Final answer:
The field of aesthetics is concerned with the nature, appreciation, and judgment of beauty and art. It encompasses a range of discussions from objective and subjective concepts of beauty to describing aesthetic judgment and its relationship with environmentalism, feminism, and everyday experiences.
Step-by-step explanation:
The questions associated with aesthetics involve the exploration of beauty, artistic judgment, and the appreciation of art. Aesthetics is a branch of value theory and philosophy that examines how we evaluate works of art and other aesthetic experiences, either in nature or our everyday lives. One aspect of aesthetics is to compare and contrast objective and subjective concepts of beauty, and the other is to describe aesthetic judgment, such as whether we see beauty as a quality inherent in an object or as a response within the beholder.
For example, Plato's concept of beauty, which integrates well within the ancient Greek art world, sees beauty as a quality of an object. On the other hand, Hume and Kant provide views on subjective beauty and aesthetic judgment. Hume speaks about beauty as a sentiment that is universal, yet subjective, and implies that our responses to beauty are not just idiosyncratic preferences but have some common ground among human beings. Kant, on the other hand, dives deeper into how aesthetic judgment isn't just about sensory perception but also involves a mental faculty of judgment.
Furthermore, the field examines the relationship between aesthetics and other domains such as environmentalism and feminism. The latter explores the use of art as a medium for expressing feminist ideas and critiquing societal norms. Equally, aesthetics in environmentalism may consider the beauty of natural landscapes and the role of art in promoting ecological awareness and responsibility.
Everyday aesthetics is another concept within this field, focusing on the aesthetic experiences in our regular daily lives, such as the beauty we find in simple, everyday objects and experiences. With its roots partly in Japanese aesthetics, everyday aesthetics appreciates subtlety and the beauty of the mundane.