Environmental Aesthetics Beyond the Dialectics of Interest and Disinterest Deconstructing the Myth of Pristine Nature

Authors

  • Antony Fredriksson

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v22i40-41.5201

Keywords:

Pristine nature, culture, natural beauty, disinterestedness, sublime, picturesque

Abstract

In this paper I want to scrutinize one of the key ideas within modern Western aesthetics. Beauty is often considered to derive from a virtuous disinterested attitude towards nature. This kind of view has been advocated by thinkers such as Shaftesbury and Kant in the beginning of the so-called aesthetic turn in philosophy. The problem with this view is that it presupposes that nature exists by itself before human intervention in a kind of ideal pristine state. My hypothesis is that this ideal of pristine nature constitutes one of the underlying problems of many contemporary environmental discourses.

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How to Cite

Fredriksson, A. (2011). Environmental Aesthetics Beyond the Dialectics of Interest and Disinterest Deconstructing the Myth of Pristine Nature. The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 22(40-41). https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v22i40-41.5201

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 40-41 (2011)

Section

Articles

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