Sense and Subjectivity: Hidden Potentials in Psychological Aesthetics

TY - JOUR

T1 - Sense and Subjectivity

T2 - Hidden Potentials in Psychological Aesthetics

AU - Roald, Tone

AU - Køppe, Simo

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Classical philosophical aesthetics held several assumptions about the psyche, both in relation to psychic structures and psychic functions. Whereas contemporary psychological aesthetics are dominated by reductive approaches when it comes to the nature of the work of art and the nature of experience, this article identifies some early nonreductive or complex psychological themes in classical aesthetics, namely the nature of sensing and aesthetic form, and locates their importance in contemporary conceptualizations of the functions of art. Sensing and aesthetic form are discussed in relation to other features of subjectivity, such as rationality, emotionality, and sociability. Just as the different senses are never fully interchangeable, neither are the arts, and the existence of a unified aesthetic experience rests on an aesthetic form that is amodal. The article proposes a psychological aesthetics that retains some of the features present in early philosophical aesthetics, while coming to terms with a contemporary experiential subject.

AB - Classical philosophical aesthetics held several assumptions about the psyche, both in relation to psychic structures and psychic functions. Whereas contemporary psychological aesthetics are dominated by reductive approaches when it comes to the nature of the work of art and the nature of experience, this article identifies some early nonreductive or complex psychological themes in classical aesthetics, namely the nature of sensing and aesthetic form, and locates their importance in contemporary conceptualizations of the functions of art. Sensing and aesthetic form are discussed in relation to other features of subjectivity, such as rationality, emotionality, and sociability. Just as the different senses are never fully interchangeable, neither are the arts, and the existence of a unified aesthetic experience rests on an aesthetic form that is amodal. The article proposes a psychological aesthetics that retains some of the features present in early philosophical aesthetics, while coming to terms with a contemporary experiential subject.

U2 - 10.1037/a0038435

DO - 10.1037/a0038435

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1068-8471

VL - 35

SP - 20

EP - 34

JO - Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

JF - Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

IS - 1

ER -