The Beauty of Aesthetics

In the film Aesthetics: The Philosophy of Art, two key concepts where shown. First, although Aesthetics is the study of beauty and art and art can be seen as in correlation as a form of beauty, art and beauty are two terms that are different from each other. Secondly, a work of art that portrays a theme of tragedy, such as the work of Picasso, can also be looked as a beautiful painting. Another film, CARTA: Neurobiology Neurology, and Art and Aesthetics also gives a couple of key concepts. First, according to the scientist Changeux, there is a genetic envelope to the origin of art and aesthetics in the human lineage. Secondly, Changeux also mentions the discovery of parts of the brain and it's correlation with art and aesthetics.

David Hume, the 18th century modern philosopher, brings the most important theory in Aesthetics. He takes on the argument of taste, in which an object or a thing is perceived to be satisfied by a person or is perceived to have a certain standard of beauty. In taste, Hume explains that there is no need for a debate as to what has taste or not. Each individual has it's own taste of beauty. Therefore no one is to make a critique of one's aesthetic view.

Changeux and Ramachandran's scientific view of art and aesthetics takes on valid points on the style, shape, and form of each part of the brain. Although the brain is represented by aesthetics, the majority of the scientists' views were concerned on the art of the brain and not the beauty of it.

Throughout the textbook and the film, I seemed to find similarities between Chapter two of the textbook, Living with Art and the film Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts. Both gave similar views on the definition of Aesthetics and also both introduced the same Philosophers and their intake on Art and Aesthetics.

Overall, both films gave me a new look on art as it is perceived to be. Not only observing art as just a form of beauty or the view of art as a sense of pleasure to one's eye, but how the shape or form of an object symbolizes the function of something such as the brain.