place.
Scientific activity often has aesthetic value. For example, evidence can be more elegant, mathematical formulas more beautiful. This applies to any field of modern science. At the same time, only a person who has a certain set of methods for translating them can detect aesthetic components here. You must have an idea of beauty in this area.
Since initially a person scooped up knowledge about beauty from labor activity, labor remains the most accessible area for realizing oneself in an aesthetic plan. For example, design reflects how a person seeks to make an object comfortable and beautiful. The decoration of the objects of human labor turned into objects of applied art.
Process
The process of their manufacture is also wonderful. For example, movements of a master of his craft are beautiful. The beautiful in the process appears not only due to the fact that a person is hardworking and wants to work, but because of dexterity. This is a valuable lesson to which a person is given "out of love for the cause."
The beautiful can manifest itself in intellectual activity. Aesthetics of thinking is a sign of its reality.
Aesthetics is also manifested in the daily behavior of the individual. This is a culture of communication. Politeness also reflects the aesthetic component; it is not for moral reasons alone. It turns the interaction of people into something beautiful.
Aesthetic qualities are also possessed by everyday life and leisure. Realizing his own needs, organizing his life, a person also expresses an aesthetic thought. Harmony in these areas is a characteristic of the beautiful. In time to manifest, lie down or do everyday things can be no less, or even more important for a beautiful life than visiting a theatrical performance in an effort to live beautifully.
The aesthetic beginning at the current moment of time is clearly manifested in the relationship of people with nature. Since ancient times, the beautiful in it has caused a lot of emotions in a person. At the moment, interaction with nature includes aesthetics both in considering its phenomena and in its careful use.
Another area of aesthetic activity is creativity. Allocate its professional and amateur variety. Creativity is considered the highest form of activity in the field of aesthetics.
Relations in aesthetics are the improvement of the surrounding reality in accordance with the concept of beauty. A personality culture is formed during the development of aesthetic consciousness, creative abilities. The subject gives an assessment, it expresses what kind of taste he has. The development of good taste occurs in the course of interaction with art. Beauty is a sensual expression, which reflects the laws of human life.
