Expression, individuation, articulation, and emotions in Collingwood

Abstract

How to characterize the aesthetic specificity of our engagement, attention,or value associated with objects? We can target certain processes of imitati-on, or representation of reality. We can focus on reactions to formal disposi-tions of properties of these objects. But we can also point out continuitiesbetween aesthetic-type engagement with objects and action in general in thelifeworld. Works of art, from this point of view, in addition to the assertionsthat can be made through them, would communicate, or rather, would ex-press things like attitudes and emotions. Some contemporary philosophersof aesthetics believe that the expressive aspect is a fundamental part of thephilosophical examination of artistic processes. This essay goes throughsome of the reasons for this, using the example of R. G. Collingwood