Integrated Art Work and Aesthetics

Abstract

In this paper I shall attempt to show that theorising, even of the most abstract kind, is, where appropriately tackled, of direct relevance to pressing practical problems in the teaching of the arts and design. This is not to say that every practitioner should be philosophising consciously and articulately all the time he is working - he would probably never finish anything - but I shall suggest that some study of aesthetics can be of great value to all educators in the arts and that it can help them to sort out some fashionable educational terms which are used all too often in a confused and confusing way.

I mean by 'aesthetics' the philosophy of art and would argue, given more time and space, that this can include (via the concept of 'form') the philosophy of design in a sense which reaches far beyond what we normally mean by the fine arts. There are also psychological and sociological aesthetics, but it is the philosopher's job to include these within the range of his enquiry.