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Abstract
Reclaiming Beauty in Times of Nature
The reclaiming of beauty is a task that has been undertaken in contemporary
thought, both within philosophy and art. Since the onset of modern philosophi-
cal aesthetics beauty has had a secondary status compared to the sublime.yielding
a concept of beauty that restricts it to the pretty and the agreeable. In modern art
beauty has also not been seen as a primary goal of art, and even been considered
artistically unimportant. There are many reasons for the devaluation of the aes-
thetic significance of beauty. In modern philosophical aesthetics this devaluation
has to do with the association of beauty with the feminine, and the sublime with
the masculine. This idea of beauty derives from the association of art with the
body and the erotic in ancient philosophy.
In this article it is argued that the contemporary reclamation of beauty becomes
evident in phenomenological descriptions of the enjoyment and experience of
natural beauty. Enjoyment of beauty is here defined as an experience of a rela-
tion to something that one cares for, and in that sense this conception of beauty
evokes the erotic dimensions that were sublimated in ancient thought. On the
basis of this notion of beauty it is argued that beauty can neither be understood
as purely a subjective sentiment nor as the objective features of a beautiful object
or landscape. Beauty is understood as an experience that consists in an aesthetic
desire, not a desire to own and control the object of beauty, but rather a more
positive desire to open oneself up to the moment of beauty and dwell within it.