Evolution From Natural Aesthetics To Ecological Aesthetics In The Cases Of Hegel, Taine And Leopold’s Aesthetics’ Theories

Nature is the Meta issue of human society. The evolution from natural aesthetics to ecological aesthetics reflects the transition from the industrial age dominated by enlightenment ration to modern ecological age. The recollection of this transition helps us to understand the development process of ecological aesthetics. In the cases of Hegel, Taine and Leopold, the natural concepts of three periods reflect the human’s attitude towards nature in different historical backgrounds and the transformation from anthropocentrism to ecological holism. This essay argues that a new ecological aesthetics’ view of the world should be established in our morden society, which based on the feelings of land, connecting human being, nature and land. Ecological aesthetics also aims at long-term development of Earth and to realize the sustainable development of social ecology, natural ecology and spiritual ecology.There are altogether three chapters in the essay. First chapter is mainly about natural views in Hegel’s theory of idea and discusses the contents of nature from his books. Through the interpretation of Hegel’s natural aesthetics, we can explore the relationship between art and nature、human and nature,and reveal the essence as well as status of nature in Hegel’s aesthetics.Through out the exploration we can find the germination of natural aesthetics in western ideological field.Second chapter analyzes the status and role of nature in the art field in the views of Taine’s three key elements——race、enviroment and times,which all contains the essence of nature.The study of Taine’s point of nature lays a solid foundation for understanding the evolution from natural aesthetics to ecological aesthetics.The third chapter is to explain the implication that the earth ethics has brought to the natural aesthetics under Leopold’s community concept.In the book A Sand Country Almanac,the writer express the true feelings to the nature,and conveys the idea of ecological holism.The previously opposing situation between Human being and nature has been changed by Leopold’s concept of community.Leopold also proposes to establish a new ecological view of the world and really surpass the natural views of Hegel and Taine.The ecological ear begins.The essay combines Chinese ecological intelligence through out the analysis of western ecological theories. It includes the philosophy from ancient times such as “Mother of the myriad things”, “A homony between nature and human beings” to “Ecosubstanlialism”, “Spiritual ecology” and other concepts that are proposed in modern Chinese ecology. In the global discourse system,we try to make a ecological aesthetic consensus between the reference and integration in Chinese and western aesthetics.