著者

CARLSON Allen

出版者

東京大学大学院人文社会系研究科・文学部美学芸術学研究室

雑誌

JTLA : Journal of the Faculty of Letters, the University of Tokyo, Aesthetics (ISSN:03862593)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.34, pp.1-21, 2010-03-24

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Since the aesthetic experience of nature has been and continues to be vitally important for conservation and preservation of the natural environment, this essay addresses the relationship between contemporary environmental aesthetics and environmentalism. The essay first examines two traditional positions concerning aethetic appreciation of nature, the picturesque landscape approach and the formalist theory of art. Some environmentalists have found fault with the modes of aesthetic appreciation of nature that are associated with these two views, charging that they are anthropocentric, scenery-obsessed, superficial, subjective, and morally vacuous. On the basis of these failings of traditional aesthetic approaches to nature, five requirements of environmentalism are pinpointed: that the aesthetics of nature should be acentric, environment-focused, serious, objective, and morally engaged. The essay then examines two contemporary positions in environmental aesthetics, the aesthetics of engagement and scientific cognitivism, assessing each in respect to the five requirements of environmentalism.