Ugliness and Nature
In this paper, I object to the view that ugliness is only apparent and that what might seem to be ugly is in fact beautiful. This view holds that ugliness is really just a variety of beauty, and there is no negative aesthetic value in the world. In environmental aesthetics, my focus, this is express...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2010 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:64386 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/64386 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.5565/rev/enrahonar.217 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Ugliness Positive aesthetics Nature Carlson Sibley Fealdad Estética positiva Naturaleza Lletjor Estètica positiva Naturalesa |
| Sumario: | In this paper, I object to the view that ugliness is only apparent and that what might seem to be ugly is in fact beautiful. This view holds that ugliness is really just a variety of beauty, and there is no negative aesthetic value in the world. In environmental aesthetics, my focus, this is expressed as the thesis of «positive aesthetics», which has been developed by several philosophers, most notably, Allen Carlson. As he puts it: «the natural environment, insofar as it is untouched by man, has mainly positive aesthetic qualities; it is, for example, graceful, delicate, intense, unified, and orderly, rather than bland, dull, insipid, incoherent, and chaotic» (Carlson, 2000, p. 5). Against this type of position, I argue that ugliness in nature is real and cannot be explained away by acquiring knowledge of some ugly thing or through some holistic understanding of how apparently ugly things/phenomena function within beautiful ecosystems. Although I ultimately argue that ugliness is a form of negative aesthetic value, I then develop a position to show why we might have other reasons to care about ugliness in nature, and therefore seek to protect it. |
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