Art Appreciation Lesson 3

LESSON 3: PHILOSOPHICAL IMPORTANCE OF ART
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Relate the study of art to the field of philosophy.

2. Explain and discuss the basic philosophical perspectives on the art;
3. Formulate a philosophical approach to the study of Art Appreciation;
4. Apply the standards of beauty to the analysis of art;
5. Evaluate the merit or demerit of artworks using the four-fold criteria or
standards of beauty;
6. Make works of art that show the application of the standard of beauty.
Let’s Begin
“Good is the object of desire… Beauty, on the other hand, is the object of
cognitive power, for we call beautiful things which give pleasure when they
are seen; thus beauty rests on proper proportion, because the senses delight
in things with proper proportion as being similar to themselves; for the sense
and all cognitive power is a kind of reason, and because cognition takes place
by means of assimilation, and assimilation pertains to form, beauty properly
belongs to the concepts of formal cause.” Summa Theologiae, I q. 5 a 4 ad.1
What is beauty?
St. Thomas defined beauty as that which gives pleasure when seen [ST 1-
11, 27.1). But what does the word “seen” mean? “Seen” is the “activity of
contemplation”
 “…beauty relates to the cognitive faculty; for beautiful things are those which
please when seen. Hence, beauty consists in due proportion; for the senses
delight in duly proportioned, as in what is after their own kind-because even
sense is a sort of reason, just as is every cognitive faculty. Now, since
knowledge is by assimilation, and similarity relates to form, beauty properly
belongs to the nature of a formal cause” [Q. 5, Art. 4].
Let’s Recall
What forms of art do you know? Why do you think they are considered as art?
Forms of Art Description
Let’s Discuss Illustrations and Ideas (cf. Dr. Allan Orate)
Plato in Symposium expounds that it is the

Form of Beauty that is the object of love.
Beauty transcends the world of sense
experience, which means that the experience
of beauty diverged from what would be
described as aesthetic experience. Plato’s
theory of beauty is metaphysical. The
existence of beauty is like the existence of
number, truth or justice. Since the individual
beautiful things in this world change and pass
away, they are not, in reality, beautiful; they
are beautiful only as appearances of the
universal form of beauty, like the reflection in
a mirror. Plato would like to expel the mimetic
artists from the state because they make
people ignorant by bringing them two times
farther away from reality.
1. RELATIVE BEAUTY. Consideration of

beauty is subjective and defends on the
person looking at the thing. In this way it is
said that “Beauty is in the eye of the
beholder.”
2. ABSOLUTE BEAUTY. It considers the view
that a thing is beautiful by virtue of itself.
Beauty is objective, and resides in the thing
regardless of the people looking at it.
3. PLATO. Ancient Greek philosopher (348-
267 BC) who formulated an idealist and
metaphysical theory of beauty. He wrote The
Dialogue and The Republic.
4. AESTHETIC IDEALISM. Theory of beauty
which asserts that real beauty is an idea that
exist in the world of being. Things in this world
are beautiful as appearances of the idea of
beauty. Art is beautiful as imitation of things in
this world.
Plato’s theory of beauty is metaphysical. The
existence of beauty is like the existence of
number, truth or justice. Since the individual
beautiful things in this world change and pass
away, they are not, in reality, beautiful; they
are beautiful only as appearances of the
universal form of beauty, like the reflection in
a mirror. Plato would like to expel the mimetic
artists from the state because they make
people ignorant by bringing them two times
farther away from reality. Plotinus, like Plato,
thought that the experience of beauty itself is
not a sensuous experience but an intellectual
one. It establishes contemplation as a central
idea in the theory of beauty and consequently
in the theory of aesthetic experience.
St. Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of beauty

is not an unworldly one; he defines beauty as
that which pleases when seen. Objects
please when they have the conditions of
beauty which are perfection, proportion and
brightness or clarity. Importantly, his theory
has both objective and subjective aspects.
The idea of pleasing brings in the notion of
the subject who is pleased. Being pleased is
a property of a subject.
Integrity - Thomas utilises the term

(integritas) in relation to beauty, it is meant as
a “type of proportion” and is thus a criterion of
the beautiful object that it is not impaired;
otherwise, if it were impaired, the object
would be ugly. Example: legless or
handicapped child - that (object) which has
wholeness or integrity insofar that it is not
ugly because of its lack of wholeness. This
definition of integritas (in light of modernity)
does not define perfection in terms of bodily
perfection but rather by means of ontological
completeness which is, for the most part, an
abstract intellectual definition of beauty.
Aquinas’ understanding of beauty is not an
unworldly one; he defines beauty as that
which pleases when seen. Objects please
when they have the conditions of beauty
which are perfection, proportion and
brightness or clarity. Importantly, his theory
has both objective and subjective aspects.
The idea of pleasing brings in the notion of
the subject who is pleased. Being pleased is
a property of a subject. Integrity (wholeness):
Two aspects: 1: Integrity involves its
existence (esse), its being-lacks nothing
essential or substantive to its primal nature.
2. Integrity involves its action; it lacks nothing
in its ability necessary for completion.
Quote on Conditions of Beauty:
“Beauty demands the fulfillment of three

conditions: the first is integrity, or perfection of
the thing, for what is defective is, is
consequence, ugly; the second is proper
CF. Dr. Allan Orate
proportion, or harmony; and the third is
clarity-thus things which have glowing colors
are said to be beautiful.” ~ Summa Theol., I
q. 39 a. 8.
Proportion – can be traced back to the Pre-

Socratics (such as Pythagoras), then to
Cicero and St. Augustine. Basic ontological
proportion is expressed consistently with
consonantia. There are at least two ways of
looking at proportion: the qualitative and the
quantitative (or mathematical). For Thomas
Aquinas, “form and matter must always be
mutually proportioned. The importance of the
act—in this instant, the moment of
apprehension of a beautiful object—lies in its
ability to “recognise” a relation of form and
matter. This form and matter is consonant
with the soul and the body of an intelligent
creature. As Aristotle had expressed in his De
anima, “Thus soul is the first actuality of a
physical body potentially having life”. Thomas
extracts this “equilibrium” of form and matter WWW.PRSHOCKLEY.ORG
from Aristotle. Proportion refers particularly to
the proportion of form and the potentiality of
matter. Form and matter work similarly to the
soul and the body in that there must be a
proportionate ontological relation (habitudo)
or analogy between the two: it is part of the
rational structure of form to relate to matter.
Although this relationship can also be
quantitative, in terms of harmony or music, it
is helpful to see that even in some forms of
atonal music, there is still the basic
ontological proportion of form (i.e., the
musical notes) and matter (i.e., the physical
instruments that play/vibrate these notes).
 “Proportion is twofold: In one sense it means
a certain relation of one quantity to another. In
another sense every relation to one thing to
another is called proportion. And in this sense
there can be a proportion of the creature to
God, inasmuch as it is related to Him as the
effect of its cause, and as potentiality to its
act; and in this way the created intellect can
be proportioned to know God (ST I.12.1).” WWW.PRSHOCKLEY.ORG
Proportion involves both quantity
(mathematical) and quality (agreement;
analogy; mutual reference; e.g., matter to
form; cause to effect; Creator to created).
Radiance or Clarity - appeared in the

Pseudo-Dionysius, Grosse- teste, and other
mediaeval authors, Albertus Magnus
influenced Thomas’s conception of claritas,
which may be translated as resplendence,
clarity, symmetry, or radiance (splendor).
Resplendence was the essence of beauty for
Albertus. Radiance: Luminosity which
emanates a beautiful object: “Radiance
belongs to being considered precisely as
beautiful: it is, in being, that which catches the
eye, or the ear, or the mind, and makes us
want to perceive it again” [Etienne Gilson,
The Arts of the Beautiful (Dalkey Archive
Press, 2000), 35].
Because all that is beautiful is connected to

God, the Cause of all beauty, radiance will
find expression. “Beauty consists in a certain
lustre and proportion” ~ Aquinas in Summa
Theol., II-a II-ae q. 180 a. 2 ad. 3. Consider
this example
WWW.PRSHOCKLEY.ORG
Work on These: Answer the questions:
1. Differentiate the four-fold criteria or standards of beauty. Cite examples.
2. How can you utilize the standards of beauty to yourself, your community,
and your relation to others?
Let’s Make It Happen

Beauty is an activity of the mind. How? The form of the matter exist in the mind of the knower.
WWW.PRSHOCLEY.ORG
1. Your physical senses do not recognize the blue rose to be beautiful.
2. Instead, your mind is responsible for recognizing the beauty of the blue rose.
3. Knowledge has two aspects: (1) passive part receives the data from outside of
your mind (extra-mental reality) whereas the (2) active part of your mind abstracts
the forms new existence in your mind. The apprehension of beauty is the result of
your mind.
+Sight and hearing are the most important physical senses for cognitive beauty
since it is through those senses that one perceives and extracts the form from the
object.
Bibliography:
Michael Spicher, “Medieval Theories of Aesthetics” in the Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (11 December 2010); Wladyslaw Tatarkiewics, History of Aesthetics,
Volume 2 (New York: Continuum, 1995, 2000).
Orate, Allan C. (2010). “Lecture Notes on Aesthetics: Theories of Art and Beauty,”
and “Representationalism” from Blended Learning Modules.

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What are the different forms of art discussed?

What are the different philosophical perspectives on beauty according to Plato?

LESSON 3: PHILOSOPHICAL IMPORTANCE OF ART

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Relate the study of art to the field of philosophy.

Forms of Art Description

Let’s Discuss Illustrations and Ideas (cf. Dr. Allan Orate)

Plato in Symposium expounds that it is the

1. RELATIVE BEAUTY. Consideration of

St. Thomas Aquinas’ understanding of beauty

Integrity - Thomas utilises the term

Quote on Conditions of Beauty:

“Beauty demands the fulfillment of three

Proportion – can be traced back to the Pre-

Radiance or Clarity - appeared in the

Because all that is beautiful is connected to

Let’s Make It Happen

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