Book Naught
Transcendental Esthetics

0. No creativity without a transcendental object, i.e. states of sensate matter or sensate objects, and a transcendental subject, i.e. a consciousness bringing about excellence of craft worthy of imitation (exemplary).
00. The minimum necessity for a possible esthetics ? Sensate states of matter or mental objects accommodating craftsmanship and harmonization.
000. Creativity adds to reality (freedom) and is always more than the sum of its parts.

1. By the creation and expression of beautiful sensate objects, the transcendental subject of esthetics introduces freedom.

1.1 No transcendental subject without free will (slipping through the uncertainty-margins of nature) and its power of choice.
1.2 Esthetic judgements invite the assent of all to an excellent work of art exemplifying a universal rule with such sublimity that conceptual reason exhaust its finitude.

2. The transcendental object of esthetics is either an appearance to consciousness of particles & forces, or sensation, caused by changes brought about on the surface of the receptor organs of the sensory system, or perceptions. Or, the object is mental.

2.1 The sensate world is the beginning & end of esthetics.
2.1.1 Esthetic objects are either sensate or mental, but mental objects are part of esthetics if and only if they have sensate and/or evocative esthetic features.
2.1.2 Mere mental features of mental esthetic objects (devoid of sensate and/or evocative esthetic features) are not studied by esthetics, focused on sensate objects.
2.1.3 Mental features like symmetry, reciprocity, elegance, simplicity, consistency or coherence constitute the beauty of logic.

2.2 In epistemology, "realism" & "idealism" are the leading ideas. In ethics, "intent", "duty", "conscience" & "calling" are necessary. The regulative idea of esthetics is "the world".
2.3 The sensate world is an appearance.
2.3.1 Against nihilism : the world appears because sensory perceptions are ongoing. In the dreamworld and dreamless sleep, the sensate world vanishes.
2.3.2 Against dogmatism (realism/idealism) : the world appears because perceptions are always & irreversibly fabricated into conscious sensations.

3. Eliminate freedom, and esthetics is a physics of the pleasurable without beauty. Eliminate sensation, and beauty is confined to mental objects.

3.1 Esthetics celebrates sensate matter so beautiful it exceeds finitude.
3.2 The subject of experience has either sensate or mental objects in consciousness. Sensate objects, so must we assume, are caused by perceptions fabricated into conscious sensations. Mental objects are caused by volitions, feelings & cognitions.
3.3 Contrary to truth & goodness, beauty has no compelling or imperative necessity, but is an invitation to resonate with the excellent, the worthy of imitation and the sublime.
3.4 Besides the beautiful mental objects of logic, the beauty of mental objects also involves an esthetics of cognition (the constant balancing-out of object & subject in the production of relative truth), an esthetics of ethics (the exercise of a balanced choice to do the good) and an esthetics of affection (harmony as training in non-afflictive emotions).

Book 1
Theoretical Esthetics

4. From the side of the esthetic object, sensate & evocative esthetic features imply a direct, conscious experience. Beauty is the presence of a particular property or properties in some or all objects of experience. From the side of the esthetic subject, beauty is a particular esthetic attitude of the subject of experience taken with regard to some or all objects of experience.

4.1 In critical esthetics, sensation & evocation are the stuff of beauty. Mere mental beauty, i.e. devoid of sensate and/or evocative esthetic features, is an object of logic.
4.2 For an esthetic judgement to be possible, thoughts need to be infused in states of matter, constituting an impermanent glyph, a kind of petrified, mummified, fixated thought.
4.2.1 In an absolute sense, permanent glyphs can nowhere be found, although the architecture of the world has its natural constants (series of irrational numbers round-off by convention).
4.2.2 Glyphs are meaningful representations of sensate and/or mental objects incised in matter. When nearly-permanent media are found, certain glyphs are carved deep into matter. These are "signs", transmitted to the next generation.
4.2.3 Human glyphs are signs and tools. Signs make a decisive association between, on the one hand, mental objects and, on the other hand, sounds and/or gestures (verbal & non-verbal language). Tools are complex glyphs instrumental in a functional interaction with the environment.
4.2.4 Signs are signals, icons & symbols. Signals herald survival, icons belongingness (affects) and symbols cognition & volition.

4.3 Objective esthetics, based on a realist ontology of the essence (substance or nature) of beauty, is one-sided (does not integrate the subjectivity of the receptor) and focuses on material & formal features, with the danger of academism and formalism.
4.4 Subjective esthetics, based on an idealist ontology of the adequatio of mind and reality, is one-sided (does not integrate the objectivity of perceptions), identifying beauty with a state of consciousness. Here egocentrism & solipsism lurk.
4.5 Critical esthetics has three developmental stages : esthetics as physical science deals with the sensation of the pleasant, esthetics as an objective or subjective ontology introduces the idea of the beautiful to underpin satisfaction, while esthetics as taste brings in excellence & harmony, pointing to sublimity.
4.5.1 The esthetic of the pleasant studies the emotional arousal caused by esthetic objects. Strong signals & emotional images hook our desire for pleasurable experiences. Without moderation seek this for its own sake and emotional addiction ensues.
4.5.2 The esthetic of satisfaction studies how the pleasure derived from an emotionally charged icon may be boosted by introducing exaggerated concepts about how this object really is or how it should be ultimately conceived.
4.5.3 The esthetic of taste lays bare the exquisiteness of the craftsmanship and the excellence of the composition of the revealed esthetic features, i.e. the way they are used. If this excellence is a harmony, exemplarity may be the case.
4.5.4 Excellent examples integrating disharmony are sublime.

01. Beauty as the pleasant.

5. Esthetics as physical science conceives beauty as "pleasant", i.e. what is pleasing to the senses. This is a personal, relative, direct, sensuous appreciation of the perceptions received by our receptor organs.

5.1 To discuss the pleasant, bound up with personal interest, is futile (individuum est ineffabile). The worth of the agreeable, lovely, delightful & enjoyable consists in personal gratification. Everyone has his own pleasures and can share them with others.
5.1.1 The art of pleasure studies the sensuality of smell, taste, touch, hearing and sight, bringing them together in a synesthesia of pleasure.
5.1.2 When beauty-as-pleasure is intersubjective, a interpersonal illusion is consciously created, a trade-off of pleasure for more pleasure resulting in less.
5.1.3 The moment the pleasurable experience stops being orgiastic, the return to sobriety is initiated.
5.1.4 The marginal increase of pleasure of repeated pleasurable experiences decreases.
5.1.5 The art of pleasure is the increase of the duration of the orgiastic by increasing what happens before and after it, and this until the experience of pleasure is omnipresent.
5.1.6 Beyond the rule of immediate gratifications (or hedonism pur sang), the art of pleasure invites one to think satisfaction, taste and sublimity.
5.1.7 As pleasure seeks satisfaction, satisfaction seeks taste.

5.2 The pleasantness of the esthetic object, like any other sensate or mental object, is the outcome of emotional coloring (thalamus, limbic system) and fabrication (neocortex).
5.2.1 All afferent sensory pathways come together in the mammalian thalamus, where they are modulated, integrated & translated before being projected in the human cerebrum. The emotional brain colors these inputs before & after they have entered the neocortex.
5.2.2 In the neocortex, a complex network of cortical area's process the inputs provided by the five primary sensory areas. Recognition and naming of sensate objects is linked with tool-making and verbalization (cf. the angular gyrus). Positioning of the object in space & time and focusing attention are processed in other association areas.

5.3 The pleasant idolizes the esthetic features of sensate objects.
5.3.1 Different cultures idolize different features.
5.3.2 Classical pleasurable features are examples of objective art, imitating the architectonic key of nature.

6. The beauty of the pleasant consists in sensation and to part from it or to remember to have done so, is cause of unhappiness.

6.1 Resting entirely upon sensation, the pleasant involves the ante-rational coloration of perception.
6.1.1 Ante-rationality encompasses mythical, pre-rational & proto-rational thought operating in mythical (non-verbal), pre-conceptual & concrete conceptual modes of thought (cf. Clearings, 2006).
6.1.2 Insofar as ante-rationality has easier access to the limbic system (via the non-verbal hemisphere ?), its operation is more limbic than cortical, more based on direct relatedness than on conceptual discrimination. Hence, to seek pleasure conceptual thoughts are unnecessary.
6.1.3 Pleasantness is largely an automatic response to the stimuli provided by icons of affection.

6.2 Processing the internal workings of feelings (affects), helps finding the icon of personal emotions, singling out or selecting this-or-that pleasantness in a given sensate object.
6.3 As long as the delightful sensate object is present, pleasure is aroused and sustained by the affective stream of consciousness. To then miss this pleasure may cause dissatisfaction.
6.3.1 Pleasure dismisses conceptualization. But when pleasure only seeks itself, mindlessness & tastelessness ensue.
6.3.2 Experience pleasurable sensate objects without mentation, witnessing their conditioned & transient nature.

02. Beauty as satisfaction.

7. Esthetics as ontology grasps beauty as "satisfaction", making the beautiful depend on a conceptual reflection upon the esthetic object or the esthetic subject.

7.1 An ontology of beauty binds enjoyable, lovely sensate objects to concepts able, for a while, to resurrect the joy & the love of the enjoyable & the lovely as some "pure" satisfaction of either their "true reality" or their "real ideality".
7.1.1 The "true reality" of an esthetic object, is the quantity, quality, relation & modality the object is deemed possessed with. This is the ontology of esthetic realism.
7.1.2 The "real ideality" of an esthetic subject, is the perfect conceptualization of beauty offered by our esthetic attitude, as it were the eternalization of the "pleasantness" of what was a mere sensation. This is the ontology of esthetic idealism.
7.1.3 Devoid of foundationalism, critical esthetics has no need to move to these extremes and always seeks the middle ground.

7.2 The "ideal reality" as well as the "real ideality" of esthetics (the transcendent Real-Ideal of beauty) is necessarily sublime, i.e. non-conceptual & beyond the dual, conceptualizing mind.
7.2.1 Insofar esthetics is a rational discipline, it cannot transgress the borders of an immanent metaphysics.
7.2.2 If craftsmanship & excellence are defined in the formal & critical modes of thought, exemplarity, based on harmony, makes use of creative concepts which can not be tested but only argued.
7.2.3 Craftsmanship & excellence are the scientific aims of critical esthetics, while exemplarity is metaphysical.
7.2.4 The sublime is the transcendent signifier allowing esthetics to touch the ultimate nature of phenomena.
7.2.5 Because epistemology has no transcendent signifier, thought, and by extension science, can have their own space based on the groundless ground of knowledge (cf. Clearings, 2006). In ethics, "calling" is the transcendent signifier allowing fairness to become rightness (cf. Behaviours, 2006).

7.3 The move from transient to eternalizing concepts is ruled out by logic. The "point at infinity" (or limit-concept) must not be "filled in" and ontologised. The Real & the Ideal do not serve as hypokeimenon.
7.3.1 Critical esthetics focuses on sensate objects. Most of the time, it operates in the formal & critical modes of thought. Exquisite & excellent works of art are rare.
7.3.2 Exemplary art is surprisingly unique, truly rarissime.
7.3.3 Sublime art is Divine and so ineffable.

7.4 Satisfaction imagines the evocative esthetic features.
7.4.1 Conceptualizing this brings about conceptualizing that. One image gets associated with another. Conceptualization inevitably constructs connotations overlaying sensation itself.
7.4.2 Connotations based on sensate features are mental objects. Thanks to imagination, mental objects can be visualized.

8. If the beautiful is only pleasure & satisfaction, the esthetic judgement of craftsmanship is part of Art Studies.

8.1 The focus of Art Studies is on the artistic phenomenon, laying bare the nature of the arts (objective esthetics) and their effects (subjective esthetics).
8.1.1 Besides the nature of the arts, objective esthetics investigates the systematic relationships between the fine arts and the interactions between art & no-art.
8.1.2 Subjective esthetics tries to understand esthetic experience, esthetic affectivity, esthetic conceptuality & esthetic motivation in the light of a "special" property of the esthetic attitude, like absence of personal interest.
8.2 Critical esthetics, as the normative philosophy of the beautiful, adds excellence & exemplary harmony, touching sublimity.

9. Art Studies necessitates a specific inquiry for each art. As object, the physical constitution, the phenomenal actuality, the semantics and the interrelation with the other forms of art are grasped as the material object of the art. Subjectively, the value of the work of art, the quality of its reception and the evolution in the quality of taste are aimed at.

03. Beauty as taste.

"I may assert in the case of every representation that the synthesis of a pleasure with the representation (as a cognition) is at least possible. Of what I call agreeable I assert that it actually causes pleasure in me. But what we have in mind in the case of the beautiful is a necessary reference on its part to delight. However, this necessity is of a special kind. It is not a theoretical objective necessity-such as would let us cognize a priori that every one will feel this delight in the object that is called beautiful by me. Nor yet is it a practical necessity, in which case, thanks to concepts of a pure rational will in which free agents are supplied with a rule, this delight is the necessary consequence of an objective law, and simply means that one ought absolutely (without ulterior object) to act in a certain way.

Rather, being such a necessity as is thought in an aesthetic judgement, it can only be termed exemplary. In other words it is a necessity of the assent of all to a judgement regarded as exemplifying a universal rule incapable of formulation. Since an aesthetic judgement is not an objective or cognitive judgement, this necessity is not derivable from definite concepts, and so is not apodeictic. Much less is it inferable from universality of experience (of a thoroughgoing agreement of judgements about the beauty of a certain object). For, apart from the fact that experience would hardly furnish evidences sufficiently numerous for this purpose, empirical judgements do not afford any foundation for a concept of the necessity of these judgements."
Kant : Critique of Judgement, Book 1, Fourth Moment, § 18 (transl. Meredith).

10.  As a normative discipline, esthetics uncovers the norms ruling "taste" or the excellence of sensate states of matter and the exemplary harmonizations every esthetic subject ought to acknowledge.

10.1 Sensate states of matter are either natural or artificial. Natural beauty unveils the beauty of the kingdoms of nature and offers insights into the esthetics of the cosmos. Artificial beauty is a cultural object revealing excellence & exemplary form.
10.2 Critical esthetics avoids to root, objectively as well as subjectively, the beautiful in a sufficient ground outside thought.
10.2.1 The norm of excellence is not based on esthetical features (their quantity, quality, relation or modality). It depends on the intensity of the conscious esthetic meaning infused in these features, i.e. their use.
10.2.2 The transcendental categories of this esthetics are derived from the condition of sensate states of matter in terms of exemplary status, pointing to the spirit of sublimity.
10.2.3 Sensate objects and mental objects are not devoid of conceptual interpretation (this avoids the eternalism of the object). Conceptual interpretation of reality without sensation is impossible (this avoids the eternalism of the subject).

10.3 Esthetic objects are called beautiful because the esthetic judgement designating them is, as far as possible, independent of pleasure, satisfaction or dissatisfaction, although pleasure & satisfaction may well be present.
10.3.1 Esthetic judgement is based on the way esthetic features are used (excellence) and how harmony is applied (exemplarity).
10.3.2 The esthetic judgement calls for the assent of all esthetic subjects to a judgement of taste regarded as exemplifying a definite rule of harmony.

10.4 Excellent sensate matter does more than maintain a high standard in material, formal and/or kinetic denotations (i.e. craft & craftsmanship), but stimulates the senses in concert because of the meaningful way the given esthetic features are expressed.
10.5 Exemplary art affords an example of the application of the principle of harmony, inviting all esthetic subjects to enjoy what they ought to accept as beautiful because of excellence surpassed by exemplary harmony.
10.6  Critical esthetics points at but cannot penetrate the sublime, unfolding a unique evolutionary process of spiritualizing matter.

04. Excellence, exemplarity & sublimity.

11. The norms ruling excellence cover sensate & evocative esthetic features, expressive enough to be received by others.

11.1 Sensate esthetic features are denotations based on sensation. Evocative esthetic features are affective, volitional, cognitive & conscious connotations based on denotations.
11.2 Art is not to be present in the mind or the workplace of the artist only. Art is creating & exposing, impression & expression. Work of arts belong to the esthetic process and are moments of the ongoing stream of communication between its actors.
11.3 Sensate esthetic features include motoric & formal features. Motoric features define the momentum of the object, while form denotes composition (based on size, proportion, balance, etc.).
11.4 Judgement of skill or craftsmanship is based on how each available esthetic features is executed and integrated to form a functional whole.
11.5 An exquisite, functional whole is not a priori excellent, while excellent art is always exquisite.

12. The esthetic judgement of excellence is not based on the esthetic features themselves, integrated as they are in an organic whole, but on their total or partial esthetic meaning.

12.1 Consciousness is the userware operating the evolutionary software encoded in the hardware of the body. If matter is capacity and information is data, then userware is the meaningful use of both as well as the inner reflection changing code & machine (cf. autopoiesis).
12.2 Excellence is not the outcome of a mere presentation of sensate esthetic features (as in exquisite skill), but of esthetic meaning, i.e. of the way exquisite sensate states are specifically presented, expressed, manifested, created, realized, actualized.
12.2.1 For example. Not harshness, coldness or softness (of a work of art) are objectified, but how harsh harshness, how cold coldness and how soft softness is.
12.2.2 To express this intensity of the predicate, more is needed than exquisite esthetic features. Without this conscious capacity to create freedom in sensate states of matter, pleasure is all what is left.
12.2.3 Turning free creativity into symbols, excellence points to qualities beyond the conditions imposed by sensation. A higher-order form is at work.
12.2.4 Consciousness, immaterial & nameless, infuses meaning in glyphs, or typical modifications of sensate states of matter.
12.2.5 Excellence is a potent symbiosis of signs resonating with their beholder. This focus, presence & meaningful interdependence of the each esthetic feature with all others, adds a meta-level to the esthetic experience of excellence.
12.2.6 Craft, excellence, exemplarity & sublimity are the levels of esthetic appreciation.

12.3 In any esthetic judgement, partial and total judgement are to be distinguished. The beauty of the parts does not make the beauty of the whole, rather, the whole is sensate before the parts.

13. Esthetic features cover : (a) local events, (b) regional categories and (c) the total categorial system.

13.1 Local events are specific esthetic features. For example, in the orchestra, the sudden sound of the Flauto piccolo during tutti piano, in ballet, an unexpected jump like the Grand Jeté, in painting, a lovely executed hand, or in literature, a remarkable passage in the text, etc.
13.2 Regional categories are sections of a work of art. For example, the string, woodwind, brass or percussion sections, and the excellence of their esthetic features.
13.3 The total system refers to the work of art as a whole. The conductor's score is an analogy (however, in music, being acoustic, the work of art exists only when it is played).
13.4 Critical esthetic judgements distinguish between these layers of esthetic features. Thus, ugly local features may functionally assist excellent regional expressiveness and global balance.

14. As esthetic features are based on interdependent sensations, they functionally exist as long as they interact with other features.

14.1 The sensate nature of the stuff of esthetics turns it into a differential activity related to the infinitesimal increment in the variables of sensation.
14.1.1 Each sense has a threshold beyond which the inability to register with more subtlety (with a finer pixel) fabricates the illusion of a discrete process to be continuous.
14.1.2 For example. A movie runs at twenty-four frames per second, making a discrete sequence of individual frames appear as a natural and unfabricated continuous sensate object. Slowing down would make the individual frames of the film visible, causing the fata morgana of appearances to breakdown.
14.1.3 Sensation is the appearance of phenomena fabricated by our senses on the basis of perception.
14.1.4 Naked perception, share by all animals, is what happens when sensory stimuli are transduced into bio-electric impulses. Natural perception is what we share with the other mammals (cf. Philosophy of Sensation, 2007).
14.1.5 The mind of duality (of object & subject) cannot eliminate interpretation without eliminating itself. Because of our mental fabrications, sensation is all what is left of perception.
14.1.6 Science nor philosophy perceive, they sensate.

14.2 For excellence, all what matters, is the way these differential changes in exquisite esthetic features are an expression of consciousness. One does not seek beauty (as in pleasure & satisfaction), but shows how beautiful beauty is (as in excellence).

15. The esthetic judgement of example is based on a spectrum of possible abstract forms of harmony, ranging from the entirely subjective to the entirely objective.

15.1 The abstract forms, rooted in transcendental esthetics, are necessary but formal. The transcendental object is a sensate object, the subject an expressive artist. All harmonizations necessarily involve this pair.
15.2 Positing, comparing, denying, uniting & transcending are the five models of harmony.
15.2.1 Positioning : affirming the object without the subject or affirming the subject without the object.
15.2.2 Comparing : considering the object more than the subject or considering the subject more than the object.
15.2.3 Denying : rejecting the object or rejecting the subject.
15.2.4 Uniting : identifying object with subject and subject with object.
15.2.5 Transcending : zeroing out of all harmonization, without object or subject.

16. Sublime works of art testify of the natural, nondual light of the mind.

05. The esthetic process.

17. In the esthetic process, the four actors are : the environment (the esthetic milieu), the sender (the artist), the message (the work of art) and the receiver (the public).

17.1 The characteristics of the cycle of communication can be applied to the esthetic process.
17.2 Each actor, like the neuron, is stimulated by a source and in turn becomes a source of stimuli :

17.3 Each of the actors is a system. The esthetic milieu, the artist and the public are open systems, the work of art is a closed system.
17.4 In esthetics, closed systems are meaningful signs standing on their own, being symptoms of a creative intent.
17.5 The esthetic process is characterized by the following types of information : direct & primary, direct & secondary, indirect & primary, indirect & secondary.
17.5.1 Works of art are direct & primary : a symphony, a painting, a novel, etc.
17.5.2 Plans, sketches, opinions regarding a work of art are direct & secondary.
17.5.3 Socio-economical structures making certain works of art preferential are indirect & primary.
17.5.4 Opinions about socio-economical structures challenging or altering preferences are indirect & secondary.

17.6 The esthetic process is characterized by the following types of meaningful information : codes of communication and media of communication.
17.6.1 The codes of information imply the esthetic milieu, the artist & the public. The milieu contains collective codes, conventions (national, regional or social styles). The artist personally adapts to these collective codes, with intensive or extensive originality. The public, possessing the codes of the milieu and acquiring personal codes, integrates the latter in the former. This acquired taste may be eclectic, specific, superficial or informed.
17.6.2 The media of communication imply the same actors. The esthetic milieu has institutionalized media of production and transmission. The artist has personal variants of these and the public makes use of the institutions, adapts to new media and integrates the latter in the basket of available media.

17.7 Three problems emerge : a problem of structure, a problem of transmission and a problem of reception.
17.7.1 Structure : the artist makes use of all available information, never makes use of non-artistic codes or has a mixed structure.
17.7.2 Transmission : the artist represents his work of art in a clear-cut, representational way, never uses representation, or has a mixed transmission.
17.7.3 Reception : the public receives the message as intended by the artist, never receives the message or has a mixed reception.

17.8 The complexity of the esthetic process is enhanced by three constant factors of change : feedback, interference & internal temporal dynamics.
17.8.1 Feedback can be autogenous (from the work of art back to the artist), interferential (from the public to the artist) & restructuring (from the esthetic milieu to the public).
17.8.2 Interferences are either blockages or derailments. Blockages are quantitative (less creativity, less diffusion, less public) and/or qualitative (less information, less diffusion of information, less interest in information by the public). Derailments are distortions in the esthetic circuit from the side of the artist (epigonism, exotism, formalism), the esthetic milieu (traditionalism, performatism) and/or the public (conservatism, entertainment oriented).
17.8.3 Internal temporal dynamics of artist & public involve the evolution of the esthetic milieu to which they belong. Internal temporal dynamics of this milieu is defined by socio-economical, political, cultural, ideological and artistic developments.

17.9 The esthetic process as a whole is influenced by three movements interacting simultaneously.
17.9.1 Linear movements from the esthetic milieu to the artist, from the artist to the work of art, from the work of art to the public and from the public to the milieu.
17.9.2 Internal movements within each actor (from output to input and from input to output).
17.9.3 Dialectical movements between certain systems by feedback, interference and the temporal evolution of historical events.

06. Transcendental harmonization.

18. Harmonization pertains to exemplary art.

18.1 Harmony is a relatively continuous balance between the artist and the work of art.
18.2 Forms of harmony are archetypal ways of balancing object & subject of esthetics.
18.3 Absence of balance is not a form of harmony. Balance can be weird, awkward, odd, strange, bizarre, absurd, grotesque, bombastic, exaggerated etc.
18.4  By enantiomorphism, disharmonization is reversal of balance (cf. Diabolus est Deus inversus).

19. Given object & subject of esthetics, harmonizations are transcendental because they represent the forms, models, archetypes or "pure ideas" of harmony necessary for a work of art to strike a creative exemplary balance between both. They belong to the esthetic subject and define an esthetic milieu, its interests, media & style.

19.1 The forms of harmony are transcendental in terms of the creative balance between object & subject of esthetics.
19.2 To measure excellence, a meta-level of sensation is introduced (namely, the intensity of the esthetic predicate). Being worthy of imitation implies a meta-level of cognition. This defines the forms of harmony enabling the comparison & integration of creativity & beautiful sensate objects, of freedom & works of art.
19.3 The transcendental forms designate the exemplary status of sensate objects.
19.4 In esthetics, the transcendental proof only pertains to harmony, not to excellence or sublimity. To describe the experience of harmony, we must have these forms at work a priori, constituting the possibility of archetypal examples.
19.5 Although we must have forms of harmony to designate examples, the exemplary ought to be imitated.
19.5.1 The esthetic judgement of example is not necessary, but invites every other to concur.
19.5.2 Example moves beyond excellence, implying harmony.

20. An esthetic judgement of example is not a dictate, a law or a must, for esthetic necessity cannot be deduced. These judgements ought to be valued and contain a prescriptive, not an imperative command.

20.1 Excellence can be determined with precision, but harmony is not a formal necessity, rather an invitation to judge likewise.
20.2 An imperative command is universal, immediate and part of a finite, well-defined pattern or strategy it must deploy & execute.
20.3 A prescriptive command is the description of something worth to be imitated.
20.4 Because an esthetic judgement is not imperative, all one can do is hope it finds the goodwill of all other possible esthetic subjects.

21. The sectio aurea or sectio Divina, present in the works of art of Ancient Egypt, Greece & Rome, in Platonic solids, Fibonacci numbers & the Mandelbrot fractals (when they are self-referent by relationships between parts based on φ), seems preferred by Nature to geometrize growth, elegance & energy conservation.

21.1 The Golden Number is arrived at when the sum of two quantities is to the larger quantity as the larger is to the smaller ("a + b" is to "a" as "a" is to "b" or "a + b / a = a / b"), giving an irrational number φ = 1 + √5 /2 ≈ 1.618 033 989.
21.2 Crucial in Classical Architecture, this "Divine Proportion" is also found in complex biological processes.
21.3 The "beauty of Nature" is expressed by the excellent & exemplary sensate objects adorning its four kingdoms : the mineral, the vegetal, the animal and the human.
21.4 In Ancient Egypt, Greece & Rome, as well as in the East, the natural realm took the shape of ongoing natural conflicts between the elements of Earth, Water, Fire & Air. This system became part of Qabalah & Hermeticism (cf. the system of correspondences of the Western Mystery Tradition).
21.5 Only humans create artificial beauty.
21.6 In logic, elegance and symmetry are part of the formal criteria of a valid hypothesis.
21.7 In physics, chemistry, biology & psychology, symmetries are at work : matter versus anti-matter, group theory in quantum chemistry & spectroscopy, physiological bi-polarity, conscious versus unconscious, etc.

22. Excellence, being empirical, is derived from a minute, comparative observation of the ways of sensate objects, but exemplary works of art are identified by their formal features.

07. Instinctual disharmonization or reversal.

23. Disharmonization involves a vertical and horizontal dialectic leading to an increase in entropy (a decrease in complexification and a reduction to more probable states of consciousness, information and matter).

23.1 Vertical disharmonization is the conflict or dialectic between, on the one hand, the human and, on the other hand, the mammalian & reptilian characteristics encoded in the software of our body.

23.1.1 Mammalian belongingness is expressed by special signs, called "icons". They involve visual & spatial semantics, addressing emotions as a motivating & mobilizing source of empathy and memory, uniting relatedness and nurturance (thalamus).
23.1.2 Reptilian wakefulness, sense of territory, instinct of survival & reproductive urge are executed by the brainstem, midbrain and hypothalamus, the controller of the Autonomous Nervous System (and the fight or flight response).
23.1.3 The signal-language of reptiles is based on pheromonal, auditive & visual signals.
23.1.4 Both signals & icons are emblems of the instincts, whereas symbols point to a conceptual process. Proto-rationality, with its concrete concepts, belongs to the instincts but reaches out to the rational.

23.2 Horizontal disharmonization is the tension between, on the one hand, the thinking ego and, on the other hand, ante-rationality & irrationality.
23.2.1 The thinking, empirical ego, cognizes sensate objects based on perceptions of outer events & its own mental objects.
23.2.2 Sensation or experience always involves conceptual interpretation, a fabrication or a construction, never the direct datum of perception as such (cf. Preludium). Elaborate conceptualizations of sensations are likewise a higher order register of abstraction.
23.2.3 Although sensate & mental objects are the only things known, we act as if we conceptualize perceptions as well as the nature of mind. This cannot be the case, for duality never grasps unity.
23.2.4 Hemispheric lateralization of the neocortex executes an unbalanced preference for verbal, conceptual thinking, at the expense of other non-verbal approaches & symbols (mediated by the dominated hemisphere and via the latter, by the limbic system).
23.2.5 The dominant hemisphere computes verbal symbols.
23.2.6 Disharmonization may be a reequilibration-phase leading to higher order.
23.2.7 In any case, disharmonization is the expression of the repressed Shadow-nature spoiling (polluting) conscious meaning.

24. In esthetics, reversal is the tool of disharmonization. With it, one tries to reverse genuine communication into strategy, harmony into conflict and symmetry into "follow-the-leader" reflexes.

25. If in a work of art, disharmonization rules supreme, then afflictive affects dominate. Devoid of harmony, excellence in destruction may be achieved. This is not an example and never sublime.

25.1 Through the media "money, sex & power", manipulation is initiated in the form of instrumental & strategic communication.
25.2 Parody degrades the great works of art.
25.3 Virulent (organized) destruction is a fascist system, evoking the kitsch beauty of the artificial "Beast".
25.4 Blind annihilation is madness as art and art as madness.
25.5 Excessive and obsessive disharmonization, in direct conflict with the law of life (φ) and, by absence of a critical self-consciousness, depletes itself.

26. The Back Box method is a psychosynthetic technique evoking the Shadow, confronting & integrating its imago within the confines of a private "open space" without "spill-over".

26.1 A dadaist seeks to discover his or her psychic mechanism, which also means confronting, naming, accepting and integrating the repressed contents of consciousness (cf. depth-psychology).
26.1.1 Confrontation means to take the time to deliberately evoke negative qualities and not back away from their appearance.
26.1.2 Naming is attributing clear-cut meaning & personal character to the Shadow.
26.1.3 Acceptance is allowing this imago of the Shadow to exist without rejection nor identification.
26.1.4 Integration is choosing for the right chaos-element in the right place at the right time.

26.2 Clearly, this Back Box method has dangers and needs to be confined by expert skill in psychosynthesis.
26.3 "Spill-over" is what happens when Shadow-contents escapes the closed, secret context in which they are evoked, contaminating areas in which negativity & chaos are an inefficient nuisance.

27. Artistic disharmonization is the allowance of a margin of entropy within harmony and can, in human practice, not be avoided.

27.1 Every harmonization has minor, negligible imperfections.
27.2 Artistic disharmonization is the deliberate introduction of chaos in the linear mechanism of a given form of harmonization.
27.2.1 Chaos is a complex, aperiodic, irregular, not completely predictable, not entirely erratic, a little determinable, non-linear movements of natural & artificial systems, i.e. a phase-stream dependent of small changes in the initial conditions, leading to the exploration of a very large number of dynamical possibilities.
27.2.2 As soon as three independent variables are present, non-linearity is a fact (cf. Chaos, 1996).

27.3 The way artistic disharmonization is an integral part of a harmonic key, is a measure of the sublimity of an exemplary work of art.
27.3.1 Sublimity points to the unbounded wholeness of a work of art and the dissolution of divisions between harmony & disharmony and between the work of art and its observer.
27.3.2 Although directly experienced, sublimity cannot be conceptually explained or rationally authenticated.
27.3.3 Sublimity is the object of a transcendent metaphysics, expressing itself in poetry.

08. The Fine Arts : material & imaginal dimensions.

28. The Fine Arts target a specific format of artwork and do so with historical continuity regarding the achievement of craftsmanship, excellence & example.

28.1 The Fine Arts designate a limited number of art disciplines, defined by the purity of their form, i.e. uncontaminated by considerations outside their actual dimensions.
28.2 More academical than applied, these disciplines do not refer to the quality of the work of art, but to the exact, academic performance of how to create certain works of art.
28.3 Because they create, preserve & transmit a specific discipline, the Fine Arts belong to the own-form of civilization.
28.4 Of all the Fine Arts, music is the most complex.

29. The Fine Arts are classified in accordance with their actual and imaginal dimensions.

29.1 A dimension is a measure of observation.
29.2 An actual dimension is a measures of the "stuff" presented.
29.3 An imaginal dimension connotates evocative esthetic features on the basis of denoted sensate esthetic features.
29.4 Imaginal dimensions do not add sensation to the work of art, but do suggest the presence of qualities exceeding the "stuff" actualized or presented.

09. The own-form of creative thought.

"We ourselves posses beauty when we are true to our own being ; our ugliness is in going over to another order ; our self-knowledge, that is to say, is our beauty ; in self-ignorance we are ugly."
Plotinus : Enneads, V.9.13.

30. Excellence unveils how mind plays matter, but does not reflect the own-Self of the artist, rather the empirical ego of the craft.

30.1 To measure the intensity of predicates, mental objects are necessary and designated by the empirical ego, acting as the focal centre of a circular, nominal consciousness (the mind of Homo normalis). This waking state prompts conceptualization.
30.2 As a concept, "excellence" calls for the critical mode of conceptual thought.
30.3 Excellence presupposes craftsmanship, the possession of exquisite esthetic features.
30.4 Ante-rationality does not preclude excellent craftsmanship, but develops no abstract considerations about beauty as such.
30.5 For the empirical ego, the harmonic key is not an issue. It comes by introducing the second focus of consciousness, the own-Self, rather a "soul", or a "someone", than mere sentient animated flesh, or a "something".
30.5.1 As a concept, "exemplarity" calls for the creative mode of conceptual thought.
30.5.2 In sublimity, with the integration of disharmony in harmony (building a kind of super-harmony), excellence (matter) & exemplarity (form) are one.

30.6 Creative thought affirms the presence of a broader, panoramic view, and replaces the critical "I think" with the ontological "I am".
30.7 The soul of the artist is the throne of his or her harmonizations.

31. Exemplary art is exceptional, unique, highly individual, etc. These works of art assume the sparks of the inner light of the artist, his or her own-Self. This alchemy is the most precious secret of the artist, an ineffable, inner, intimate state of consciousness.

32. Critical esthetics calls for four conceptual modes of thought :

32.1 Proto-rationality, bringing ante-rationality to a close, operates a concrete concept unable to escape context.
32.2 Formal thought studies sensate objects of art, their quantity, quality, modality & relation. It articulates propositions regarding their esthetic features.
32.3 Critical thought, to identify excellence, studies the specifics of the way esthetic features are presented, the characteristic esthetic meaning sensate objects come to express, calling for meta-levels of meaning, tensions between parts and between part and whole, etc.
32.4 Creative thought identifies the harmonic key of the own-Self of the artist. Aided by critical thought, comparative solutions are found to the problems posed by the tensions between artist and work of art. A harmonization is a standardized solution of these tensions.

33. Harmonization always occurs against the background of a realist or an idealist ontology, and is therefore an object of immanent metaphysics designated in the mode of creative thought.

10. Directly observing sublimity.

34. Because sensation is a sullying fabrication, sublime works of art manifest with sublime clarity.

34.1 Sensation is always confused and curtailed.
34.1.1 From its own side, sensation -implying concepts, labels and names- is not clear-cut.
34.1.2 Perception takes place using population coding, implementing a threshold for combined action-potentials of the neurons. Very weak stimuli usually never trigger an axonal discharge, whereas the totality of afferent data is filtered by both hypothalamus & thalamus.
34.1.3 As soon as, in the nondual mode of cognition, non-conceptual wisdom emerges, the approximation of sensation with perception (or CI tending towards 1) clarifies, by comparison, the extent of nominal sensate confusion.

34.2 In the formal, critical & creative conceptual modes of thought S = P.CI with CI ≠ 0 pertains and illusion is inevitable and spread throughout.
34.2.1 Some coarse, optical illusions can be detected and their nefast influence eliminated, but without stopping them from appearing.
34.2.2 Conceptual illusion is subtle & universal and cannot be identified. If so, it would not be universal. It results from the habitual framework of interpretation of the mind, designating objects by giving them names covering the base of designation.
34.2.3 Conceptually, to identify the base of designation is to invoke another designation and another base, and this ad infinitum.
34.2.4 Example. If a flower is designated, then the word "flower" is the designation and the physical object pointed at called "flower" is the base of designation. To ostentatiously identify this "physical object over there", one may again invoke concepts as "roots", "stem", "leaves", "flower butt" etc. Whatever the description, it has again to be defined by further designations, ending this regression ad hoc, as in "electrons", "neutrons", ... "quarks" etc. In fact, nothing concrete is found, for after final or ultimate analysis, the so-called "forces" and "particles" constituting the "flower" just appear out, vanish in & reappear out of the universal, virtual zero-point-field studied by quantummechanics. Like all other sensate objects, what we conventionally call "flower", is in fact an aggregate of impermanent displays of energy-fields.
34.2.5 Appearing solid, concrete and substantial (existing from their own side), sensate objects are in fact fleeting, impermanent and unsubstantial (existing conditionally, i.e. in constant interaction with all other changing things).

34.3 Nondual thought involves the natural light of the mind, at work before conceptual consciousness and conceptualizations.
34.3.1 Insofar as consciousness is defined in terms of the duality between object & subject (as in conceptual thought), nondual consciousness is a contradictio in terminis.
34.3.2 Nondual awareness, i.e. the natural light of the mind, is a direct experience of wholeness, but not a consciousness. This natural light ultimately exists before and after any possible state of mind and can only be found when immediately introduced to it.

34.4 When an artist displays natural light, sublime realizations result. In these, everything is permeated with the open potentiality present in the mind of the sublime artist.
34.5 Thinking this natural light is the object of a transcendent metaphysics, rooted in an arguable philosophy of infinity and inspired poetry.
34.5.1 A philosophy of infinity studies three transfinite numbers : Aleph₀, Aleph₁ and Omega.
34.5.2 Of all arts, poetry excels uniquely in sealing the Divine as direct experience (cf. mysticism).

35. Sublime art is an infusion of infinity into finitude, permeating it throughout.

35.1 Critical thought discovers the limit-concepts of the Real and the Ideal, and makes their different lines of entry (the one monologal and the other dialogal) intersect in the focus imaginarius of the noumenal Real-Ideal.
35.2 Creative thought posits the "I am" of the own-Self, and confronts consciousness with a panorama of Self-ideas allowing Self-consciousness to be designated as a lesser infinity (cf. Aleph₀ differing from Aleph₁).
35.3 Nondual thought annihilates the ontological basis of the own-Self, directly introducing the lumen naturale of the mind. Here, cosmic awareness emerges.

36. For an instance, sublime art stops interpretation, helping the gap between two consecutive conceptual thoughts to become apparent.

36.1 Conceptual thoughts arise, abide & vanish. To directly witness their point of emergence is being equipped to experience their end. The so-called gap is what immediately happens next before any new thought arises.
36.2  Here, the natural, spontaneously arising awareness of mind, has always been united with the essence of the absolute basis, empty of inherent existence, but full of displays of all kinds.
36.2.1 Besides the natural state of mind united with the limitless wholeness of the absolute basis, every thing is interdependent, i.e. empty of enduring substance, but full of changes brought about depending on others.
36.2.2 The conceptual mind apprehends the inner light of mind as the "blank" between two consecutive moments of conceptual designation. After many trial-and-errors, the blank becomes a mental object reflecting the natural light and accommodating the direct experience of this natural light permeating every concept.
36.2.3 Because of the noise within the nominal conceptual mind, the fine tone of the natural light is very difficult to isolate and hear.

36.3 Perplexed, the conceptual mind halts in the face of sublimity.
36.3.1 The tense cycles of conceptuality can be broken down by concepts, although this effort is preliminary and necessary to make the mind supple, alert & concentrated.
36.3.2 Sublime works of art directly introduce the natural state of mind and are grand symbols of compassion (helping others to be happy).

37. By integrating disharmony into their harmonization, sublime works of art exceed the exemplary.

37.1 Although order leads to craft, craftsmanship, excellence & exemplarity, if nonduality is not the case, it cannot lead to sublimity.
37.2 Nondual thought is beyond affirmation & denial and so beyond the distinction between order & chaos.
37.3 The integration of chaos into order and of order into chaos is the touchstone of the sublime.

Book 2
Applied Esthetics

Introductory remarks

In esthetics, the distinction between "theoretical" and "applied" separates, on the one hand, the esthetic milieu & the public from, on the other hand, the creative experiences of the artist with the work of art.

In a critical theory of beauty, the appreciation of sensate objects in terms of an esthetic judgement based on norms of excellence & example pertains. Theoretically, the forms of harmonization are only a series of logical options necessary to take beauty beyond excellent craftsmanship. These harmonics are not the outcome of a logical deduction (as is the case in epistemology and ethics). This explains why esthetic judgements are not necessary. Of all three normative disciplines, esthetics is the most concrete and hence the less imperative. Nevertheless, within each form of harmonization, the imperative command is again at work, albeit as a non-Fregean representation of one of the harmonic options available in the logical spectrum between object & subject of esthetics.

The application of esthetic maxims must allow for the production of works of art. Working against the background of an immanent metaphysics, this "ars inveniendi" is the creative, harmonizing aspect of rationality. Its core is not excellence, but exemplarity.

The rule of outstanding harmony involves various harmonic keys, the use of which brings archetypal harmony to bare in a work of art. How have esthetic features and their intensity (esthetic meaning) been made part of this unique Self-idea of the artist ? How does this seed-idea present in every piece, point to an harmonic ideal ?

Because harmonization is part of the esthetic process, both the esthetic milieu & the public, possibly with the art critic at the helm, co-influence how, in a work of art, the "harmonic key" is applied or "realized", often without the artist noticing. However,  while interacting with its environment, exemplary art supersedes this by positing (designating) formidable examples of an original own-form of harmonization. Because they are worth of imitation, these forms of harmonization represent meta-esthetic modules or typical expert information about a limited set of ways to harmonize the happenings & events occurring between esthetic object & esthetic subject. Because they cover the actual production of beauty, they are more applied than theoretical.

Even more so unique is sublimity. Integrating disharmony into harmony, transforming it into meta-harmony, is the last step necessary to eliminate the duality of the esthetic mind and move into the open, free, nameless space of creativity & wisdom.

Based on the transcendental conditions of esthetics, namely sensate objects versus creativity, the harmonic octagon consists of eight forms of harmonization. Hence, these fundamental keys involve the reality of beautiful sensate objects (O) and the ideality of the esthetic artist (S). Although in tune with the transcendental conditions, this octagon is not the result of a deduction. More keys, or variations on keys, may therefore always be added, although at a certain moment semantic overlapping occurs, suggestive of a finite set of possible harmonization.

Both objective and subjective art affirm their object. In social art and personal art, the scope of this object is corrected. Negating the real & ideal conditions imposed by works of art and their artists, as in revolutionary art & psycho-dynamic art, ends the presentational keys.

To deny the transcendental dyad, for revolution or "dada", calls for a meta-level, consciously introducing & integrating disharmony into the harmonic key.