Linguistic Theories, Aesthetics, and Art: A Historical View
Thought and Language: Linguistic Theories
Critique of Linguistic Theories
We must explain the evolution of language. If linguistic theory shuts itself off, it will end by saying that human thought is changing because language evolves, but why does language evolve? To explain the evolution of language, there are two options:
- Either the language itself evolves.
- Or the language evolves as a result of human experiences.
Alternative Linguistic Theories
Human experience is varied and not limited to intellectual experience. Often, thinking goes back, and in new situations, the language has to stretch and give them names. For example, when a new continent was discovered, it was given the name “America”, and the first map was created.
Theory of Beauty: Aesthetics
The study of beauty, not the work of art, is the aesthetic issue of the past called “critical.”
Aesthetics is a discipline studied in schools of philosophy that studies beauty. Aesthetics involves judgments about three values: beautiful, ugly, or neutral.
The Idea of Beauty in Greek Philosophy
To the Greeks, beauty is an “objective” property of reality; it is there. Whether we are able to grasp it or not is another matter.
This property is the “harmony of the forms” of nature. This harmony is based, according to Aristotle, on:
- The clear delineation of its boundary: the figure is drawn with precision on the background that surrounds it.
- The proportion of the parts is mathematical.
- The harmony of the parts, understood as symmetry.
- A certain gracefulness; this beauty makes the object acquire a kind of lightness and fineness.
- Beauty is transcendental, that is, all objects have it, both natural and manufactured. That is, there are mostly aesthetic judgments because beauty is in all objects.
Ethics and Art in Aristotle: Tragedy and Comedy
The artistic expression of beauty is of great importance in the moral education of youth. This is evident in Aristotle’s reflection on the two genres of Greek drama: tragedy and comedy. For Aristotle, both genres share the same moralizing vocation. Both attempt to inhibit behaviors that transgress the moral order, and their purpose is to make the passions of the people live together peacefully. For Aristotle:
- Comedy shows the absurdity of those who render unfit services to the magnanimous man.
- Tragedy exhibits the misfortunes that befall those who transgress the sacred order of the moral law, and all their kin, until the acquittal of guilt.
Art in Christianity
Christian art faces a formidable challenge. Like all art, it aims to capture and express beauty. But beauty is a divine attribute, and divinity cannot be represented as a living art form (measure), and one cannot represent something that is formless, which is good, beautiful, and powerful without measure.
So there are two ways to express beauty:
- If we cannot represent the beauty of the Creator, we can represent the beauty of his work (nature). Thus, art becomes a second-order imitation: mimicking nature imitates the ways understood by the Creator.
- We represent God through what the Scriptures tell us, which gives rise to a rich Christian iconography depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
Neoclassicism: Rationalistic Art
For the Neoclassical movement, beauty is captured through a good taste that, according to Kant, is selfless, communicative, and has a claim to universality. In Neoclassical art, all reasonable rules of good taste are followed, that is, the aesthetic canon.