The Natural Beauty of
7>L ->L
Nancy Walkup
In the Western world, aesthetics is considered to be the
branch of philosophy that is concerned with concepts of
value and beauty as they relate to the arts. Philosophers
from Plato until the present time have had fairly rigid
ideas about what artists should create and what people
should like, but in today’s world, aestheticians represent a
variety of approaches to the philosophy of art.
Aesthetics, in the broadest sense, may be thought of as a
world view—a view that may be markedly different in other
cultures. Objects from other cultures that are categorized
as artworks from the Western perspective may or may not
hold the same meaning in their culture of origin. Precisely
because of possible differences in world views and aesthetic
stances of non-Western cultures, it is important to set aside
Western aesthetics as criteria when making judgments
about non-Western art. For example, many non-Western cultures recognize no distinction between fine art and craft,
may not even have a word for “art,” and may not separate
art from everyday life.
