美感經驗與教育

Aesthetic experiences and creations symbolize the essence of a culture, and form one of the major determinants of a person's life quality. This is the reason why most culturally advanced countries place much emphasis on aesthetic education with a View to cultivating students' abilities to enjoy or create beautiful objects. Yet, the implementation of aesthetic education presupposes a consensus among people on aesthetic judgments. Without this consensus, aesthetic education is a castle in the air. This article analyzes diverse objects judged as beautiful by ordinary people and concludes that the beautiful are things which stimulate aesthetic experiences on the part of the observers. It is argued that an aesthetic experience is produced when a disinterested subject freely imagines the form of an object, and herein gains a dignified spirit or a sense of pleasure. An aesthetic experience usually contains a sense of pleasure, and yet a sense of pleasure is not necessarily caused by aesthetic experiences. Moreover, the admirable qualities of an object, common cultural backgrounds and the human nature, collectively form the universality of aesthetic judgments. Built on this basis, aesthetic education and exciting teachings show and invite the students to the kingdom of beauty.