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Fact and Fiction in the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature
Marcia Eaton
+Mission/Issues
If positive aesthetic responses lead to care we must establish a way to generate aesthetic response that lead to sustainable care “if people see how beautiful such ecosystems (coral reefs) are,
they will tend to act in ways that will better protect these and other environments”
Some actions are viewed as ways of “caring for landscape” but are actually harmful to it Mowing lawns with small gasoline
engines Fertilizing with chemicals that pollute
the ground water
What is it to have an aesthetic experience of nature?
When is this experience of the right sort?
+Marcia Eaton on Ethics and Aesthetics
Believes that meaningful lives are as much aesthetic as moral and involve these two dimensions in interwoven dependence
Ethics and Aesthetics are inseparable but different Aesthetic appreciation should be ethical
Cognitive Approach to nature appreciation is important Can help us locate its aesthetic properties and sustain our
attention to them If you appreciate something under the wrong category,
you can make appreciative mistakes Aesthetic response to not nature that are not guided by
knowledge frequently lead to bad environmental policies
+Carlson’s Cognitive Model
Eaton supports this approach of aesthetic experience of nature
Aesthetic appreciation of nature must be directed by knowledge about it
Aesthetic experience consists of scrutiny of an object and a response based upon it Scrutiny based upon and enriched by scientific
understanding of the workings of nature Response must be to nature and not something else
+Emily Brady: Imagination
Claims that Carlson fails to account for the significance of imagination in our experiences of nature
Eaton believes fiction (manifested of imagination) plays large role in shaping way culture perceives & conceives environment
Eaton: Must have understanding of role that artistic culture plays in shaping human attitudes toward environment Understanding can then be used to establish sustainable
practices
+Emily Brady: Imagination
Eaton: Brady makes common mistake of leaving humans out of nature Few places that are not to some degree a product of human
creation Humans are natural
Eaton: fiction construed broadly to refer to objects created by and appealing to the imagination
Brady: imagining interpreted as visualizing or otherwise coming up with ranges of possibilities
+Brady & Kant
Brady agrees with Immanuel Kant’s position that “a free play of imagination” is central to human aesthetic pleasure Respond to objects as we please Free to think of a tree as a person, animal, tower etc.
Brady/Carlson agree in basic distinctions between artistic and natural appreciation Natural objects lack intentional acts of an artist which could
give us cues that direct our attention and thus imagination
No need to be concerned with what nature is intended to express or how it functions as an object freedom is expanded
+Importance of Knowledge
Eaton does not think that this distinction between art & nature, entails that information about context is either nonexistent or irrelevant
Eaton/Carlson insist that knowledge concerning how natural objects function within a particular context plays a major role in appreciating nature Ex: failure to understand proper function of certain trees or
forest soils has led to mismanagement of forests, even when motivated by providing aesthetic value Forests protected from fires, (b/c burned out areas may
be seen as ugly) detrimental to plants whose growth is stimulated in burned and blackened soil (warms more quickly in the sun)
+Brady on Cognitive Model
Fears cognitive model precludes access to richness of imaginative insight Insight: aesthetic experience, interpreted in
terms of imagination Ex: “contemplating the fresh
whiteness of a lamb and its
small fragile stature evokes
images of purity and naiveté”
(152)
Too much reliance on knowledge may fail to provide framework that is clearly aesthetic Mixed up with environmental values
(ecological, historical, cultural)
+How we should imagine
Brady: “Imagining well” Spotting aesthetic potential Having a sense of what to look for Knowing when to clip the wings of imagination
Preventing irrelevant, shallow, naïve, sentimental, responses that could impoverish appreciation
Eaton: Can responding to a white lamb with thoughts of innocence be regarded as shallow or naïve? We rely on Cognitive Model to determine this
+Eaton: Importance of Cognitive Model
Knowledge should do more than deepen the experiences that imagination provides
If we want to preserve and design sustainable landscapes, knowledge should direct these experiences
Issue: imaginative fancies-often directed by fictional creations- can and do lead to harmful actions
Fiction has had significant influence on attitudes, images and metaphors with which we approach nature Tendencies to sentimentalize or demonize misconceptions
+Influence of Fiction
Bambi Has made it more difficult to respond to deer in terms
appropriate to the role they increasingly play in the ecological systems they have come to dominate
Increase in deer population/decrease in several songbirds and tree species
Tend to respond as fictional account directs us to Noble deer, who never kill Teaches children not to be violent, but also gives false
impressions about actual effect of overpopulation of deer in forests
+Influence of Fiction
Wetlands Often conceptualized as “swamps”
inhabited by slime monsters!
Fear of death by quicksand is common
Would be hard to convince lovers of The Lion King, if lion populations started to threaten environment
+Influence of Fiction
Richard Forman’s book, Land Mosaics, discusses importance of protecting “keystone species” that play central role in ecosystem Cassowary bird
Territorial bird, as tall as and able to rip the guts out of a man
Normally inhibits large forests Logging/fragmentation have eliminated it
from several areas Eaton guesses this bird is depicted as a
terrible monster in fiction, making it harder to save--but is fiction to blame for its downfall?
+Eaton: Importance of Imagination
Fiction and imagination in general, can play a positive role in developing a sound nature aesthetic, if and only if, it is based upon, tempered by, directed and enriched by solid ecological knowledge
3 Stages in the examination of unfamiliar landscapes *One decides whether to explore or move on If one decides to stay/explore, one the begins to gather
info. Finally, one decides whether to stay longer or move on *flights of imagination may be important factor during
step 1 Being deceptively intrigued by a man-eating bird may be
what leads one to learn more about Cassowary Bird.
+Eaton: Importance of Imagination
Imagination is probably essential in producing people who are able to envision new and more successful ways of designing and maintaining environments
Evidence shows that humans are genetically inclined to respond positively (be more calm) to nonthreatening nature Genetic reasons that we prefer savannas to wetlands Education is required to show people that wetlands etc. are
also valuable
+Eaton: Importance of Imagination
Our attitudes toward nature are largely determined by metaphors (from literature and other arts) with which we conceptualize it hit rock bottom or get at root of problem in order for ideas
to blossom Imaginatively creating new metaphors may allow us to
think outside the box
Fiction must still remain at the service of facts
+Eaton: Revisits Cognitive Model
There are sustainable environments that have had no help from scientific knowledge
Admits that the priority of the cognitive model is not universally required for an adequate nature aesthetic Aesthetic and ecological planning are
always site specific
Colin Turnbull meets man dancing with forest in Congo Shows use of imagination and
independence from scientific knowledge
+How much time would you spend appreciating this flower?
+Eaton: Revisits Cognitive Model
Some object that insisting upon scientific basis for appreciation of nature “takes all the fun out of it”
Eaton does not believe that knowledge kills aesthetic pleasure, but that it increases it
Aesthetic interest is not separate from our other interests as human beings
In learning what to look for, we achieve the very possibility of seeing Minnesota trout lily grows only in two (Minnesota) counties on
earth!
ONLY with knowledge will sustainable practices develop
+Conclusions
While recognizing benefits of fiction/imagination, one must constantly be aware of its possible harm
When we read thing like Bambi, we must remind ourselves to balance the story with an understanding of relation between an increasing deer population and a decreasing songbird population
A proper combination of the delight that human beings take in flights of imagination with solid cognitive understanding of what makes for sustainable environments, will produce the kind of attitudes/preferences that will generate the kind of ethical care we strive for