Aesthetic Detachment

Aesthetic appreciation is traditionally thought to be disinterested, i. e. involving attention to the appearance of an object, in detachment from any ulterior purpose it might serve. Kant's account of the nature of such detachment is typical--that it entails the achieving of an impersonal standpoint that is equivalent to a universal response to an object. Likewise, Beauty is traditionally conceived of as an object of universal appreciation, so, insofar as Morality is Universalistic, Aesthetics serves as a cultivation of Morality in many Systems, not only Kant's. However, the rarely considered point that dancing is type of Aesthetic experience, i. e. a response to Music, and a very primitive one, leads to different conclusions regarding the nature of such detachment. Dance, too, entails disinterest, namely it is locomotility for its own sake, not for any ulterior organic purpose, resulting in what has aptly been called a 'joy of movement'. This enjoyment of Music is thus not Universalistic, but to the contrary, is entirely personal, from which Formaterialism draws the conclusion that purposeful behavior is only a special case, even if the most common one, of locomotility, and, of Conduct, in general. Furthermore, even when an organism, as a whole, is purposelessly moving, the special senses are still purposefully guiding its movement. Hence, the fundamental detachment involved in e. g. the contemplation of a painting, is only intrapersonal, e. g. a detachment of vision from its normal function of guiding locomotility, and not at all impersonally universalistic. So, with Dance as exemplary, Aesthetics illustrates the Idionomic nature of Experience, and, hence, can help cultivate Phronesis for the Formaterial System.