The Research Of Emily Brady’s Thoughts Of Environmental Aesthetics

Emily Brady is a rising star in the field of western Environmental Aesthetics and one of representatives that marks the formal establishment of the western aesthetics of the natural environments.Brady synthesizes the two western camps of theory of aesthetic appreciation of the natural environments and develops her integrated aesthetics,which enriches the theory of aesthetic appreciation of the environments.At the same time,she pays attention to the ethical dimension of Environmental Aesthetics,focuses on the human-nature relationships in the human environments,and promotes Environmental Aesthetics to play a role in practical fields.Therefore,the research of Brady’s thoughts of Environmental Aesthetics will not only help to promote the development of Environmental Aesthetics from the theoretical level,but also give full play to the function of Environmental Aesthetics in solving practical problems.This thesis takes Brady’s thoughts of Environmental Aesthetics as the theme,divided into five chapters.The first chapter explores the theoretical origin of Brady’s thoughts of Environmental Aesthetics.Firstly,several core ideas of her integrated aesthetics are provided by Kant,including the use of imagination,the principle of aesthetic disinterestedness,the idea of aesthetic appreciation that "nature first" and so on.Secondly,Brady following Hepburn’s aesthetics thoughts,analyzes the differences between aesthetic appreciation of nature and art,integrates various elements of the aesthetic appreciation of the natural environments,so as to try to find a balance between objective and subjective appreciation approaches.In addition,Hepburn’s emphases on "metaphysical imagination" have important influences on Brady’s theory of aesthetic appreciation of environments.Finally,Brady’s thoughts of Environmental Aesthetics,especially the thoughts of the aesthetics of the human environments,is developed in the integration with Environmental Ethics,influenced by environmental pragmatism,and based on the solution of practical environmental problems.The second chapter analyzes Brady’s thoughts of the aesthetics of the natural environments with integrated model as the core.Brady divides the contemporary western aesthetic theory of the natural environments into cognitivism and non-cognitivism camps,and makes critical analyses respectively.On this basis,she puts forward a unique integrated approach.Essentially belonging to the non-cognitive camp,Brady emphasizes that we should respect the totality of the aesthetic appreciation of the natural environments,integrating subjective and objective factors of aesthetic appreciation,rather than taking knowledge as the only aesthetic framework.This thesis mainly selects three core elements to analyze the integrated model:aesthetic disinterestedness,imagination.and emotional experience.On the one hand.she acknowledges the role of subjective factors such as emotion and imagination in the aesthetic appreciation of the natural environments.On the other hand,she also recognizes the objective standpoint of the aesthetic appreciation of the natural environments,affirms the status of knowledge,defends the principle of aesthetic disinterestedness,and insists on object oriented aesthetic appreciation.In general.Brady’s thoughts of the aesthetics of the natural environments are characterized by integration and eclecticism.The third chapter discusses Brady’s thoughts of the aesthetics of the human environments with three types of representative environments as examples.This chapter firstly defines the concept of "human environments" in the context of Brady’s environmental aesthetics by clarifying the similarities and differences between "cultural landscape" and "transformed environment".In terms of the garden landscapes and topiary,Brady discusses the aesthetic problems and the relationships between human and nature within it.In terms of agricultural landscapes.Brady roughly divides them into industrial agricultural landscapes and traditional agricultural landscapes,and thinks that compared with industrial agricultural landscapes.traditional agricultural landscapes have more aesthetic values and can better reflect the positive relationships between man and nature.In terms of the art forms such as environmental art,earth art and ecological art,Brady believes that although these art forms have the possibility to constitute aesthetic affronts to nature,they also contain the unique interaction between human power and the forms and processes of nature,which can constitute aesthetic regard to nature.This kind of regard is not only the attention and thinking in the aesthetic sense,but also respect and care in the ethical sense.The fourth chapter discusses the further developments of Brady’s thoughts of Environmental Aesthetics,namely its ethical dimension.Firstly,Brady discusses the relationships between Aesthetics and Ethics.She believes the aesthetic value and ethical value are mutually supportive in general.In the face of the conflict between the two,she takes a stance of moderate autonomism,which contains an ethical meaning,that is,calling for human’s respect and care to nature.Then she focused on the human environments,emphasizing that the interaction between nature and culture in the human environments can provide a valuable supplementary idea to solve the problem of "how Environmental Aesthetics supports Environmental Ethics" —— the foothold of the interaction between Environmental Aesthetics and Environmental Ethics is the "relationship".In this regard,Brady claims that this is the first approach to the research of the intersection between Environmental Aesthetics and Environmental Ethics that emphasizes the "relationship".The fifth chapter analyzes the significances and limitations of Brady’s thoughts of Environmental Aesthetics.Brady’s thoughts of Environmental Aesthetics embody a flexible middle position,providing unique aesthetics references for both environmental aesthetic criticism and environmental aesthetic education.At the same time,the respect and care for nature is the background color of his thoughts,which runs through his whole system of thoughts of Environmental Aesthetics.In addition,Brady’s focus on human environments is in line with the national conditions of China’s highly developed urbanization,which has certain enlightenment significances to the development of the ecological aesthetics with Chinese characteristics and the solution of our actual environmental problems.Finally,Brady’s thoughts of Environmental Aesthetics also have some problems,such as the difficulty to ensure the objectivity of appreciation,fuzzy theory,weak philosophical basis,etc.,which we need to dialectical view.