Abstract
This chapter briefly reflects on the implications of the case studies of Chaps. 3 and 4 and then proposes solutions to the conflicting viewpoints regarding contemporary ruins. It also outlines the work’s central philosophical argument. I explain how ruined environments acquire new aesthetic value in the wake of their ruination. If ruined environments eventually acquire significant aesthetic value, this vindicates our attention to them, as well as the photography and other aesthetic works we create that have been inspired by them. I also maintain that many of our most famous ruins, such as the Roman Colosseum, acquired their present value through a similar process.
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Notes
- 1.
I do not assess in detail the selected-effects theory of function they present in this work.
- 2.
Glenn Parsons and Allen Carlson, Functional Beauty (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2008), 137.
- 3.
It may be difficult to truly change some US gas stations, for example. See James Lileks, “Old gas stations live on in new guises: Old gas stations frequently find new uses, but you can always tell what they once were,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, April 11, 2015, http://www.startribune.com/old-gas-stations-live-on-in-new-guises/299337711/#1.
- 4.
Parsons and Carlson, Functional Beauty, 143.
- 5.
Roger Scruton, The Aesthetics of Architecture (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979), 40.
- 6.
Parsons and Carlson, Functional Beauty, 145.
- 7.
Parsons and Carlson, Functional Beauty, 146.
- 8.
Parsons and Carlson, Functional Beauty, 148.
- 9.
Edward Winters, “Architecture,” in The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics, 3rd edition, edited by Berys Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes (New York: Routledge, 2013), 634.
- 10.
Beth Preston, “Why Is a Wing Like a Spoon? A Pluralist Theory of Function,” Journal of Philosophy 95 (1998): 215–254.
- 11.
Zucker, “Ruins—An Aesthetic Hybrid,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 20 (1961), 128.
- 12.
Donald Crawford, “Nature and Art: Some Dialectical Relationships,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 42 (1983), 53.
- 13.
Parsons and Carlson, Functional Beauty, 163, n. 40.
- 14.
Parsons and Carlson, Functional Beauty, 162.
- 15.
Parsons and Carlson, Functional Beauty, 164.
- 16.
Robert Stecker, review of Functional Beauty, in The Philosophical Quarterly 61 (2011), 440.
- 17.
For related ideas about functions, see Rafael De Clercq, “Reflections on a Sofa Bed: Functional Beauty and Looking Fit,” The Journal of Aesthetic Education 47 (2013), especially the section “Is There a Hierarchy of Functions?” De Clercq writes that “original functions are more important than acquired functions because, although acquired functions may change the appearance of an object, it seems that they can also be safely ignored when it has to be determined which aesthetic properties the object exemplifies (as in the case of the perfume bottle that is serving as a bud vase)” (46).
- 18.
Of course this further distinction may not comport with Parsons and Carlson’s theory of selected effects, and, in some cases, perhaps the proper functions with which Parsons and Carlson are concerned are the ones that will be most dominant or important for most long-lasting structures.
- 19.
Basil Spence, Phoenix at Coventry: The Building of a Cathedral—by Its Architect (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), 18.
- 20.
Andrew Ballantyne, “Architecture, Life, and Habit,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 69 (2011), 47.
- 21.
Jeanette Bicknell, “Architectural Ghosts,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 72 (2014), 440.
- 22.
Michael S. Roth, Irresistible Decay: Ruins Reclaimed (Los Angeles, CA: The Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1997), 7.
- 23.
From “The Ethical Criticism of Art,” in Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection, edited by Jerrold Levinson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 182.
- 24.
Scruton, The Aesthetics of Architecture, 17.
- 25.
Article “Ruine,” in Vol. XIV of the Encyclopédie (Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert, editors); quoted in Michel Makarius, Ruins (Paris: Flammarion, 2004), 81.
- 26.
Ballantyne, “Architecture, Life, and Habit,” 47.
- 27.
Though in my view they have not entirely erased them.
References
Ballantyne, Andrew. “Architecture, Life, and Habit.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 69 (2011): 43–49.
Bicknell, Jeanette. “Architectural Ghosts.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 72 (2014): 435–441.
Crawford, Donald. “Nature and Art: Some Dialectical Relationships.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 42 (1983): 49–58.
De Clercq, Rafael. “Reflections on a Sofa Bed: Functional Beauty and Looking Fit.” The Journal of Aesthetic Education 47 (2013): 35–48.
Diderot, Denis, and Jean le Rond d’Alembert, editors. “Ruine.” In Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, etc. XIV. 1765.
Gaut, Berys. “The Ethical Criticism of Art.” In Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection, edited by Jerrold Levinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Lileks, James. “Old Gas Stations Live on in New Guises: Old Gas Stations Frequently Find New Uses, but You Can Always Tell What They Once Were.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, April 11, 2015. http://www.startribune.com/old-gas-stations-live-on-in-new-guises/299337711/#1.
Makarius, Michel. Ruins. Translated by David Radzinowicz. Paris: Flammarion, 2004.
Parsons, Glenn, and Allen Carlson. Functional Beauty. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2008.
Preston, Beth. “Why Is a Wing Like a Spoon? A Pluralist Theory of Function.” Journal of Philosophy 95 (1998): 215–254.
Roth, Michael S., with Claire Lyons, and Charles Merewether. Irresistible Decay: Ruins Reclaimed. Los Angeles, CA: The Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1997.
Scruton, Roger. The Aesthetics of Architecture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979.
Spence, Basil. Phoenix at Coventry: The Building of a Cathedral—By Its Architect. New York: Harper and Row, 1962.
Stecker, Robert. “Review of Functional Beauty.” The Philosophical Quarterly 61 (2011): 439–442.
Winters, Edward. “Architecture.” In The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics. 3rd ed., edited by Berys Gaut and Dominic McIver Lopes. New York: Routledge, 2013.
Zucker, Paul. “Ruins—An Aesthetic Hybrid.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 20 (1961): 119–130.
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Whitehouse, T. (2018). Resolving Our Judgments: Understanding How Ruins Acquire and Exhibit Aesthetic Value. In: How Ruins Acquire Aesthetic Value. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03065-0_5
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