Did chicken come first or the egg? This may seem absurd, but anyone can be astonished to know that this is a valid question in philosophy. It has given many sleepless nights to our philosophers getting entangled in the question of form and reason.
Every discipline has an underlying ideology. They can, at large, be differentiated into altruistic and materialistic. Art is a conduit of expressing and enjoying ethereal emotions—the degree of the intensity of the subject matter being qualified by Aesthetics.
To get an idea of what this is, one would have to go down the timeline.
The Emergence of Aesthetics and Physical Beauty
Axiology is something that helps to estimate the value of the subject matter. Aesthetics is one of its branches, along with Religion and Ethics. Ideas in philosophy for assessment guide aestheticism.
Etymological Reference
Etymologically speaking, the word traces its history to the Greek word ‘Aisthetikos’ or ‘αἰσθητικός’, which means sensitive and conscious. The term was derived from the verb ‘Aisthanomai’ or ‘αἰσθάνοµαι’, which means the act of feeling and sensing.
This was later accommodated in German, and its modern form was taken from thee by Alexander Baumgarten in the latter half of the 1700s.
Relevance of European Touch
Aesthetics, as we understand it today, has transcended to have a European touch. Socrates started it in 4 BCE as deviating from mythologies to explain nature. Plato and Aristotle introduced the abstract value of beauty, harmony, proportions, and nostalgia to it.
Later, Alexander Gottlieb tried to explain it as perceiving good and bad in art through cognitive functions. In his Critique of Judgement, Immanuel Kant propounded that humans sense and judge things through their senses and mind. So, the aesthetic degree of an item can be different to different people. Some may find Landscaping stones and landscaping lights a sight to behold. For others, it may be a waste of money.
Surfacing the Landscape
Today, the term can relate to art, paintings, geography, architecture and many similar disciplines. This piece would limit it with the natural or manmade scenic beauty of a piece of land.
Etymological Reference
Similarly, if we follow the trail of the origin of the word Landscape, it will take us to the 1600s. Etymology suggests that it has come from the Dutch word, ‘Landscape, which means land with the surrounding region. The Landscape was used in Shakespearean times. Its old and new German variants were similar too, i.e. ‘Lantsacf’ and ‘Landschaft’. Old Nordic language had ‘Landscape, which denoted a land with distinct features.
Landscaping is a verb making a piece of land to add value to its degree of aestheticism or beauty. In other words, it means making your backyard worthy of having moments of peace and apple for the eye.
How Aesthetics Influences Landscaping
Theories of evolution can showcase that homo sapiens have been viewing Landscape as a place to dwell. What keeps them safe, gives food, where they thrive and grow in peace is beautiful for them. After fulfilling basic needs, altruistic needs come over, and a change in Landscape has…