Aesthetics- Philosophy of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Aesthetics- Philosophy of Art - Essay Example In aesthetics you have to see for yourself precisely because what you have to "see" is not a property: your knowledge that an aesthetic feature is "in" the object is given by the same criteria that show that you "see" it. To see the sadness in the music and to know that the music is sad are one and the same thing. To agree in the judgment that the music is sad is not to agree in a belief, but in something more like a response or an experience" (Eldridge 145: 2003).It has long been recognized that human beings find a variety of visual and auditory appearances to be extremely fascinating. Certain sunsets, flowers, birdsongs, and beautiful bodies, among natural things, and certain pots, carvings, vocalizations, and marked surfaces, among humanly made things, seem to engage eye or ear simultaneously with thoughtful mind. In experiencing such things, we feel we want the experience to continue for "its own sake, " at least for some further time. The Greek uses a phrase to kalon which means the fine, the good, or the beautiful, to describe many sorts of things that are attractive to mind and eye or ear, without sharply distinguishing natural beauty from artistic merit (or moral goodness). "In the Symposium, Socrates reports that the priestess Diotima once instructed him in how a lover who goes about this matter correctly must begin in his youth to devote himself to beautiful bodies, first loving one body, then many (as he comes to understand that they are alike in beauty), next beautiful minds, beautiful laws and customs, beautiful ideas and theories, until finally he will come to love the Beautiful itself, absolute, pure, unmixed, not polluted by human flesh or colors or any other great nonsense of mortality." (Eldridge 47: 2003) In pleasing us, natural and artistic beauty, according to Kant, serve no outer purpose. The experience of beauty does not yield knowledge, and it does not of itself enable the satisfaction of desires for material goods. Yet it is not nonetheless merely agreeable or pleasant; instead, the experience of beauty matters. Beauty in nature makes us feel as though the natural world were congenial to our purposes and projects. In feeling the beautiful natural object to be "as it were" intelligible or made for us to apprehend it, we further feel that nature as a whole, which seems to "shine forth" in beauty, is favorable to our cognitive and practical interests as subjects. To experience a beautiful sunset, according to Kant, is to feel (though not to know theoretically) that nature makes sense. Kant's terminology may be difficult, the experience he is describing is a familiar one. Beautiful objects of nature or art engage our attention. We love them by paying active, cognitive attention to t hem, even if we do not get anything from them or even if it brings out the inner most emotions from us. The above discussion brings us to compare art with emotions, the reason why identifications with artists and imaginative participation in experiences and emotions are available to us is that works of art are made things, products or instances of human action. To understand an action, including actions of artistic making, is to understand its suitable motivation by reasons in contexts. Actions of artistic making, including the making of both narrative art and non-narrative art, are concerned with the shaping of materials to hold attention on a presented subject matter. (In abstract work, the presented subject matters are often centrally the perception and gestural action of the artist and the possibility of the audience's imaginative participation in that perception and gestural action.) Whatever emotions figure in attention to this subject matter are emotions that members of the audience are solicited to experience and explore, as they participate in the attention that is embodied in the work. The understanding of art is much related to exploring, to understand art critically is to explore it imaginatively, guided by a range of relevant

Managing at a distance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managing at a distance - Essay Example The central location has become the virtual office, the virtual enterprise, which has translated into the virtual work team. Utilizing virtual teams now allow organizations to bring together critical contributors in real time that might not otherwise be able to work together in a traditional work environment. Virtual teams can also add to the pool of resources available to any organization by opening the door to include people from outside the sponsoring organization such as supply chain affiliates, members of interconnected organizations, or external consultants. In many cases, the communication and insight from this type of 360 degree feedback is can give the organization an edge over their competitors. The result is what has come to be termed a distributed work groups, or virtual teams as they are more commonly known. Like any team, a virtual team works on interdependent tasks guided by a common purpose. Like anymore traditional team, the group needs to have consistent and hands on leadership in order to keep the team focused on the tasks at hand, and facilitate progress. However, because these teams are located across space, time, and organizational and geographic boundaries, the challenges of leading the team have become an entirely new endeavor. As one researcher described it, because of advanced technologies and communication tools global teams are developing the ability to "work together apart" (Grenier and Meters, 1992), In the light of these changing dynamics, leadership personnel must learn a new conflux of tools. "Management by walking around," a term made popular in the 1980's as a way to stay connected to those under the leaders direction is no longer possible. In addition, ineffective management styles which could be compensated for through personal contact now can destroy an organizations ability to communicate and achieve project goals effectively. Therefore, the team leader must be able to complete and facilitate a number of human relational dynamics without seeing his team face to face, including trust building, performance accountability, and conflict resolution. So how does the manager adapt his or her personal style to the needs of the virtual work team in order to overcome the barriers created by different locations and organizational cultures The manager must: 1. have a clear understanding of the project goals and objectives. 2. have a deep understanding of how or her own management styles, it strengths and weaknesses 3. work to improve on his or her weaknesses, and utilize his or her strengths in order to create an environment of transformational leadership. While many different personal evaluation tools have evolved during the past few decades, the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) seeks to help the manager understand his or her own personal weaknesses as well as strengths. The purpose of the SDI is to make the manager more aware of their own personality and relationship skills, both positively and negatively. The purpose of the SDI is not to give the learner a task list, but rather educate him to use his gifts more effectively while charting a path to develop his own weaknesses. In the work team environment, an unidentified weakness can destroy the moral or cohesiveness within the group more quickly because of the limited personal contact the participants have with each other. "Team leaders typically find that achieving alignment and commitment