Department of Philosophy
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These digital collections contain theses, dissertations, and faculty publications from the Department of Philosophy. Also included is a collection of works by Rolston Holmes III, a philosopher who is a University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University, known for his contributions to environmental ethics and the relationship between science and religion.
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Browsing Department of Philosophy by Subject "aesthetics"
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Item Open Access Beauty and the beast: aesthetic experience of wildlife(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1987) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Westview Press, publisherWild lives are valued aesthetically in diverse ways: (1) Wild lives are spontaneous form in motion, appealing to human emotions. (2) They are kindred yet alien sentient life. (3) They struggle to make the potential actual. (4) Wild lives are taken up as symbols in the culture that humans overlay on the natural world.Item Open Access Beauty and the treatment of addiction(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Czyszczewski, Justin, author; Kneller, Jane, advisor; Stallones, Lorann, committee member; Tropman, Elizabeth, committee memberDrug and alcohol addiction are highly destructive, reaping significant damage on society, on addicts, and on their families and friends. The past century has seen a vast increase in the treatment of addiction, but these methods have failure rates of 50% or greater. This work seeks an alternative approach to addiction treatment, using the concept of reflective aesthetic judgment presented by Immanuel Kant in the Critique of Judgment. This approach is justified by an examination of the experiences of addicts, working from the problem as it is understood to a possible solution. Because the problem is an inadequacy of willpower, cognitive treatment methods are unlikely to be successful. An aesthetic conception of treatment, which appeals to a common human aesthetic sense for the beautiful, offers a non-cognitive method that is universally communicable. This would appeal to people trapped in the isolated and alienated experience of addiction. The focus is a philosophical understanding of the mechanism of addiction, and identifying some of the necessary conditions for treatment of it. In light of this, suggestions are given for possible components of such treatment, such as art therapy, spiritual practices, and appreciation of nature.Item Open Access Celestial aesthetics: over our heads and/or in our heads(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Taylor & Francis, publisherLooking at the night sky, we may seem cosmic dwarfs, overwhelmed with a sense of otherness, abyss. But humans alone enjoy such celestial awe. We can move to a sense of the beholder's celestial ancestry and ongoing relatedness in "our cosmic habitat." That account joins aesthetics with mathematics, finds dramatic interrelationships gathered under "the anthropic principle," and considers meteorological aesthetics. The wonder is as much this Homo sapiens with mind enough to search the universe. What is out there is inseparably linked with what is down here. We are at home in the universe. The glory is both over our heads and in our heads.Item Open Access Does aesthetic appreciation of landscapes need to be science based?(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1995) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Oxford University Press, publisherForests are aesthetically challenging because of a perennial, dynamic sense of deep time, experiencing an archetype of creation. Scientific appreciation of natural history is necessary though not sufficient for an intense, multisensory, participatory engagement when persons, immersed in forests, constitute their lived aesthetic experiences. Forests are sublime, evoking the sense of the sacred. Aesthetic appreciation in forests radically differs from that appropriate for artworks.Item Open Access Does aesthetic appreciation of nature need to be science-based?(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, interviewee; Stevens, Christopher, interviewer; University of Helsinki, producerScience-based aesthetic appreciation of nature can differ significantly from non-science-based appreciation, for example in understanding a volcanic eruption in Hawaii geologically or as the anger of the goddess Pelé. Non-scientific appreciation can be sometimes appropriate as with enjoying fall leaf colors, but even this is enriched by science. Environmental aesthetics and environmental ethics: from beauty to duty.Item Open Access Ecological aesthetics and ethics in the post epidemic era(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021-08) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, speaker; Bend, Ron, videographerThe largest and most threatening pandemic in human history has humbled arrogant humans, locked us up. The virus in a couple months has stymied human achievements, aspirations, and freedoms. The upsetting surprise is that this tiny bit of nothing, not even alive, that you can't see even with a microscope, is upsetting our local and our global ecologies. We wonder why and how viruses can have their place in a wonderland biosphere. One big worry is that, developing a vaccine, we will miss this opportunity for more caring, love, and solidarity in our human communities, for pandemic justice. Biological nature is always giving birth, always in travail. Death is a necessary counterpart to the advancing of life. The music of life is in a minor key. The global Earth is a land of promise, and yet one that has to be died for. Earthen natural history might be called the evolution of suffering, or, equally, the evolution of caring. Life is perpetually perishing, yet perpetually regenerated, redeemed. In the post pandemic normal, it is impossible to go back to where we were. We must embrace nature and culture on Earth as it is and as it is becoming.Item Open Access Human values and natural systems(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1998) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Taylor & Francis, publisherWhat human values are earned by natural systems? I can answer that question directly while I indirectly address a deeper question. Are values in nature objective or subjective? Some values (the nutrition in a potato) seem objectively there, while others (the eagle as a national symbol) seem merely assigned. Either way, certain experiences that humans find to be valuable require and are carried by natural things. As we examine the types of natural values, we can wonder whether-at times at least-value intrinsic in nature enables humans to enjoy these values.Item Open Access Onko maisemien esteettisen arvioinnin pohjattava teiteeseen?(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Maahenki, publisherForests are aesthetically challenging because of a perennial, dynamic sense of deep time, experiencing an archetype of creation. Scientific appreciation of natural history is necessary though not sufficient for an intense, multisensory, participatory engagement when persons, immersed in forests, constitute their lived aesthetic experiences. Forests are sublime, evoking the sense of the sacred. Aesthetic appreciation in forests radically differs from that appropriate for artworks.Item Open Access Taivas päämme: yllä ja päässämme(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author; Maahenki Oy, publisherLooking at the night sky, we may seem cosmic dwarfs, overwhelmed with a sense of otherness, abyss. But humans alone enjoy such celestial awe. We can move to a sense of the beholder's celestial ancestry and ongoing relatedness in "our cosmic habitat." That account joins aesthetics with mathematics, finds dramatic interrelationships gathered under "the anthropic principle," and considers meteorological aesthetics. The wonder is as much this Homo sapiens with mind enough to search the universe. What is out there is inseparably linked with what is down here. We are at home in the universe. The glory is both over our heads and in our heads.