ENSn4440 Aesthetic Perception of Nature

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2021
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 7 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Karel Stibral, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Karel Stibral, Ph.D.
Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Mgr. Kristína Markechová
Supplier department: Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
Tue 16:00–17:40 U32
Prerequisites
! HEN440 Aesthetic of Nature &&!NOW( HEN440 Aesthetic of Nature )
English.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 70 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 1/70, only registered: 0/70, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/70
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.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the subject, students will be able to identify and summarize the important features of the main periods of the history of aesthetic attitudes to nature in European culture; to characterize and describe current trends; to analyze certain factors leading to the current attitudes towards nature, including its protection; and to write an analytical paper on contemporary environmental aesthetics.
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
    recommended 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
    not specified
  • STIBRAL, Karel. Estetika přírody : K historii estetického oceňování krajiny (Aesthetics of Nature : Towards the History of Aesthetic Appreciation of Landscape). Červený Kostelec: P. Mervart, 2019, 529 pp. Edice Estetika, sv. 7. ISBN 978-80-7465-402-2. info
Teaching methods
Lectures
Assessment methods
Standard lectures finished with the written exam and essay (5-7 pages based on journal articles dealing with the environmental aesthetics).
Language of instruction
Czech
Follow-Up Courses
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2021, recent)
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