In 1980, philosopher John Finnis wrote Natural Law and Natural Rights, which is his explanation of natural law theory. He sets the stage by saying that there are seven basic human goods (also called basic reasons for action): life, knowledge, practical reasonableness, ‘religion’, play, friendship, and aesthetic experience. These all contribute to human flourishing; they are each beneficial to people in different ways. One of these goods or reasons for action is aesthetic experience.
Finnis maintains that these are self-evident, by which he does not mean that everyone will agree or always see the value. Rather, he means that their value can be shown in two ways: observing and reflecting on what people do and imagining the world without that good. Following this strategy, we can examine whether aesthetic experience would qualify as a basic reason for human action.
Aesthetic experience plays an integral part of people’s everyday lives. That might at first seem like an odd claim. We tend to focus on the highest aesthetic experiences of art and nature. But there is a gradation of aesthetic experiences, some that may elude our conscious attention. Not every experience or perception of an aesthetic feature is acute. In fact, aesthetic features are so pervasive that we don’t think about each one. We likely take many of them for granted.
Let’s think about what people do. We spend time, money, and energy on our physical appearances and on our homes. From clothing to other grooming products and routines, people want to present themselves in particular ways to others. In terms of our homes, we plant flowers, cook and eat good food, and clean or decorate in ways that please us. Reading books, watching films, and listening to music contribute to our overall pursuit of the aesthetic, even if these provide other things, like knowledge, as well as aesthetic experience. Beyond our everyday lives, we travel around our states, countries, and the world in order to experience natural and human-made objects and environments that we believe will be beautiful to behold. Here, we may also have other reasons for traveling, but the possibility of aesthetic experience clearly provides one reason for our journey. When we abserve what people do, these reminders suggest that we regularly act for the aesthetic in order to experience it in our daily lives and beyond.
To imagine what it would be like, if we were deprived of positive aesthetic qualities, we don’t have to look too far. Prisons provide an exemplary context of ugliness, among other things. While prisons contain multiple issues, one is the lack of aesthetics in most prisons, which contributes to its inhuman feel for both incarcerated persons and corrections officers. More generally for our lives, the built environment provides more than just protection from the elements. It contributes to our well-being with regard to its aesthetics.
Dismal surroundings with oppressive features can hinder people’s well-being, by nudging them toward depression or at least by not inspiring hope. Office buildings with a poor layout, terrible lighting, and dreary colors will not help motivate employees to be excellent at their work. Of course, some motivation comes from within, but our environments play a role. Lastly, imagine living in a home wholly deprived of positive aesthetic features; someone could more feel stuck in those surroundings than someone living in an aesthetically pleasing environment.
As only one of the basic reasons for action, aesthetic experience is not everything. But it is one important facet of what it means to be human, and one that is often overlooked in many discussions about work, global issues, politics, and so on. If it is integral for human flourishing, then it should be recognized as important in all that humans do. John Dewey wrote Art as Experience in 1934, in which he lamented the fact that we have isolated aesthetics and art in museums. Many of the objects in museums served a daily function and importance for the original owners and users. While museums may serve a useful function to preserve these objects for posterity, they inadvertently send the wrong message about aesthetics.
While we haven’t completely neglected all of the practices of aesthetics, we have relegated its importance as something for the elite or to only be added when everything else is all set in our lives and work. Regardless of anyone’s specific context, aesthetics matters for us to flourish.
Whether one adopts a version of natural law theory or not, it represents one method to argue for the importance of aesthetic experience for our lives. Other ways to show the need for aesthetics come from other philosophical positions as well as neuroscience, psychology, and sociology. But we gain a more complete picture of aesthetics when we draw from all these sources.