Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Aesthetics of Nature
Authors: Parsons Glenn 
Published: July 2008

Author's Introduction

Traditionally, analytic philosophers writing on aesthetics have given short shrift to nature. The last thirty years, however, have seen a steady growth of interest in this area. The essays and books now available cover central philosophical issues concerning the nature of the aesthetic and the existence of norms for aesthetic judgement. They also intersect with important issues in environmental philosophy. More recent contributions have opened up new topics, such as the relationship between natural sound and music, the beauty of animals, and the aesthetics of gardens. Using these materials, it is now easy to include a module on the aesthetics of nature as one part of an introductory course on aesthetics, or even to design an entire upper‐level undergraduate or graduate seminar around the topic.

Author Recommends:

Don Mannison, ‘Comments Stimulated by Reinhardt's Remarks: A Prolegomenon to a Human Chauvinistic Aesthetic’. Environmental Philosophy. Eds. Don Mannison, Michael McRobbie, and Richard Routley (Canberra: Australian National University, 1980), 212–16.

Readers coming fresh to contemporary debates may find the lack of attention to natural beauty in twentieth‐century philosophy somewhat puzzling. This paper, which defends the view that nature cannot be aesthetically appreciated as such, presents this attitude in a particularly pure form.

Ronald Hepburn, ‘Contemporary Aesthetics and the Neglect of Natural Beauty’. British Analytical Philosophy. Eds. Bernard Williams and Alan Montefiore (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966), 285–310. Reprinted in The Aesthetics of Natural Environments. Eds. Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004).

This seminal essay marks the beginning of contemporary discussion of the aesthetics of nature. Many of its ideas and themes continue to reverberate in contemporary debates.

Allen Carlson, Aesthetics and the Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture (London: Routledge, 2000).

This volume is a collection of Carlson's influential essays on environmental aesthetics. Chapters 4 and 5, ‘Appreciation and the Natural Environment’ and ‘Nature, Aesthetic Judgment, and Objectivity’, set the agenda for much subsequent discussion in the aesthetics of nature. Chapter 6, ‘Nature and Positive Aesthetics’, develops and defends the controversial idea that nature, unlike art, is always aesthetically good.

Arnold Berleant, ‘The Aesthetics of Art and Nature’. Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts. Eds. Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 228–43. Reprinted in The Aesthetics of Natural Environments. Eds. Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004).

In this paper, Berleant presents his influential idea of an ‘engaged aesthetics’ for nature.

Yuriko Saito, ‘The Aesthetics of Unscenic Nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 (1998): 101–11.

This article develops Saito's idea that ethical considerations play a critical role in the aesthetics of nature, and presents a novel argument for Positive Aesthetics for nature.

Malcolm Budd, The Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature: Essays on the Aesthetics of Nature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

This book collects Budd's papers on the aesthetics of nature, which contain important criticisms of Carlson's natural environmental model and the notion of Positive Aesthetics for nature.

Noël Carroll, ‘On Being Moved by Nature: Between Religion and Natural History’. Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts. Eds. Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 244–66. Reprinted in The Aesthetics of Natural Environments. Eds. Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004).

This paper argues for the importance of aesthetic appreciation that emphasizes emotional responses to nature. A philosophically sophisticated and influential treatment by a leading aesthetician.

Ned Hettinger, ‘Allen Carlson's Environmental Aesthetics and Protection of the Environment’. Environmental Ethics 27 (2005): 57–76.

In this essay, an environmental philosopher gives careful and thorough consideration to the place of aesthetic considerations in environmental protection, focusing on Carlson's work.

John Andrew Fisher, ‘What the Hills are Alive With: In Defense of the Sounds of Nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 (1998): 167–79. Reprinted in The Aesthetics of Natural Environments. Eds. Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004).

Most discussions of nature aesthetics focus on visual experiences; this essay is the first philosophical study of the aesthetics of natural sounds. A nuanced and original paper.

Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant. ‘Introduction: The Aesthetics of Nature’. The Aesthetics of Natural Environments. Eds. Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004), 11–42.

A comprehensive review of the literature, this essay contains the best available bibliography on the subject.

Online Materials:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/environmental‐aesthetics/

Environmental Aesthetics:

Allen Carlson's entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

http://www.aesthetics‐online.org/articles/index.php?articles_id=17

Teaching Environmental Aesthetics:

Allen Carlson's article on the American Society for Aesthetics Web site.

http://www.uqtr. uquebec.ca/AE/Vol_6/

Volume 6 of AE: Canadian Aesthetics Journal /Revue canadienne d’esthetique:

Papers by Thomas Heyd and Ira Newman on Allen Carlson's book Aesthetics and the Environment, along with a response from Carlson.

http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=400

Paradoxes and Puzzles: Appreciating Gardens and Urban Nature:

An essay by Stephanie Ross in the online journal Contemporary Aesthetics.

Sample Syllabus for a three‐week module in an undergraduate aesthetics course:

This three week module can easily be adapted to fit shorter available class time or reduced reading expectations for students. A lighter two‐week module, for instance, would drop the Hepburn reading and do either the Carroll essay or the Saito essay, but not both. Note that all readings for this module are reprinted in Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant (eds.), The Aesthetics of Natural Environments (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004).

Week 1: Introduction

Reading:

Ronald Hepburn, ‘Contemporary Aesthetics and the Neglect of Natural Beauty’. British Analytical Philosophy. Eds. Bernard Williams and Alan Montefiore (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966), 285–310.

Discussion of Hepburn's essay will allow the instructor to bring out the distinctive issues and themes of the aesthetics of nature.

Week 2: Objectivity or Subjectivity?

Readings:

Allen Carlson, ‘Appreciation and the Natural Environment’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 37 (1979): 267–76.

Arnold Berleant, ‘The Aesthetics of Art and Nature’. Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts. Eds. Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 228–43.

This section covers two very different approaches to thinking about the aesthetic appreciation of nature. Consideration of these provides an opportunity for students to reflect on nature's relationship to art, and on the character of aesthetic experience itself.

Week 3: Pluralistic Approaches

Readings:

Yuriko Saito, ‘Appreciating Nature on its Own Terms’. Environmental Ethics 20 (1998): 135–49.

Noël Carroll, ‘On Being Moved by Nature: Between Religion and Natural History’. Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts. Eds. Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 244–66.

This section considers approaches that are motivated by perceived limitations of the two approaches mentioned above. In discussing these, students will focus on the significance, for the aesthetics of nature, of emotion and also of broader ethical considerations.

Sample Syllabus for an upper‐level undergraduate or graduate seminar:

Books on Syllabus:

Glenn Parsons, Aesthetics and Nature [AN] (London: Continuum Press, forthcoming November 2008).

Allen Carlson, Aesthetics and the Environment: The Appreciation of Nature, Art and Architecture [AE] (London: Routledge, 2000).

Allen Carlson and Arnold Berleant (eds.), The Aesthetics of Natural Environments [ANE] (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2004).

Week 1: Introduction

Parsons, AN, ch. 1.

Allen Carlson, ‘Environmental Aesthetics’. The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics. Eds. Berys Gaut and Dominic Lopes (London: Routledge, 2001), 423–36.

Don Mannison, ‘Comments Stimulated by Reinhardt's Remarks: A Prolegomenon to a Human Chauvinistic Aesthetic’. Environmental Philosophy. Eds. Don Mannison, Michael McRobbie, and Richard Routley (Canberra: Australian National University, 1980), 212–16.

Ronald Hepburn, ‘Contemporary Aesthetics and the Neglect of Natural Beauty’. British Analytical Philosophy. Eds. Bernard Williams and Alan Montefiore (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966), 285–310. Reprinted in ANE.

Week 2: Imagination

Parsons, AN, ch. 2.

Thomas Heyd, ‘Aesthetic Appreciation and the Many Stories About Nature’. British Journal of Aesthetics 41 (2001): 125–37. Reprinted in ANE.

Emily Brady, ‘Imagination and the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 (1998): 139–47. Reprinted in ANE.

Marcia Eaton, ‘Fact and Fiction in the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 (1998): 149–56. Reprinted in ANE.

Week 3: Formalism

Parsons, AN, ch. 3.

Carlson, ‘Formal Qualities and the Natural Environment’, AE, ch. 3.

Allen Carlson, ‘On the Possibility of Quantifying Scenic Beauty’. Landscape Planning 4 (1977): 131–72.

Ira Newman, ‘Reflections on Allen Carlson's Aesthetics and the Environment’. AE: Canadian Aesthetics Journal /Revue canadienne d’esthetique 6 (2001) <http://www.uqtr.uquebec.ca/AE/Vol_6/Carlson/newman.html>.

Nick Zangwill, ‘Formal Natural Beauty’. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 21 (2001): 209–24.

Week 4: Science and Nature Aesthetics

Parsons, AN, ch. 4.

Aldo Leopold, ‘Country’. A Sand County Almanac, with Essays on Conservation from Round River (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1966), 177–80.

Carlson, ‘Appreciation and the Natural Environment’, AE, ch. 4.

Carlson, ‘Nature, Aesthetic Judgment, and Objectivity’, AE, ch. 5.

Glenn Parsons, ‘The Aesthetics of Nature’. Philosophy Compass 2 (2007): 358–72.

Week 5: Positive Aesthetics

Carlson, ‘Nature and Positive Aesthetics’, AE, ch. 6.

Eugene Hargrove, Foundations of Environmental Ethics (Denton, TX: Environmental Ethics Books, 1996), ch. 6.

Yuriko Saito, ‘The Aesthetics of Unscenic Nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 (1998): 101–11.

Malcolm Budd, ‘The Aesthetics of Nature’. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 100 (2000): 137–57.

Glenn Parsons, ‘Nature Appreciation, Science and Positive Aesthetics’. British Journal of Aesthetics 42 (2002): 279–95.

Week 6: Animals

Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Ed. James T. Boulton (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968 [1757]), Pt. III, sec. VI.

Holmes Rolston III, ‘Beauty and the Beast: Aesthetic Experience of Wildlife’. Valuing Wildlife: Economic and Social Perspectives. Eds. Daniel J. Decker and Gary R. Goff (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987), 187–96.

Glenn Parsons, ‘The Aesthetic Value of Animals’. Environmental Ethics 27 (2007): 151–69.

Week 7: Pluralism

Parsons, AN, ch. 5.

Noël Carroll, ‘On Being Moved by Nature: Between Religion and Natural History’. Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts. Eds. Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 244–66. Reprinted in ANE.

Yuriko Saito, ‘Appreciating Nature on its Own Terms’. Environmental Ethics 20 (1998): 135–49. Reprinted in ANE.

Ronald Hepburn, ‘Nature Humanized: Nature Respected’. Environmental Values 7 (1998): 267–79.

Ronald Hepburn, ‘Trivial and Serious in Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature’. Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts. Eds. Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 65–80.

Glenn Parsons and Allen Carlson, ‘New Formalism and the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 62 (2004): 363–76.

Week 8: Engagement

Parsons, AN, ch. 6.

Arnold Berleant, ‘The Aesthetics of Art and Nature’. Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts. Eds. Salim Kemal and Ivan Gaskell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 228–43. Reprinted in ANE.

Cheryl Foster, ‘The Narrative and the Ambient in Environmental Aesthetics’. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 56 (1998): 127–37. Reprinted in ANE.

Allen Carlson, ‘Aesthetics and Engagement’. British Journal of Aesthetics 33 (1993): 220–27.

Week 9: The Sublime

Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment. Trans. P. Guyer and E. Matthews (Cambridge University Press, 2000 [1790]). Excerpts from sections 23–9.

Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Ed. James T. Boulton (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968 [1757]). Excerpts from Pt. II, sections 1–8.

Ronald Hepburn, ‘The Concept of the Sublime: Has it any Relevance for Philosophy Today?’. Dialectics and Humanism 15 (1988): 137–55.

Stan Godlovitch, ‘Icebreakers: Environmentalism and Natural Aesthetics’. Journal of Applied Philosophy 11 (1994): 15–30. Reprinted in ANE.

Malcolm Budd, ‘Delight in the Natural World: Kant on the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature. Part I: The Sublime in Nature’. British Journal of Aesthetics 38 (1998): 233–50.

Week 10: Aesthetic Preservation

Parsons, AN, ch. 7.

Janna Thompson, ‘Aesthetics and the Value of Nature’. Environmental Ethics 17 (1995): 291–305.

Holmes Rolston III, ‘From Beauty to Duty: Aesthetics of Nature and Environmental Ethics’. Environment and the Arts: Perspectives on Environmental Aesthetics. Ed. Arnold Berleant (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2002), 127–41.

Ned Hettinger, ‘Allen Carlson's Environmental Aesthetics and Protection of the Environment’. Environmental Ethics 27 (2005): 57–76.

Keekok Lee, ‘Beauty for Ever?’. Environmental Values 4 (1995): 213–25.

Week 11: Gardens

Parsons, AN, ch. 8.

Mara Miller, The Garden as an Art (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993), ch. 1.

Mara Miller, ‘Gardens as Works of Art: The Problem of Uniqueness’. British Journal of Aesthetics 26 (1986): 252–6.

Stephanie Ross, What Gardens Mean (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998), chs. 1, 7.

Tom Leddy, ‘Gardens in an Expanded Field’. British Journal of Aesthetics 28 (1988): 327–40.

David Cooper, ‘In Praise of Gardens’. British Journal of Aesthetics 43 (2003): 101–13.

Week 12: Art in Nature

Parsons, AN, ch. 9.

Carlson, ‘Is Environmental Art an Aesthetic Affront to Nature?’, AE, ch. 10.

Sheila Lintott, ‘Ethically Evaluating Land Art: Is It Worth It?’. Ethics, Place & Environment 10 (2007): 263–77.

Emily Brady, ‘Aesthetic Regard for Nature in Environmental and Land Art’. Ethics, Place & Environment 10 (2007): 287–300.

Focus Questions

Are there any important differences between the aesthetic appreciation of art and the aesthetic appreciation of nature? If so, what are they?

Is preserving nature for its aesthetic value a coherent idea?

What is the ugliest natural thing or place you can think of? How might proponents of Positive Aesthetics for nature deal with your example?

Does the concept of the sublime have any significance for our contemporary experience of nature? If it does, what relation does it bear to our aesthetic appreciation of nature?

Watch Rivers and Tides (2001), the documentary film about the British environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy. Ethically speaking, how do you think we ought to regard his art‐making?