What is aesthetics?

Nowadays, education pursues the all-round development of children. The theory of multiple intelligences advocates that human intelligence is diversified and should not discriminate against sports and music. STEAM's theory advocates the integration of various disciplines, in which A mainly refers to art and aesthetics.

Language World Publishing House's ready-made creative teaching material is a perfect combination of artistic handcraft and English learning. It arranges fictional stories and non-fictional popular science articles around a theme, and then sets up two activities to let children enjoy beauty in learning and manual activities, and cultivate their initial aesthetic consciousness and ability.

Aesthetic ability is a necessary psychological feature of engaging in aesthetic activities.

As Feuerbach said, "If you have no taste and feelings for music, then you will hear the most beautiful music, just like hearing the wind blowing in your ear or the water flowing under your feet." Music appreciation is like this, and so is all aesthetic appreciation. Without aesthetic ability, it is impossible to present potential aesthetic objects in consciousness, and it is impossible to have aesthetic feelings and expressions, so there is no aesthetic activity. Therefore, aesthetic ability is the core of students' aesthetic accomplishment.

As a special emotion, aesthetic ability can be defined as a sense of aesthetic form, which is different from general emotion. Formal aesthetic feeling is not only concerned with the form of the object without considering the sensibility of the content, but also an aesthetic concept with special significance. First of all, aesthetic form mainly refers to the organizational order and structural relationship of aesthetic objects, rather than the perceptual materials or appearance characteristics of aesthetic objects. From the object point of view, the aesthetic significance of form lies in its special organizational structure, which is embodied in intuitive and rich aesthetic forms. A pile of stones, the artist can pile it into a work of art, the key here is that the artist makes the stones pile up in a special organizational order, which is the aesthetic form, and the meaning of the work comes from it.

Subjectively speaking, the reason why psychological activities or experiences have aesthetic characteristics lies in that the subject's psychology creates, experiences and evaluates aesthetic forms with a unique structure and activity mode, and this psychological structure and ability of the subject is the sense of aesthetic form. Secondly, the aesthetic sense of form is a special sensibility to experience and understand the formal meaning of aesthetic objects, which is different from the general cognitive ability, that is, not to grasp the object in a conceptual or logical way, but to grasp the connotation or meaning of the object as a whole in an intuitive way on the perceptual level. It is also fundamentally different from ordinary sensory perception. It not only perceives the surface of an object, but also directly understands the profound meaning of the object from intuition and imagination.

Aesthetic feeling is a special intuitive ability, which is perceptual and has profound thinking quality. Mikel Dufrenne, a French aesthetician, borrowed the word "sensuality" from Raymond Beye to reveal that aesthetic sensibility is neither divorced from sensibility nor "abstract". He pointed out that aesthetic feeling has the appearance of thinking, which is to grasp the perceptual essence or significance of aesthetic object on the perceptual level, that is, the principle of its perceptual organization and perceptual unity. Zong Baihua commented on the crane standing on the "Lotus Crane Square Pot" in the early Spring and Autumn Period: "It symbolizes a new spirit and an era of freedom and liberation; Art first shows a new realm, jumping out from the traditional oppression. The understanding of this new realm has produced the perceptual image understood and created by the aesthetic intuition of the pre-Qin philosophers, which has profound symbolic significance and often reaches a high level of philosophical thinking. Therefore, many excellent literary and artistic works at all times and all over the world have become the mirrors of the times, with extraordinary cognitive value that non-theoretical works can have.

Another feature of aesthetic ability is creativity.

Aesthetic expression is an objective and formal creative expression. If the subject can't create an aesthetic image that matches his own psychological structure in the object world, there will be no aesthetic expression. At the same time, it needs the creative construction of the subject to truly become an endless aesthetic object. It should be pointed out that the constructiveness of aesthetic ability is not contrary to the cognitive attributes it reflects. Because aesthetic reflection and cognitive ability is not a kind of ability to mechanically simulate the objective world, it itself contains the processing of external information, with the properties of dynamic selection, interpretation and deformation, and also contains strong emotional projection. In other words, aesthetic reflection and cognitive ability itself contain constructiveness. In addition, the ability of aesthetic construction is not completely divorced from the subjective and arbitrary construction of an object, but based on the existence and basic framework of an object and restricted by a specific object, so it itself contains some elements of reflection and cognition.

Only compared with cognitive ability, its creative features such as selection, supplement, interpretation and deformation are more prominent and valuable. People often say that "there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand audiences". Although the subjective creativity of aesthetic acceptance is emphasized, Hamlet is still a basic object restriction factor, which stipulates the scope and significance of aesthetic construction. If Hamlet is regarded as Jia Baoyu, this so-called creativity is equivalent to subjectivity. It is in this sense that we emphasize that the creative construction of aesthetics is a remarkable feature of aesthetic ability.

The creative features of aesthetic ability fully reflect the important value of individual aesthetic accomplishment in contemporary China. China's aesthetic education thought has a long tradition of attaching importance to individual moral cultivation. Even in the 20th century, most aesthetic education theories still attach great importance to the promotion of aesthetic education to individual moral feelings, but rarely discuss the important role of aesthetic education in developing individual creativity.

As a matter of fact, aesthetic activities have distinct characteristics of personality and creativity, and regular participation in aesthetic activities is very helpful to cultivate students' personality awareness and creativity. In some European and American countries, art education is clearly defined as a kind of creative education; The "Harvard Zero Plan" and "National Standards for Art Education" in the United States also fully highlight the important value of art education in cultivating creative talents. We are striving to build an innovative country and need to train a large number of talents with innovative consciousness and creativity. We should pay full attention to and play the unique role of aesthetic education in cultivating students' creativity.

The creativity and expressive force of aesthetic ability are an inseparable whole.

The impulse of expression is the internal motive force of creation, which stipulates the basic direction of creation; The creative process is also the release and sublimation of aesthetic emotion. From this, we find the ontological significance of aesthetic creativity, that is, to create a psychological time and space beyond the material world, so that the individual's emotional life can be stretched, expressed, grown and promoted. In a sense, the improvement of aesthetic ability means the improvement of individual life realm, which is the fundamental purpose of aesthetic education.

Aesthetic ability is also a kind of understanding ability, but this understanding is different from cognitive understanding. It is not based on concepts or intermediaries, but inherently combines factors such as emotion, imagination and creation. Kant called aesthetic ability "judgment", which is characterized by the coordination of understanding and imagination and based on quick and unpleasant emotional judgment, and is reasonable. But aesthetic comprehension not only involves the above psychological functions, but also involves factors such as feeling, perception and memory. In this way, aesthetic comprehension has both integrity and hierarchy. However, experience and creation are still the basic components of aesthetic comprehension, which determines that it is a kind of sympathy (emotional sharing) and sensitive understanding, a kind of subjective projection and explanatory understanding, so it is much more complicated than understanding and has a distinct individualization tendency. This kind of understanding seeks profound and vague meaning, not definite concepts; It is intuitive and imaginative, rather than scientific analysis and logical reasoning; It introduces the subject into the object and appreciates its meaning in the voice of * * *, instead of making an objective analysis calmly and analyzing its characteristics without interference from the object. Undeniably, aesthetic comprehension has certain rational elements, but it often presents perceptual forms, sometimes even unconscious, and obtains a profound understanding with rational significance in the perceptual state or process.

Aesthetic ability acts on the whole process of aesthetic activities.

In the stage of aesthetic activity, its function is mainly reflected in the following aspects. First of all, we should sensitively and quickly grasp all kinds of external aesthetic information and process it in a unique aesthetic way. External aesthetic information is mainly the characteristics of things, sexy and stimulating substances, but sometimes it is also a unique psychological atmosphere or hint. At this initial stage, aesthetic ability is like a highly sensitive receiver, which receives and transmits all kinds of aesthetic information to the brain, and then the brain processes the information at the perceptual level, and the direct result is a complete and internally unified aesthetic form. Secondly, the emotional response to the stimulating materials of characteristic sexy officials formed the initial aesthetic impulse, which not only promoted the processing organization of perception, but also endowed the sensory materials and perceptual forms with emotional color, forming a preliminary performance. Thirdly, we hold a unique conscious attitude towards stimulating material and perceptual objects, that is, the so-called "aesthetic attitude". As a special direction of consciousness, this attitude determines the way of perception and even the whole way of aesthetic expression, construction and understanding. This stage is an important opportunity for information reception and processing to enter a unique aesthetic track.

In the development stage of aesthetic activities, the role of aesthetic ability is mainly reflected in the following aspects. First, on the basis of perceptual forms, mobilize psychological functions such as memory, imagination and emotion, enrich and perfect aesthetic perceptual forms, and create meaningful aesthetic images. Secondly, emotion develops with the development of memory and imagination, and is projected (displaced) on the object, so that the aesthetic image becomes the product of the emotional expression of the aesthetic subject in a sense. Thirdly, in the process of object construction and subject expression, we will have an emotional experience, recognize the direction of object construction and the degree of subject expression, and consciously or automatically control this development stage.

In the completion (or climax) stage of aesthetic activities, the role of aesthetic ability is mainly reflected in the following aspects. First, understand the aesthetic image and its profound meaning in an experiential way. Secondly, because aesthetic comprehension is emotional and creative, understanding the meaning of the object will lead to emotional freedom and joy of the whole heart. Third, the potential value of the object can be realized, and the aesthetic needs of the subject can be met and improved.

Of course, aesthetic activities are not carried out step by step according to the above stages. Aesthetic subjects sometimes realize the meaning of the object at the moment they feel it, and sometimes they have to go through repeated tastes and even return to the initial stage before they can get a proper understanding.

From the perspective of individual development, the improvement of aesthetic ability generally has three stages: perception, experience and comprehension. Perception ability is a preliminary aesthetic ability, which pays attention to the appearance of objects and obtains sensory pleasure. When the experience ability enters the communication stage of subject and object, it can produce emotional harmony between subject and object and obtain emotional enjoyment. Comprehension ability goes deep into the aesthetic object, grasps its internal meaning and obtains spiritual enjoyment. Aesthetic education teaching should improve students' aesthetic ability from low to high and from shallow to deep, respect students' age characteristics and acceptance level, and avoid overexertion.

Aesthetic ability is the core of students' aesthetic quality, and improving students' aesthetic ability is the key to improve students' aesthetic quality. School aesthetic education should focus on promoting the development of students' aesthetic ability.

First of all, we should follow the laws and characteristics of aesthetic education, guide students to gain aesthetic feelings in personalized aesthetic activities, and truly improve their aesthetic ability. Aesthetic education teaching should be suitable for students' interest and understanding ability, so that students can love and enjoy learning. At present, the dull aesthetic education teaching situation needs to be changed urgently. In the process of aesthetic education teaching, teachers should give students more opportunities to choose freely, pay attention to protecting and encouraging students' different interests, actively encourage students to show their individuality and creativity, avoid simple and unified evaluation, and cannot act as "aesthetic authority", which can only stifle the development of students' individuality and creativity, let alone improve their aesthetic ability.

Secondly, it is necessary to avoid replacing aesthetic comprehension's exercises with artistic knowledge by rote, and to avoid making students passively accept aesthetic judgment. Instead, under the guidance of teachers, students need to truly experience works of art and gain aesthetic perception. Aesthetic education teaching should give students more personal homework time, so that they can engage in aesthetic activities calmly, freely and sincerely. Only in this way can students' aesthetic ability be improved.

Thirdly, if children want to cultivate and improve their aesthetic ability by studying art, it is best to learn an artistic skill, such as musical instrument playing skills, painting skills, literary writing skills or photography skills, so that students can learn while doing and accumulate aesthetic experience, which will often get twice the result with half the effort.