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An Introduction to Dance Aesthetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Advienne L. Kaeppler
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Extract

Deriving from the Greek word aisthetikos, which deals with “sense perception”, the term aesthetics is now used in a variety of ways. When brought into English and other European languages in the nineteenth century, “aesthetic” was used to indicate the response to art and was especially concerned with beauty. Although still used in that way, the term “aesthetics” has also taken on the trappings of a philosophical system, often stated as the philosophy of beauty and good taste. A philosophical system is derived from a set of principles, thus a philosophy of aesthetics must be based on aesthetic principles.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 35 , 2003 , pp. 153 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 By The International Council for Traditional Music

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Footnotes

1

The stimulus for this paper goes back to 1986 when I was “Una Lecturer in the Humanities” at the University of California, Berkeley. My series of lectures was “Aesthetics: Evaluative Ways of Thinking” and lecture one (on which this essay is based) was “Art, Aesthetics, Values, and Thought”. I wish to thank the trusties of the Una Lectures Foundation and the institutions that supported my research in Polynesia: the National Institute of Mental Health, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Bishop Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. I also wish to thank the many Polynesians who helped me to understand the data presented in this paper, especially for the Tongan section Sister Malia Tu'ifua and the late Vaisima Hopoate.

References

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