
Consciousness in the Aesthetic Imagination - msekeris
https://www.metapsychosis.com/consciousness-in-the-aesthetic-imagination/
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electrograv
_> If after the death of the last living thing on earth, there remained a
radio playing the Adagio over and over again among the ashes of civilization,
there would still be sadness in the world._

That is a very strong claim I would love to see substantiated. What is an
emotion (like sadness) without an animal capable of experiencing that emotion?
Does the author claim that emotions like sadness are metaphysical, or at
least, transcend human physiology?

What if we discovered an animal or alien species incapable of experiencing
"sadness" as we do? The quoted statement seems to preclude this as a
possibility, which is a very strong assumption.

 _> Aesthetic vision apprehends the universe as an immanent field of living
forces. All of reality is ensouled, willful, alive. Small wonder, then, that
works of art present the world as innately sentient._

Alive? Innately sentient? Citation needed.

This article is filled with emotionally flamboyant language that yields either
extremely strong and testable claims, or useless drivel.

~~~
vinceguidry
> Does the author claim that emotions like sadness are metaphysical, or at
> least, transcend human physiology?

It is not a claim on the nature of emotions, but rather a claim about the
nature of existence itself. In other words, he's speaking figuratively, not
literally.

~~~
hosh
Don't be so sure about speaking figuratively. This particular author might be,
however, there are profound philosophies that do not.

~~~
kordless
For example, "all of us" are literally the same entity viewing itself using a
variety of perceptions.

~~~
hosh
Indra's Net. Dependent Arising. Monoism. "I am that I am". Beautiful :-)

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yarrel
I always enjoy following people's journeys through particular artworks, and on
that level I greatly enjoyed this article.

On the level of philosophy of art I found that its starting premise (art's
non-discursiveness) is undermined by the analyses of the paintings it uses as
illustrations, not least by its final deconstruction of a Vemeer.

------
hosh
If you like this kind of discourse, check out what the medieval Indians have
to say about aesthetics from the View of non-dual Shaiva Tantra, and the
concept of "rasa" (aesthetic sentiment).

A good book to start with this is Tantra Illuminated, by Christopher Wallis.
It only spends a short bit explaining rasa from the tantric perspective, but
it very much comes from a similar stream of ideas as, "Aesthetic vision
apprehends the universe as an immanent field of living forces. All of reality
is ensouled, willful, alive. Small wonder, then, that works of art present the
world as innately sentient."

