Significance of Everyday Aesthetics
Significance of Everyday Aesthetics
This chapter argues for the need for everyday aesthetics for pragmatic reasons by taking the environmental ramifications of our everyday aesthetic tastes and decisions as an example. We make aesthetic judgments, positive or negative, on natural creatures, landscapes, built environments, and consumer goods, which determine our attitude and subsequent actions regarding them. The consequences of such judgments and actions are often environmentally unsound, though we are seldom aware of them. In addition to raising consciousness about the environmental impact of our actions, our everyday aesthetics must be guided toward environmentally sound ends because of the power of our aesthetic judgments to influence, and sometimes determine, our actions. By reviewing an example of utilizing the power of the aesthetic toward a social agenda, such as 19th-century American landscape aesthetics promotion of national identity and pride, the specific tenets of green aesthetics, as well as strategies to avoid, are outlined.
Keywords: natural creatures, landscape, built environment, consumer goods, power of the aesthetic, American landscape aesthetics, green aesthetics
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