For the AP Literature and Composition Class of 2008-2009.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
St. Thomas Aquinas
Research the Aesthetic Arrest, Claritas and Natural Revelation in preparation for James Joyce. This is really heavy-hitting reading.
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St. Thomas Aquinas’s aesthetic arrest is when a person stops “dead in his tracks” to think about a piece of art that he just saw. This occurs, because a person does not know what the work of art really is trying to represent. Claritas is when the artwork makes sense to the person. Everything that the person had doubts about comes together and makes the person come to the “aha” moment. Aquinas’s natural revelation is that there is really a God and his existence can be proven.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s aesthetic arrest is when a person stops “dead in his tracks” to think about a piece of art that he just saw. This occurs, because a person does not know what the work of art really is trying to represent. Claritas is when the artwork makes sense to the person. Everything that the person had doubts about comes together and makes the person come to the “aha” moment. Aquinas’s natural revelation is that there is really a God and his existence can be proven.
Aesthetic arrest and Claritas go closely together and can be viewed as stages in ones understanding of a piece of art. Aesthetic arrest is the first stage in which a person is dumbfound at the beauty of a piece of work. Ones mind becomes still but not blank. Claritas is the second stage in which the person comes to an understanding of the art. Claritas sounds like the spanish word claro which means clear meaning that this is when the art becomes clear to the person. This is relevant to when reading a novel. When one reads the story it may not be fully understood right away but overtime it becomes clear to the reader. Natural revelations are when God speaks to someone and gives them details about what he expects of humanity and his love.
St. Thomas describes aesthetic arrest as the admiration that takes place when coming into contact with an artwork. He stated that a beauifull art contains three different components: : integritas, consonantia, and claritas. The integritas part is the first phase where the art is admired as a whole. It is taken from the five senses perception. Then it is observed as an art with limits. It is a timeless piece with boundaries of space and time. This stage then he called it consonantia where there is harmony state between the space and time the piece occupies. The third component, claritas, becomes a mental concept or idealism. It is the radiance that an art portrays, or the beauty perceived by the observer. It is unmeasurable, because it lies in the impact or connection the art makes with the human. When the observeer has gone through thses stages, he gians the knowledge or claritas state where he understands the artwork. Saint Thomas however believed this procedure was a balance between natural and divine revelation. The natural relevation is the knowledge that all individuals have, in which they do not need God or a supernatural force to comprehend, becasue it is already in their human nature. Meanwhile, this knowledge or reason is mixed with divine revelation known as faith to create unity. These forces complement one another to help the person understand the artwork.
Joyce describes "aesthetic arrest" as a spiritual epiphany that is experienced by the observer in front of the work of art. Through his readings of Saint Thomas Aquinas, he discovered that art is based on the three principles of wholeness, harmony, and radiance. He uses these three principles to integrate it into his characters, which allow readers to experience it as epiphanies. Natural revelation (reason) is the truth that is available to all people through their human nature. Men could obtain certain truths through correct human reasoning. Aquinas’s aesthetic theories have a deep impact on James Joyce literary practice.
5 comments:
St. Thomas Aquinas’s aesthetic arrest is when a person stops “dead in his tracks” to think about a piece of art that he just saw. This occurs, because a person does not know what the work of art really is trying to represent. Claritas is when the artwork makes sense to the person. Everything that the person had doubts about comes together and makes the person come to the “aha” moment. Aquinas’s natural revelation is that there is really a God and his existence can be proven.
St. Thomas Aquinas’s aesthetic arrest is when a person stops “dead in his tracks” to think about a piece of art that he just saw. This occurs, because a person does not know what the work of art really is trying to represent. Claritas is when the artwork makes sense to the person. Everything that the person had doubts about comes together and makes the person come to the “aha” moment. Aquinas’s natural revelation is that there is really a God and his existence can be proven.
Aesthetic arrest and Claritas go closely together and can be viewed as stages in ones understanding of a piece of art. Aesthetic arrest is the first stage in which a person is dumbfound at the beauty of a piece of work. Ones mind becomes still but not blank. Claritas is the second stage in which the person comes to an understanding of the art. Claritas sounds like the spanish word claro which means clear meaning that this is when the art becomes clear to the person. This is relevant to when reading a novel. When one reads the story it may not be fully understood right away but overtime it becomes clear to the reader. Natural revelations are when God speaks to someone and gives them details about what he expects of humanity and his love.
St. Thomas describes aesthetic arrest as the admiration that takes place when coming into contact with an artwork. He stated that a beauifull art contains three different components: : integritas, consonantia, and claritas. The integritas part is the first phase where the art is admired as a whole. It is taken from the five senses perception. Then it is observed as an art with limits. It is a timeless piece with boundaries of space and time. This stage then he called it consonantia where there is harmony state between the space and time the piece occupies. The third component, claritas, becomes a mental concept or idealism. It is the radiance that an art portrays, or the beauty perceived by the observer. It is unmeasurable, because it lies in the impact or connection the art makes with the human. When the observeer has gone through thses stages, he gians the knowledge or claritas state where he understands the artwork. Saint Thomas however believed this procedure was a balance between natural and divine revelation. The natural relevation is the knowledge that all individuals have, in which they do not need God or a supernatural force to comprehend, becasue it is already in their human nature. Meanwhile, this knowledge or reason is mixed with divine revelation known as faith to create unity. These forces complement one another to help the person understand the artwork.
Joyce describes "aesthetic arrest" as a spiritual epiphany that is experienced by the observer in front of the work of art. Through his readings of Saint Thomas Aquinas, he discovered that art is based on the three principles of wholeness, harmony, and radiance. He uses these three principles to integrate it into his characters, which allow readers to experience it as epiphanies. Natural revelation (reason) is the truth that is available to all people through their human nature. Men could obtain certain truths through correct human reasoning. Aquinas’s aesthetic theories have a deep impact on James Joyce literary practice.
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