ALINIO, Domingo Gabriele B.

Aesthetics.

MS PSYCH I
ADV FIL PSYCH

Aesthetics is the philosophical study of beauty and taste; both concepts are subjective in nature,
thus making the entire process of using aesthetics as grounds for inquiry a subjective method.
Aesthetics is closely related to the study of the nature of art which explains the rampant use of
the specific subjective method in analyzing and explaining the experience of Art. Aesthetics
seeks to explain the interpretation, representation, expression and form of objects (beautiful and
ugly). Therefore Aesthetics as from what previous philosophers have coined transpires cause of
knowledge, knowledge that came about because of previous experiences of beauty and/or ugly.
Pleasant human experiences would now pertain to "beauty" and unpleasant human experiences
would now mean "ugly" human experiences.
There have been contending statements in terms of delineating Aesthetics as a philosophical
method or a psychological one. Most of the pioneers who championed this thought process are
philosophers, making aesthetics prominently a focal method in philosophy. But arguably it has
been mentioned repeatedly that aesthetics is a method of subjective perception of what has
been experienced by a person. This thought alone makes it very relevant to use under the
grounds of psychology, but there will always be a fine line as to where this method of inquiry of
explaining human behavior belongs, but nevertheless it is still applicable in interpreting ideas
and thoughts of people towards taste and beauty, which psychology also seeks to explain.
Art, Beauty, and Taste (aesthetics) are all humane in nature. And what could be more relevant to
thinking would be experiencing these things not only via our physical sensory, but to some
extent, objects (if taken under the concept of aesthetics) are also given an equivalent affective
experience via an intrinsic aspect or an intuitive character. It was mentioned above that
knowledge is a main component as to why aesthetics (perceptions of beauty and ugly) exists.
Knowledge due to previous human experience help shape, give permanence and hones
personal development and uniqueness. Taste and beauty are subjective thought processes
under the context of aesthetics in the grounds of psychology, mainly because people have
different experiences of what is beautiful or the opposite. To some extent people are similar and
to some they have varying thoughts about certain things. All of this would greatly depend on
their previous experiences in their upbringing, communities, and culture.
According to Kant an aesthetic experience consists of the following salient points
-only rational beings have aesthetic experiences
-every rational being needs aesthetic judgment and is significantly incomplete without it
-aesthetic judgment stands in proximity to moral judgment
As Filipinos, under the same method of inquiry, we may have a different approach in explaining
our aesthetic experiences in contrast to different cultures. Since we have equivalent translations
of what beauty, taste or art is, we also have our own way of seeing the value that they inhibit
and affect us intrinsically. In terms of explaining the behavior of a Filipino under aesthetics we
have to translate the equivalent denotation of these western concepts of beauty, taste, and art
and look at our own culture in reference to how we feel towards our own versions of this
concepts. We term beauty as "ganda", taste as "panlasa" and art as "sining". So From these
concepts we may be able to coin three (3) general illustrations of how we could interpret the
Filipino human behavior under aesthetics.
First, beauty (ganda) is a concept coined from knowing the unpleasant. Most of the aesthetic
objects related to this concept are perceived via the sense of sight. Because of previous and

influential thoughts beauty has always been defined as pleasant, symmetric, high orderliness,
pleasurable, congenial, and gratifying. But because of cultural differences, beauty cannot be
boxed to all of the latter things mentioned above, and since aesthetics is a subjective thought
process, beauty would now depend greatly on the intrinsic value of ab aesthetic object to a
person. A Filipino describes an aesthetic experience or object as beautiful because he have
had references to prior experiences that made him think that a particular object or experience is
beautiful. Kagandahan in the Filipino sense would pertain to uncountable things. We have the
perceptions about the beauty of females or Filipina, We also have Beauty in terms of
architectural structures in the Philippines, beauty in reference to the natural surroundings of the
Filipinos. And etc. So if one would look at beauty as a ground under aesthetics for explaining
Filipino behavior, there should be a specific aesthetic object and a specific affect or feeling
towards it. Beautiful Filipino experiences are also covered under this specific method, this would
now pertain to feelings and behaviors that entail pleasure, gratification, positive affection and
strong optimism towards experiences that are triggered either by positive and negative
experiences (love "pagmamahal", sacrificing "pagsasakripisyo",
lifestyle "matiwasay na
pamumuhay", endurance from poverty "paglaban sa kahirapan", altruism "bayanihan", success
"tagumpay" etc.)
Taste, (panlasa) this concept is different from beauty, because this greatly depends on the
intrinsic value of aesthetic objects towards a Filipino. He may either have positive feelings about
pleasant or unpleasant things or the complete opposite. Everything boils down to how aesthetic
objects make them feel. Taste or Panlasa if taken literally would mean how food would taste
like. (Salty, sweet, delicious, not delicious) but aesthetically taste would pertain to things that
people would practically prefer over other things because of learned preferences and choices. A
Filipino's taste can be closely related to his social status, his familial influence, cliques,
schooling, his entire upbringing, the way he dresses, his food preferences, and almost anything
that he would be inclined to choose because he affectively reacts to it other than certain objects
that are not valuable or simply not falling under his preferences.
Lastly, Art or sining. Among most lifestyles that not only Filipinos but every race practices, art
exercises the usage of aesthetics in almost every aspect of it. Art seeks to create and explain
feelings from what has been created and what could be more aesthetically appealing than
giving judgment to what has been created by a person. In the Fiipino setting, Sining is highly
valued because most of our heritage and practices are carried out because of it. Sining
becomes a realm for Filipinos to discover their history, their rich culture and to define or give
meaning to what has been created in relevance to the Filipino Culture. Filipinos support the arts,
particularly entertainment, it is in these umbrella that Filipino experience specific human
aesthetic or moral judgment because they can relate to what they see in television such as
comedies, novellas and etc. Many Filipinos are also interested in or are working for the arts, the
world has evolved in such a way that people also have built careers out from different art forms.
In that way we could be able to understand the contemporary Filipino by assessing their stand
towards the arts because almost everyone is interested to things that exemplify beauty and
taste.
In conclusion, the Filipino behavior under the context of aesthetics can be further explained by
studying the wants, desires, and the likelihood of the Filipino person towards specific thoughts,
ideas and objects found in his surroundings (aesthetic objects). By studying how one feels
towards a specific aesthetic object, there would be a clearer process as how we would be able
to define or interpret the behavior that they may inhibit cause of how they feel towards these
specific aesthetic objects.

Sources: Munro T. and Scruton R. (2010) Aestheics Philosophy: Esthetics. Cleveland/

Britannica.com
Tinio P. And Smith J. (2015) Aesthetics and Art/ Oxfordbibliographies.com