THL1501 Assignment 2 Due 16 April 2024

QUESTION 1

Through close reference to Marcia Eaton’s book Basic Issues in Aesthetics (1998),
cited in the Study Guide, write an essay in length between 500-800 words in which you
discuss the nature of “beauty” and “aesthetics”, that is, consider the challenges of
deciding on a definition of “beauty” and “aesthetics”. Give examples from the given
texts, and your own.

In Marcia Eaton’s book “Basic Issues in Aesthetics,” she talks a lot about how tricky it is to
figure out what “beauty” and “aesthetics” really mean. These ideas have been confusing
people for a long time because they depend on what each person thinks and feels, and
everyone sees things a bit differently.

Even way back when Socrates was around, people were struggling to explain what makes
something beautiful or ugly. Eaton shows us how different people can have totally different
opinions about what’s beautiful. For example, one person might think a movie or a song is
amazing, while someone else thinks it’s boring or even gross. Despite lots of smart people
thinking and talking about it, there’s still no one answer that everyone agrees on.

It gets even trickier with modern art. Eaton talks about an artwork called “Stone Field” by Carl
Andre. Some people thought it was great art and worth spending public money on, while
others thought it was just a messy bunch of rocks, not real art at all. This shows how people
can see the same thing in very different ways.