MP3 Aes Intro

The speaker reflects on the recent award season and their disappointment with certain nominations. They question their own judgment of art and discuss Socrates' belief that beauty defines itself. Locke's theory of primary and secondary qualities is introduced, with primary qualities being inherent to an object and secondary qualities being effects it has on us. Locke states that beauty relies on the relationship between the observer and the observed. Friedrich Schiller's belief that art plays a moral role and promotes acceptance is mentioned. The speaker acknowledges the challenges of experiencing beauty in everyday life and introduces an interview with Professor Tara Eisen to discuss the power of art on the psyche. This is the Aesthetics Introduction Award show season just passed, and I did not cross a single box off my Oscars bingo card. I was that girl who was peeved that Greta Gerwig didn't even get a nod for directing Barbie, and there's no doubt in my mind that past lives deserve best original screenplay. But really, what do I know? I'm a liberal arts student who has never touched a film camera, and most of what I create is based on someone else's work. My judgment of good art is contingent on how something makes me feel, or how it makes me think in a new way. But what does that say about me? According to Mr. Socrates, beauty is defined by itself. By means of beauty, all beautiful things become beautiful. So many uses of the same word. Essentially, he believed that our value of life increases as we start recognizing beauty more in everyday things. Locke had to complicate this idea, of course, by introducing the theory of primary and secondary qualities of an object. To Locke, primary qualities of an object are its extension, motion, solidness, and number. A basketball, for example. Its ability to bounce, the space it takes up, and the fact that there's only one of them in this scenario are all primary qualities. These qualities are inherent parts of the object and cannot be separated from it. In other words, they come from inside the thing itself. Secondary qualities, on the other hand, include smells, tastes, colors, and sounds. Secondary qualities are effects that the object has on us, and what it puts out into the world when it's observed. For example, if the basketball was purple instead of orange, it would still be a basketball. Our perception of it would just be different. So what does this mean for aesthetics? Basically, Locke says an object is beautiful if beauty resides in its primary qualities and can be observed in its secondary qualities. So to Locke, the presence of beauty relies on two parties, the observer and the observed. Beauty's existence is a relationship between what is outside of us and how it makes us feel. The psychology behind beauty joined this area of study 100 years later, with works like Friedrich Schiller's Aesthetic Education of Man from 1794. He believes that appreciating art plays a stronger moral role in an individual than their religion, and art is ultimately the key to realizing morality. Schiller argues that witnessing beauty launches our minds into a mental state of, quote, equanimity and freedom, end quote, which makes us feel more relaxed and present. This state of mind allows us to be more open to new ways of thinking and experiencing, thus increasing our acceptance of differences. The philosophy behind beauty is hopeful and inspiring, but it's difficult to achieve on an everyday basis. Humans are naturally thinking creatures, and while witnessing something beautiful transports us to a new state of mind, reality is a way of pulling us back. To talk more about the power that art has over our psyche, I interviewed Professor Tara Eisen, who is a novelist and teaches creative writing at ASU. Tara is no stranger to art, as she dedicated her life to the practice through writing, but I'll let her tell you about that.