The Study On Contemporary Western Environmental Aesthetics

Western Environmental Aesthetics emerged and developed in 1960s. During the past decades, it has became a main grow point of contemporary aesthetics and has attracted a lot of researchers from many countries such as America,Canada,and Finland. The development of Environmental Aesthetics is not only the response to the environmental crisis which is going from bad to worse, but also the requirement of the aesthetics'development and revolution. The estheticians rethought profoundly the anthropocentrism in the traditional aesthetics and criticized the analytic aesthetics which regard aesthetic as "Philosophy of Art". They enlarged aesthetics to all the areas that people can perceive, such as art, nature, country and city. They also introduced ecology and environmental ethics to aesthetics and reformed aesthetics' basic ideas and normal form. The relations have been talked profoundly and widely between human and nature, art and environment, aesthetic and lives, as well as aesthetic and ethics. Aesthetics is becoming more and more important in the landscape assessment, environmental legislation, urban planning, environmental design and other application areas.In recent years, Western Environmental Aesthetics has accelerated the pace of spread in our country. Carlson, Berleant, Sepanmaa and other Environmental Aesthetician's name become familiar to us. The Ecological Aesthetics of china, which has the same mission and the similar study field with environmental aesthetics, begin to exchange and dialogue with Western Environmental Aesthetics frequently. However, our study about Western Environmental Aesthetics is not enough at present, for our concerns to Environment Aesthetic is late, the research efforts is inadequate, and it is difficult for us to grasp environmental aesthetics due to its wide fields and complex theories. Therefore, this article takes Western Environmental Aesthetics as study object and tries to exert a systematic and profound study of it. It aims to supply theoretical resources and references for the construction of our Ecological Aesthetics and make a due contribution to the development of our aesthetics and the construction of the ecological civilization.The article includes seven parts:introduction, five chapters and epilogue.The introduction introduce the background, the significance, and the research overview of Contemporary Western Environmental Aesthetics, as well as the relations of several key words in this article, and conceive of this article. The endlessly deteriorate of environment caused by the combination of the continuously increased strength of people and the anthropocentric is the practical background of the Environmental Aesthetics'development. As far as aesthetics'development is concerned, the Analytic Aesthetics, as the artery aesthetics in the mid-20th century, limited aesthetics to "Philosophy of Art" and lose the relationship with the practical living of people, which caused Aesthetics faced with revolution and reconstruction. And it is the subject's background. Environmental Aesthetics has gained a great achievement during the decades undertaking double missions. But it still needs further development, which means that there are broad prospects and huge space for environmental aesthetics. Both the study to Environmental Aesthetics and the attention to its development are of great significance to the construction of our Ecological Aesthetics and ecological civilization.The first chapter introduces and explores the Natural Aesthetics of western tradition. Environmental Aesthetics not only inherits but also criticizes its historical resource. Fundamentally speaking, the critical attitude is applied to the three influential theories of nature aesthetics, which is Kant's natural aesthetics, Picturesque and Romanticism. Kant's natural aesthetics is no more than the confirmation of subject ability. Beauty is the symbol of the virtue while sublime is just the idea of rationality. Just concentrating on beautiful nature, Picturesque neglected swamp, wich and other natural type without beautiful scene. It is indifferent to nature's existence and development. The existence of nature is just for serving and pleasing us. Compared with the two natural aesthetics we talked above, the natural theory of Romanticism regards nature as an organic entirety full of divinity and vivacity. It aroused our love and respect to nature. However, the "ego" of the romantic is always prior. Nature is just the signal of people's emotion and spirit. Human being and nature are not equal. For the natural aesthetic traditions formed in North America in the 19th century, Environmental Aesthetics are more criticism than inheritance. Muir, Thoreau and Leopold concern about the existence of nature, not just its form. They emphasis on the role of the natural science knowledge in the natural appreciation and begin to introduce ecology to aesthetics. Their natural writing and aesthetic theories are important theoretical resources of Environmental Aesthetics. Not limited to introduce the traditional natural aesthetic, this chapter tries to survey these aesthetic resources from the perspective of environmental ethics and point out the relationship between them and Contemporary Western Environmental Aesthetics.Chapterâ…¡studies Natural Environmental Aesthetics. Generally speaking, environment include natural environment and construct environment. Environmental aesthetics is begun with the refocus on the beauty of nature and the Natural Environment Aesthetic is the area that Environmental Aesthetician paid more attention. The Natural Environmental Aesthetics'central duty is to develop a natural appreciation model that conforms to environmental ethics. Having inherited the tradition of natural appreciation in North American, especially Leopold's Land Aesthetic, Carlson emphasizes the dominant role of the ecology, biology, natural history and other natural science knowledge in the appreciation of nature. He developed the scientific cognitive way of the natural appreciation. Berleant, who regards everything as nature, relieves the opposition of human being and nature, as well as subject and object. He provided a philosophy foundation for the development of a real natural ethics. He emphasizes the importance of "body engagement" in aesthetic and holds the view that aesthetics return to the body. Other environmental esthetician also developed their own theories of natural appreciation, which enables Natural Aesthetics to receive a contemporary revive after the silence for a long time. This chapter explores the questions in depth such as natural appreciative model, all the nature is beautiful, and the philosophy foundation of the nature beauty. At the same time, launches a dialogue on the study of natural aesthetics between China and the West. It regards that we should realize the homogeneity and interconnection, treat the relation of human being and nature from the "ecological holism" perspective, and based on which reconstruct Natural Aesthetics.Chapterâ…¢discusses systematic construction of environmental aesthetics, aims to form a comprehensive and systematically understanding on the studies of environmental aesthetics. Limited by the ways of thinking and worldviews, nowadays there are two different orientations in the construction of the environmental aesthetics. The first one calls for the development of objective environmental aesthetics to reply the challenge of environmental ethics, which based on the thinking way of subject-object dichotomy and the objective environmental viewpoint. The second one transcends subject-object dichotomy, regards the environment as an entirety that is interaction and encompassing. It calls for a holistic environmental aesthetics on which the aesthetic theories should be rebuild based. The two environmental aesthetics with different orientation vary in many questions, such as the aesthetic experience,the aesthetic paradigm,the application of environmental aesthetic,the relationship between environmental aesthetics and environmental ethics and the relationship of environmental aesthetics and art philosophy. This article takes Carlson and Sepanmaa as the representative of objective orientation, while Berleant and Bourassa holism orientation. After the profound compare and study, I analyze some deep questions existing in objectivism orientation of the Environmental Aesthetics' construction and point out that holism orientation can better represent the future direction of Environmental Aesthetics.Chapterâ…£studies the aesthetics of city which is part of Environmental Aesthetics. Nowadays the aesthetics of city is becoming more and more important as a great quantity people pouring into city. Aesthetic experience is the touchstone of the environmental quality of city. It can verify whether our city suitable to live or not, whether our city can enrich our living and perfect humanity or not. It can also lead us to the construction and the rebuilding of the urban environment. At the beginning, this chapter talks about the significance and experience of the environment we built and indicates that all the constituents and features of the environment as well as all the human significance it contains are a part of the continuous overall experience. Environment is of vital significance to our existence and generation. The last three sections discuss the city aesthetic thinking of Berleant, Lynch and Johansson respectively. Berleant, who brought forward the "Urban Eco-aesthetic paradigm", emphasizes that city must provide us with various and continuous aesthetic experience. He stresses that city, as a constituent of the whole ecological system, should keep the continuity with the rural environment near it. Lynch's study of the image of city has significant influence in the urban planning and design to this day, and has significant enlightenment to environmental estheticians including Berleant. So we bring Lynch's theory into Environmental Aesthetics in despite of his study is earlier than the emergence of Environmental Aesthetics. Johanson claims to "introduce the wilderness into city". She believes that we can make use of the existing material structures to build a vibrant native natural space and enables it to be a part of our living so as to achieve a real unity of man and nature. We are shocked by her idea and works which provide us with a profound inspiration both in theory and application of the Environmental Aesthetics.Chapter V makes a comparative research between Environmental Aesthetics and Ecological Aesthetics. Leopold is the first man who introduced the ecological horizon into aesthetics. His aesthetic idea is called ecological aesthetic. However, it is environmental aesthetics but not ecological aesthetics become a growing point of the western aesthetic after 1960', due to the influence of the western philosophy and aesthetic tradition, in addition to the inadequate understanding of ecology. But the ecological aesthetics sponsored by Leopold has not been cut off. On the one hand, some researchers devoted themselves into the studies and gained a number of achievements. On the other hand, the heritage of Leopold's ecological aesthetics has injected into the blood of environmental aesthetics. And that the development of the environmental aesthetics supplied theoretical resources for western ecological aesthetics. In sectionâ…¡, I point out the reason why eco-aesthetics booms in China. Taking professor Zeng Fanren's Ecological Existential Aesthetics as representative, I carry out the dialogue between Western Environmental Aesthetics and Ecological aesthetics of China. I point out their difference on theoretical construction and also their each advantages and disadvantages so as to indicate that their existence have the value of their own. The corporation of them will promote the development of aesthetics.In the first place, the epilogue summarizes the reconstruction and revolution that Environmental Aesthetics take to western traditional aesthetics, including the expansion of territory, the transformation of fundamental aesthetics ideas and paradigm, as well as the concussion it will bring to the old situation of world aesthetics. In the second place, this part outlooks the further development of Environmental Aesthetics; Finally, I put forward my own views on how to learn from Western Environmental Aesthetics to solve the environment questions in China.