Aesthetics - what is it? The science of the beautiful. Ethics and aesthetics

Modern worldview can not exist without such concepts as ethics and aesthetics. However, in order to understand the differences between these terms, it is generally worthwhile to understand many of the nuances. In particular, with the definition of the word "aesthetics". What is this concept, and how do the two sciences differ from one another?

What is ethics?

Ethics is a system of knowledge that allows people to distinguish between good and evil, beautiful from ugliness. That is, it is the science of beauty. This knowledge is unique, because they contribute to making the right decisions. The system can be reduced to social norms and moral concepts, which should be based throughout life. Ethics represents such concepts as honesty, generosity, generosity, avarice, vindictiveness and many others.

Relationship with philosophical teaching

Ethics and aesthetics have a close connection with philosophy. The study of ethics began the famous ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. The term owes its appearance to the Greek word ethos - "ethos", which means "customs", "morals". The famous speaker and thinker Cicero, who is a vivid representative of the era of Ancient Rome, translated the word into Latin, which established that ethos is the correspondence of mores, and also the derivatives of words moralitas - "morality", moralis - "moral."

Three basic concepts

In Russian, there are also such terms as morality, moral. At present it is considered that the words "ethics", "morality" and "morality" are synonymous. Despite this, people who represent Russian philosophy distinguish three terms whose meanings are very similar.

What is the difference?

So, what is the difference? By ethics it is customary to mean a science that allows you to acquire knowledge in order to distinguish evil from noble good, dazzling and beautiful from depressing ugliness, and under morality and morality - the consciousness and behavior that are being studied. Ethics, which is a science of morality, to some extent is an element of morality itself. What difference can be noted? Ethics includes universal principles that are unchanged, and morality - specific rules (postulates), through which the general principles of the individual and society are fully realized, but with the possibility of changing them.

Ethics must exist in a person since childhood

The 21st century gave society such a concept as bioethics, which is organically linked to the ethics of the family and sex. After all, a full society is directly determined by healthy, beautiful relations between a man and a woman. A prosperous family invests in the fragile minds and souls of children those values that subsequently become key to the moral, physical and mental health of the whole society. Everyone should receive knowledge about ethics and master them from early childhood. Only in this case it is possible to maintain consent and order in society. In addition, every child should understand what norms and moral concepts should be remembered in any situation.

Correctness of life

The ethics of the moral personality is purely individual, absolute and not regulated. The ethics of society, on the contrary, is created for the prosperity of the society, it is relational and clearly regulated. That is why the moral personality is not able to submissively obey the predominant ethics of the society, it is in an inexorable polemic with it. She constantly protests against her, considering a much lower level. And as a result, between them inevitably there is antagonism because of different approaches to the concept of humanity. The ethics of society is incapable of respecting humanity, and ethics of a person's moral - on the contrary. Humanity is considered to be sacrificing oneself for the sake of achieving a common goal. A person who wants to live rightly must evaluate his behavior and the actions of all other people from an ethical standpoint. Representations of good and evil, beautiful and ugly, decent and indecent should help assess the multifaceted inner and outer world. This approach will allow us to understand what kind of behavior and style must be followed throughout our lives. English philosopher George Edward Moore is confident that ethics allows you to make decisions, make choices. Based on the principles of ethics and morality, you can live in harmony with yourself.

What is aesthetics?

Aesthetics - what is it? It represents the science of sensory cognition of the world, of comprehension and creation of the beautiful, capable of expressing itself in various images of art. The categories "aesthetic" and "beautiful" are the closest to each other. This is because the beautiful is an ideal, in accordance with which it is possible to consider other aesthetic phenomena. Thus, the beautiful becomes a special measure.

Positive and negative sides

It should be noted that in modern theory it is customary to single out both positive categories and their antipodes, for example:

• Beautiful - ugly;
• Wonderful - terrible;
• The sublime is the base.

This aspect of scientific research is based on the fact that the allocation of a positive value of quality always assumes the existence of the opposite.

History of the concept

The term "object of aesthetics" appeared in the middle of the 18th century. The concept was introduced into scientific use thanks to the philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten from Germany. It should be noted that the term owes its origin to the Greek word aisthetikos, which can be translated as "feeling." Baumgarten was able to find a special position in the scientific world, resulting in a new independent discipline, close to philosophy, aesthetics. It was impossible to deny that this was a real breakthrough.

Development of aesthetics

How did this happen? The subject of aesthetics was enriched from the very beginning. In the ancient period, philosophers viewed the general issues of the nature of beauty and art. In the Middle Ages, people tried to learn God. In the Renaissance, aesthetic thought began to develop actively in the field of artistic practice, but there was a strong connection with nature. At the beginning of the modern era, science became the basis of art norms, including the aesthetics of literature. In the era of the Enlightenment, aesthetics made it possible to begin to evaluate various works of art in the aspect of their social role. It was at that time that the authors tried to represent works that had a special cognitive and moral significance, allowed people to improve themselves.

The philosophers' opinion about aesthetics

Immanuel Kant, who is one of the most famous philosophers, believed that the philosophy of aesthetics allows one to study the beautiful in art, which is its subject. However, the study of beautiful objects is not carried out. According to the views of Immanuel Kant, aesthetics (what is this science, described above) considers various judgments about the beautiful, and in this connection is the basis for criticizing different art works in order to establish their conformity to these categories and determine the level of cognitive, moral significance. The philosopher Georg Hegel noted that aesthetics is a part of philosophy, but it was created to study different areas of art, as a result of which science makes it possible to determine what place each artwork occupies in the system of the past, present and future generations of people.

Ethics and aesthetics for self-improvement and knowledge of the world around us

Subsequently, the subject was narrowed to a theoretical justification, allowing to determine the direction in art, to analyze the features of the artistic style of the work. All this is aesthetics. What this in the future will become one of the school subjects, no one could think.

The Marxists labeled it as a special science of nature, which makes it possible to assess the patterns of its development. At the same time, aesthetics in art was perceived as the artistic culture of the world society.

Russian philosopher Aleksei Fedorovich Losev considered the subject of science as a special world of expressive forms, which is created by man and nature. He was convinced that one should study not only the beautiful, but also other aesthetic categories, among which one should note the ugly, the comic, the sublime, the base, the terrible, that is, there are not only aesthetics and art, but also complete opposites. This view Losev justified by the fact that aesthetics is a science that allows you to study the characteristics of the perception of different expressive forms of the surrounding world and find opportunities for the manifestation of creative talents. Based on this meaning, the concept of artistic form, we can consider as a synonym for a work of art.

Modern aesthetics

At present, the subject of aesthetics is still mobile and changeable, in connection with which many scientists will continue to search for an answer. However, this concept is very popular, as it is used in almost all spheres of life. For example, quite often you can hear "aesthetics of the body" or "business aesthetics", etc.

Science should be considered taking into account such a fundamental category as "aesthetic". It should be noted that it is a comprehensive universal concept in relation to many things.

Features of ethical and aesthetic exploration of the world

Ethical exploration of the world allows you to improve the morale of each person, better understand the true state of affairs and actively strive to create an ideal world. Each person begins to understand the ideals, develop their taste, perceive moral principles and moral norms of different peoples, assess the actions of their friends. Ethical knowledge makes it possible to understand all the moral norms and principles of morality that society adheres to, and also to understand the features of the world outlook of each people.

Mastering the world

Aesthetic mastery of the world is possible only if there is an interest in the subject of knowledge or orientation to a holistic perception. Art allows to form, and subsequently regulate the mechanism of appropriation of social and historical experience. Perception of the work of art contributes to self-improvement and change of views about the world on the basis of personal sensations and the socio-cultural nature of aesthetic knowledge. Understanding the aesthetic wealth of the world allows you to learn all the features of the artistic method, which is an analogue of the work.

Ethical and aesthetic knowledge of the world is the best way of self-improvement. The winged expression of the famous British writer Oscar Wilde reads: "Aesthetics is higher than ethics!" It turns out, the creator claims that it is beauty that is higher, that is, more important than good. Is he right? Or is it not? Only individually and sincerely answering the questions posed, each individual will be able to more deeply imagine the directions of activity: according to the postulates of good or the laws of beauty. The choice is yours: ethics or aesthetics. What is it for you personally?