AESTHETIC ANALYSIS AND THE ARTS: AN INTRODUCTORY REVIEW

Abstract

Aesthetic value is culture bound, whereas aesthetic experience (sense perception) can be felt by every normal person. This paper concludes that aesthetic theories and concepts should be approached and applied in terms of the ethno-cultural distinctiveness of the art and art concept, and in terms of the cultural relativity or cross-cultural comparability of aesthetic concepts. On the whole, aesthetic phenomena are art centred. Hence aesthetic theories revolve around the appreciation of artistic creativity or objects of art. We submit that aesthetics is a qualitative and articulated experience, and is diffused, throughout nature and the arts, human experience and behaviour even though the congeries of its qualities and coordinates are often irreducible in language and analysis.


(Humanities Review: 2001 1(2): 9-15)