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 individual is in close connection with emotions. Many philosophers have tried to reduce it to shifting emotions.
Properties
Aesthetic consciousness includes feelings, needs, attitudes, perceptions, tastes, judgments and so on. Aesthetic feelings are close to the natural being of a person, since emotions do not belong only to a person. In fact, this is the reality studied by the psychological sciences. At the same time, it is a subject of generalizations, as it was in the concept of catharsis, which arose in ancient times.
It is noteworthy that in the course of considering art, the aesthetic consciousness and emotions of a person will differ from those when a person considers objects of reality. The painted death depicted in 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 moment, emotions arising during the evaluation of worksare not artificial. A person is able to sympathize very strongly with what he sees, literally believe in what is happening on the screen or on the canvas. So a person enters the game that art has offered him.
In the course of catharsis, a person experiences relief. This shows how aesthetic ideals and moral ones are connected. Emotions of this kind can have 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 a person's aesthetic tastes and needs is important, since the emotions experienced during the evaluation of art can both benefit and literally kill a person.
Sometimes a person heals by interacting with art. He uses his own aesthetic consciousness to evoke the emotions he needs.
Shapes
The field of aesthetics has its own elaborate terminology. According to it, several forms of aesthetic consciousness are distinguished. These include perception, experience, enjoyment, ideal, evaluation, judgment, taste, views, and theory.
General categories in aesthetics are the beautiful and the ugly, the sublime and the base. It carefully examines 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 - personality. Feeling helps to concretizeneed, thanks to him a person is aware of it.
Aesthetic perception is a holistic interpretation of the visible. It is both rational and emotional. Relationships in aesthetics are considered to be the 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 you to see another meaning behind the visible, to represent qualities in other forms. As psychological science advances, more and more ways to explore the imagination are opening up.
A judgment has a logical form. Its basis will be determined by how directly the subject looks at the world, how he feels at the moment. This raises the crucial question: is it possible to achieve a unified judgment through generally accepted means of evaluation?
Norms are a model that reinforces traditions, allows you to accumulate certain experience without starting perception from scratch. It is an important part of aesthetic culture. At the same time, the norm is capable of having a destructive effect.
Art
Considering the structure of aesthetic consciousness, one cannot fail to note how big a role art plays in it. It contains a great many opportunities for a person to join spirituality, develop a sense of taste, and creative abilities.
Art is a special kind of spiritual exploration 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 a person ideologically with its aesthetic qualities. Throughout human history, it has been of great importance in the development of society. Art performed cognitive, educational functions. Works of art vividly influence the public consciousness.
The educational function is manifested in the way art demonstrates the beautiful and the ugly, forming the perceiver's ability to distinguish between them. Also, art has a hedonistic function, according to a number of experts. After all, it gives a person joy, awakens his spiritual powers.
Ideal
The ideal is the highest value. This is what a person strives for, a criterion for evaluation, an object of judgment and a means of developing aesthetic consciousness, taste. The ideal is very specific, it has a number of clearly manifested features. It is not always true, since each person is able to choose something of his own as an ideal. In order for the ideal to be formed, the original material in reality is needed. He always has features that were borrowed from real life, even if the ideal is unusual.
In the aesthetic culture of the Middle Ages, there was a way of approaching the experience of perfect things. A person chose an object that has features that are interesting to him. In his imagination, he brought these features to the maximum extent. The same process takes place in the formation of aesthetic ideals. The ideal comes from reality, but it is separated from it becausewent through a process of idealization.
It is embodied in different ways, and if one subject sees the ideal in the object, the other will find in the same mockery of him. There are many options to embody 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 the substrate. The measure of the value of an ideal that has been embodied is its nature, the degree to which the object corresponds to the ideal, the cost of realizing it.
In the religious sphere, ideals are associated with objects of worship. Yes, it is God. If the religion is theistic, the way to realize this ideal is through the saints.
Structure
Like any form of social consciousness, the aesthetic is structured. In this case, there are many variations. Most researchers identify the following structure of aesthetic consciousness.
Firstly, this is ordinary consciousness. Secondly, a 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 taken into account 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 proportionalityconstituent parts, their coherence, organic unity. In the philosophical teachings of ancient Greece, it manifested itself in the organization of the cosmos. Philosophers considered the harmony of the world from different positions. Thus, Heraclitus found it 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 the individual 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 in a person should be fine." It is noteworthy that, although the assertion of a difference of opinion is proclaimed, objective concepts of both good taste and bad taste exist. There is a certain ideal of beauty in the human mind. If a person has taste, he 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 in the education of the senses. They are beyond aesthetic phenomena. At the same time, the phrase "everything should be fine in a person" includes someone's position, and there is always a place for relativity.
Activities
Consciousness in the field of aesthetics is very closelyintertwined with activity. The latter is practical and spiritual-intellectual. The practical includes contemplation, awareness of reality in the aspect of aesthetics. In no case will it be reduced exclusively to practice, and this is the peculiarity of aesthetic activity. Practical aesthetic activity happens in the sphere of everyday life, production, religion, profession, science.
Professional artistic practice is considered the highest form.
The beginning of contemplative activity lies in natural objects. It manifests the beauty that exists in the reality surrounding a person.
Aesthetic activity in a broad sense is considered the transformation of reality. For example, it can be the improvement of nature - the activity here is utilitarian and contemplative. Whether a person has made the bush a part of the park, or simply painted it, the activity is done, no matter how colorful the results are.
Understanding industrial aesthetic activity is not just about giving a beautiful appearance to objects related to production. Each man-made object has an original aesthetic content. And despite the modern trend not to add decorations to the technique, as was done, for example, in the 18th century, yet every object of production has a grace, a special form.
Sometimes it's enough just to emphasize the existing properties of an 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, proofs can be more elegant, mathematical formulas more beautiful. This applies to every field of modern science. At the same time, only a person who has a certain set of methods for translating them can discover aesthetic components here. It is necessary to have an idea of the beauty in this area.
Since initially a person drew knowledge of beauty from labor activity, labor remains the most accessible area for self-realization in aesthetic terms. For example, design reflects how a person strives to make an object comfortable and beautiful. Artistic design of objects of human labor have turned into objects of applied art.
Process
The process of making them is also beautiful. For example, the movements of a master of his craft are beautiful. The beautiful in the process appears not only because a person is hardworking and wants to work, but because of skill. This is a valuable occupation in itself, to which a person is given "out of love for the cause."
The beautiful can also manifest itself in intellectual activity. The aesthetics of thinking is a sign of its reality.
Aesthetics is also manifested in the daily behavior of a person. This is a culture of communication. Politeness also reflects an aesthetic component, it is not from moral considerations alone. She turns human interaction into something beautiful.
Life and leisure also have aesthetic qualities. Realizing his own needs, organizing his life, a person also expresses an aesthetic thought. Harmony in these areas is a characteristic of beauty. Showing up on time, lying down, or doing everyday things can be as important, if not more important, to a beautiful life than attending a theater 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 beauty in it has evoked many 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. There are professional and amateur varieties. Creativity is considered the highest form of activity in the field of aesthetics.
Relationships in aesthetics are the improvement of the surrounding reality in accordance with the concept of beauty. Personal culture is formed during the development of aesthetic consciousness, creative abilities. Evaluation is given by the subject, it expresses what taste he has. The development of good taste occurs in the course of interaction with art. Beauty is a sensual expression that reflects the patterns of human life.
Place in the public mind
In the structure of public consciousness, the aesthetic has a special place. It contributes to the harmonization of many phenomena in the spirituality of the individual, andalso society. The peculiarity of aesthetic consciousness lies in the fact that the assessment of the relationship between the individual and reality takes place taking into account the ideal, taste and need.
