"Specialty" And Aesthetic Sense

Aesthetic sense is one of the key problems in aesthetic study. It is very early that western aesthetics began to explore aesthetic sense. Since the 1860s when psychology aesthetic developed, estheticians undertook further study on aesthetic sense. One important characteristic of psychology aesthetics is to make nearly exact descriptions of aesthetic activities and to explain how aesthetic sense is generated by applying approaches of natural science in terms of exact measure, statistics and experiment. This method, which was applied for more than one hundred years, brought some fruits, while it chould not give satisfactory answers to the myth of aesthetic sense.New Chinese aesthetics, which started from the discussion on the nature of beauty and aesthetic sense and their relationship, went through hot aesthetic discussion in 1950s-1960s, aesthetic prevalence in 1980s, and aesthetic contestation, debate between prctical aesthetics and "post-practical aesthetics", from 1990s to nowadays. New practical aesthetics came into being which adheres to Marxist viewpoint of practice and keeps pace with times. New practical aesthetics believes that beauty and aesthetic sense produce in the process of practice simultaneously. Beauty is an existing way of "specialty" of aesthetic object. Aesthetic sense is aesthetic subject's "specialty" experience of aesthetic object in the aesthetic relationship and an emotional experience to control process. Aesthetic sense produces in the value generation of practice - creativity - freedom.According to the viewpoints of new practical aesthetics, aesthetic sense manifests itself as object-turning of human being's inbeing strength or subject's feeling, experience, attention, appreciation and appraisal of freedom after it manifests, and satisfaction, pleasure, happiness, harmony and freedom evoked from that in the inner world. The characteristic of aesthetic sense is represented as intuition of generation, emotional pleasure of process and emotional inebriation of consequence.From the surface level, aesthetic sense originates in aesthetic subject's experience and grasp of object's "specialty", which refers to obvious features or characteristic one thing possesses to distinct from others philosophically. In aesthetic sense, "specialty", at first, refers to different aesthetic targets' existence with specific special form, which is dynamic subjective experience, vital mode, apperception, mood, emotion, or special sound, or special shape, or special color, and even special motorial state, etc. All of those can evoke aesthetic subject's aesthetic experience through their special form. Secondly, "specialty" refers to a special manifestation which is created by man, causes man'd aesthetic sense, and can be felt intuitively. The significance of "specialty" to aesthetic sense appears in the following two aspects. For "to-appreciate-type" aesthetic subject, it is a "shock"; for "to-create-type" one, it is a "lead".To pay attention to "specialty" is one of the traditions for western aesthetics. In ancient Greece and Rome, the "specialty" of "form" was the origin of aesthetic sense. In the Renaissance, the "specialty" of "rule" was the origin of aesthetic sense. In the Didactic period, the "specialty" of "logos" was the origin of aesthetic sense. Britain empiricism considered the "specialty" of "experience" as the origin of aesthetic sense. In German classical aesthetics period, the "specialty" of "ipriority"or "idea" was the origin of aesthetic sense. To discuss the form and origin of "specialty" and aesthetic sense in terms of their relationship, therefore, has theoretical source and academic roots.Transference from "specialty" to "aesthetic sense" demands three conditions. Firstly, general object itself contains aesthetic potential; secondly, general subject himself possesses aesthetic potential; lastly, aesthetic relationship should be constructed between subject and object. Excavation and developmeng of aesthetic potential and construction of aesthetic relationship demands human being's practical activities.The main aesthetic targets - natural beauty, artistic beauty, social beauty - affect the generation of aesthetic sense through their "special" existence. Natural beauty is the beauty of natural phenomena or things. The source of natural beauty is, on the one hand, the specialty in the appearance of natural beauty, on the other hand, the harmonious relationship between the nature and human being based on his practice. Aritstic beauty is created beauty by artists by concentrating, generalizing, processing, and abstracting social life. The source of social beauty is, on the one hand, the harmony of human-society relationship and of "truth"-"goodness" combination, on the other hand, the special form of human's free nature.Practice is the fundamental basis of "specialty" and aesthetic sense. Material production, mental production, and discourse practice are the three diferent forms of pracitce. They are respectively aesthetic subject's method to realize the freedom of material produciton, mental production and discourse practice. The process of realizing freedom is also the process of generating beauty and aesthetic sense.Practice is also the fundamental basis of aesthetic subject's "special" facaulty and aesthetic object's "special" form. In terms of the former, on the one hand, the practice of material production propells the formation of human being's aesthetic facaulty; on the other hand, artisitc practice propells the formation and development of individual aesthetic subject's aesthetic facaulty. In terms of the latter, labor practice is the prerequisite of aesthetic object's generation, and the way of improving aesthetic object. It is also the way for human being to realize freedom from necessity realm to freedom realm, and then to aesthetic world. The dissertation therefore believes that, from the surface level, "specialty" is the agency and the premise of the generation of beauty and aesthetic sense; it is the conditions of beauty an aesthetic sense to build the esthetic relations;from the deep level, "specialty" originates from practice-creation-freedom. No practice, human being would not have existed and developed; no creation, human being would not have targetized his own inbeing force into targets, and would not have thought about himself from "special" targets; no freedom, human being would not have passed beyond the material and utilitarian limits, and would not have undertaken aesthetic activities. In contusion, aesthetic sense originates from pracitice, and "speicalty" plays a role as an agency in the generation of beauty and aesthetic sense.