美学走向荒野

"Rolston's positive analysis of rich meanings in the world 'wild' relate to spontaneous creativity and freedom, an important support of, and foil to, artifacted creativity and freedom in culture. Humans emerge from this wildness, and in scientific technology, they increasingly set themselves against wildness, and this leaves them homeless. Rolston contests traditional axiologies of valueless nature. He claims we ought to discover and value wild nature. In aesthetics, this leads Rolston both to make claims about aesthetic value in nature and to distinguish such value from that of art in culture. He also finds that such aesthetic value in nature is undertsood more deeply if it is science-based. A further dimension is that there is positive aesthetic experience in the struggle for existence in nature. This revises accounts of what we might first think to be ugly in nature. Appreciation of wildness is not the peaceful observation of the picturesque, but requires immersion and experience of life in the wild, immersion of body and of spirit. This does give us a sense of being at home in the wild nature out of which humans evolved. It also moves us from beauty to responsibility for the conservation of nature." Zhao also draws some comparisons and contrasts with Asian thought.