HEN440 Aesthetic Perception of Nature

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2010
Extent and Intensity
2/0. 8 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Karel Stibral, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Ing. Zbyněk Ulčák, Ph.D.
Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ivona Tolarová
Timetable
Wed 16:00–17:40 U32
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Main objectives of the course can be summarized as follows: to understand a history of the changes of (aesthetic) attitude towards nature; to understand the complexity of the aesthetic appreciation of nature. At the end of this course, students should be able to: understand main changes in the history of aesthetic appreciation of nature; to explain differences among appreciation of natural individual objects, places and landscape, also between rural and wild landscape; to explain main aesthetic concepts connected with appreciation of nature as beauty, sublime and picturesque; to interpret connections between aesthetic appreciation of nature and environmental thinking.
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction. Basic concepts. 2. Aesthetic appreciation of nature in antiquity - individual natural object, place: locus amoenus, origin of the "arcadian landscape". Philosophy and aesthetics of nature. 3. Middle age - Beauty of nature in the work of medieval philosophy and aesthetics. 4. Renaissance - origin of the concept of landscape. First tours and aesthetic liking of nature. Renaissance painting and landscape. 5. 17. century - Landscape painting and the changing aesthetic attitude towards nature: Dutch landscape painting, classical landscape (Claude Lorrain, Poussin), Baroque period in the Central Europe. 6. British aesthetics of the 18th century: Roots of the philosophical reflection of the aesthetic appreciation of nature - Lord of Shaftesbury. Appreciation of the untamed nature. British aesthetics and beauty and sublime of the natural object(E. Burke). Origin of the tourism - the picturesque tours and concept of picturesque (Gilpin, Price). 7. France: J.-J. Rousseau. Origin of appreciation of wilderness. 8. German region: Aesthetics of nature - J. G. Sulzer. I. Kant: Critique of Judgement. 9. Beauties of nature and Romanticism. Aesthetic liking of nature and first protection of nature. 10. "The fall" of aesthetics of nature in philosophy. Nature and art in the 19th century. Czech aesthetics of nature in the 19th century thinking (Klácel, Bratránek, Durdík, Hostinský). 11. 20th century aesthetics: lack of an interest in the 50th and new wave of interest in the last decades in aesthetics and art. Environmental aesthetics (Hepburn, Carlson, Berleant). 12. Aesthetic appreciation of nature and Far East. Texts and art.
Literature
  • STIBRAL, Karel. The beauty of nature: The end of beautys connection with proportionality and usefulness in modern aesthetics. In Workshop Trends in Research and Teaching of Historical Ecology in Central Europe, Central European University, Budapest. 2007. info
  • STIBRAL, Karel. Proč je příroda krásná? Estetické vnímání přírody v novověku (Why is Nature Beautiful? The Aesthetic Perception of Nature in the Modern Era). Praha: Dokořán, 2005, 202 pp. Bod. ISBN 80-7363-008-7. info
  • ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques. Sny samotářského chodce. Praha: K+D Svoboda, 2002, 167 s. ISBN 80-903140-0-7. info
  • CARLSON, Allen. Aesthetics and the environment :the appreciation of nature, art and architecture. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 2000, xxi, 247 s. ISBN 0-415-20683-9. info
  • SHAFTESBURY, Anthony Ashley Cooper. Characteristics of men, manners, opinions, times. Edited by Lawrence E. Klein. 1st publ. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, xxxvii, 49. ISBN 0-521-57022-0. info
  • ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques. Rozpravy. Edited by Vladimír Čechák, Translated by Eva Blažková - Jindřich Veselý -. 2. rozš. vyd. Praha: Svoboda, 1989, 292 s. ISBN 8020500642. info
  • BURKE, Edmund. O vkuse vznešenom a krásnom : filozofické skúmanie o pôvode našich ideí vznešeného a krásneho. Translated by Mária Wiegelová-Molnárová. Vyd. 2. V Bratislave: Tatran, 1981, 165 s. info
  • ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques. Vyznání. Translated by Luděk Kult. Vydání třetí, v Odeonu p. Praha: Odeon, 1978, 544 stran. info
  • KANT, Immanuel. Kritika soudnosti. Edited by Milan Sobotka, Translated by Vladimír Špalek - Walter Hansel. Vyd. 1. Praha: Odeon, 1975, 271 s. info
Teaching methods
Lectures
Assessment methods
Standard lectures finished with the oral exam.
Language of instruction
Czech
Follow-Up Courses
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Listed among pre-requisites of other courses
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2005, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2010, recent)
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