Aesthetics?
- lex
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- Joined: December 4th, 2020, 9:53 pm
Aesthetics?
Now, being a teenager, I am constantly surrounded by social media and abhorrent trends. But the one question, "What's your Aesthetic?" has been nagging me. Anyone that searches "Aesthetic" into google will come up with literally hundreds of highly edited bright "trendy" images that either consist of teen girls' bedrooms, random selfies, etc. Then one tiny little image pops up about a college that teaches the specific philosophy. These self-identifying terms within 'aesthetics' [ art hoe, baddie, cottage/fairycore, dark/light academia, ethereal, etc.] are inherently confusing. Teens use these terms to make themselves 'unique.' Still, all they are doing is categorizing each other - which is backward to the philosophy. They have no true independent thoughts of personality/style.
I took it upon myself to ask around what other adolescents believed an "aesthetic" was.
All the answers rang to the same tune - all self-defining (and nobody even knew of it as a philosophy - when brought it up, they even argued against the idea of the possibility.
Examples; "Someone's personality... Their taste in music and hobbies...How people perceive you without knowing you very well..."
The only place you can find this definition is in Urban Dictionary... which is not really... reputable?
Now in my personal opinion, along with countless other philosophers, aesthetic is the act of asking why something is beautiful (i.e., the sunset and going down that thought tangent) - the philosophical study of beauty and taste...
So my question is if less than 1 in 10 students doesn't know of this being a philosophical term - what's the future of philosophers, artists, and critics going to look like?
How did a philosophy turn into a trend of self-identifying categories? Then the question that would follow is why teenagers are so incessant on following these trends so blindly without asking why?
- Jake4020
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Re: Aesthetics?
- Terrapin Station
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Re: Aesthetics?
"Aesthetic" in the sense of artistic style or fashion style or a particular mood or atmosphere that one is shooting for via sensory materials very coherently fits the philosophical usage of the term.
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