Summary
François Jullien argues that the Western concept of beauty, established by Greek philosophy and embedded within European languages, has been uncritically adopted by other cultures, obscuring their own distinct aesthetic traditions. He reveals how the traditional Chinese aesthetic, which refuses to isolate or abstract beauty, is distorted in translation to fit Western understanding. By examining the translation of Chinese texts, Jullien exposes the cultural assumptions embedded in Western aesthetic discourse and offers a new perspective for beholding art by reassessing the essence of beauty through a dialogue between Eastern and Western ideas.
This reassessment challenges readers to recognize the cultural specificity of Western ideals of beauty. Jullien demonstrates how language structures our perception of beauty, leading to an often unquestioned adherence to Greco-Latin aesthetic foundations. The book's exploration of Chinese aesthetics highlights an alternative approach that does not separate beauty from its context, offering a contrast to the Western tendency towards abstraction and isolation.
Key concepts
- Western concept of beauty — The idea of beauty originating from Greek philosophy and embedded in European languages.
- Traditional Chinese refusal to isolate or abstract beauty — An aesthetic principle where beauty is not separated from its context or reduced to abstract qualities.
- Cultural assumptions in aesthetics — Unrecognized influences from a specific culture that shape the understanding and definition of beauty.
- Translation obscuring aesthetic foundations — How the process of translating works can alter or hide the original aesthetic principles of a culture to suit a different audience.
From the book
Description: An exploration of what it means when we say something is beautiful. Bringing together ideas of beauty from both Eastern and Western philosophy, François Jullien challenges the assumptions underlying our commonly agreed-upon definition of what is beautiful and offers a new way of beholding art. Jullien argues that the Western concept of beauty was established by Greek philosophy and became consequently embedded within the very structure of European languages. And due to its relationship to language, this concept has determined ways of thinking about beauty that often go unnoticed or unchecked in discussions of Western aesthetics. Moreover, through globalization, Western ideals of beauty have even spread to cultures whose ancient traditions are based upon radically different…
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