自然与艺术:关于自然美学的恰当起点

Nature and Art: on the Adequate Starting Point of Aesthetics of Nature

当代西方美学家研究自然美学大多从艺术与自然比较开始,从中找出自然的独特审美个性,并强调自然审美的独立性;但是他们没有意识到,这样做同时也为自然美学带来巨大的理论误区。在历史上,我们无法想象艺术产生之前人类欣赏自然的情形;在逻辑上,没有艺术这一参照,自然美学似乎就无法建立。中国古代美学资源则支持另一种假说:自然审美很可能是人类最早的审美形态,自然审美不只可以独立于艺术而存在,它同时也为人类艺术创造提供必要的心理基础。不是自然审美依赖于艺术,而是艺术创造依赖于自然审美经验。恰当的自然美学应当从对人类自然审美经验之独立、系统研究开始,而不应当从与艺术的比较开始。

Many of western aestheticians start with a comparison between the nature and art in their natural Aesthetics, by which they find out the unique aesthetic qualities of the nature and put a stress on the independence of aesthetic apprecia- tion of the nature as well. However, they fail to realize that such a comparison can also invite an unexpected ramification, namely, a huge misleading to natural aesthetics： in the sense of history of aesthetic appreciation of the nature, it seems to be hard for us to image aesthetic appreciation of the nature before the birth of art; in logic, it＇ s also impossible to build natural aesthetics without the help of art. Yet, literatures in Chinese ancient Aesthetics seem to support another hypothesis： the aesthetic appreciation of the nature is probably the earliest aesthetic practice. It can entirely survive without the aid from art. Aesthetic appreciation of the nature can not only be independent of art, but also provide necessary psychological foun- dation for art-making. It is not that aesthetic appreciation of the nature depends on art, but art depends on aesthetic appre- ciation of the nature. So, instead of the comparison between the nature and art, an adequate natural aesthetics ought to start with an indeoendent and s,istematie investigation of the experience of aesthetic appreciation of the nature.