等级夷平的悖论——论卡尔松的肯定美学

Antinomy of Allen Carlson's Affirmative Aesthetics

卡尔松的肯定美学即是一种主张所有自然物都一样美的观念。其产生有一定的内在逻辑:以瓦尔顿的审美理论为依托,卡尔松通过科学为自然创造新的审美范畴,从而避免了艺术欣赏中的等级与优劣之分。但肯定美学的产生潜藏着更深层的美学动机——即拯救那些为人类视角所遮蔽的自然,对当下人类精英式占有自然环境的批判。自十八世纪以来,建立在如画性基础上的自然审美传统抛弃了自然本身,而仅以人为基准。尽管肯定美学符合内外逻辑,但自身却蕴涵着巨大的悖论:它的实现以自然自律为充要条件,而自然完全摆脱人类视角回归自身只是理想的假设。肯定美学的矛盾源自卡尔松企图超越但仍无法超越的二元对立自然观。

Carlson＇s affirmative aesthetics claimed that all in nature possessed the same beauty. Based on Walton＇s aesthetic theory,Carlson created new aesthetic category for nature with science,avoiding grading in art appreciation, thus it contained inner logic. Affirmative aesthetics possessed deeper aesthetic motivation that was to save the nature and criticize human being＇s occupation of nature. Since 1800s,the traditional view of aesthetic appreciation has cast away the nature itself, only taking man as its norm. Affirmative aesthetics, though in accordance with inner and outer logic, contained antinomy itself.it bore nature as its precondition,and it was only an ideal consumption that the nature returned to itself without human vision. The antinomy of affirmative aesthetics was rooted in the dual opposing view of nature which Carlson tried to surpass in vain.