In Response to Stephen's Question

The subjectivity of art appreciation is a large factor in its enjoyment. Many people take a liking to art in its variety of forms because of its originality from other works. For example, different genres of music are most often appreciated for their unique sounds. Often times, works which show similarities to others are critiqued for their lack of originality. Each individual song performed by a musician or musical group is subjective to the listener. This subjectivity described is directly linked to the enjoyment the listener will achieve from hearing the music play. Classical music is very subjective. While one individual may take a great liking to classics, another might be more appreciative of a more contemporary style of music, and therefore enjoy the sounds created by a contemporary group more than those created by someone playing classical music. I think that it would be difficult to truly appreciate an art form even from an objective stand point (even though we have discussed that it would extremely difficult to achieve true objectivity) because the viewer of the art form contributes so much to its enjoyment. Is there a certain art form which is more likely to be appreciated and therefore enjoyed more by the majority in comparison to other art forms? For example, is it easier for an individual to be more appreciative of any kind of music over something less known about generally such as dance?

In Response to Jacob's Question (Week 3)

All human beings are biased. Each individual has a preference for one thing over another especially in the context of comparisons. It is natural for people to make judgments based off of similar things they can compare an event, situation, or object to. Human bias derives from an individual’s learning history. The knowledge acquired throughout a person’s life influences his or her thoughts on a daily basis regardless of whether or not the individual is consciously aware that he or she is being directly influenced by his or her past. Because a person’s learning history directly influences thought processes on a daily basis, I do not think that it is humanly possible to exist even temporarily in a state of unbias. A state of unbias is impossible to come across because in order to be completely objective a person would have to have absolutely no learning history of anything because everything known influences any judgment to be made by the individual. When making judgments, a person should attempt to be as unbiased as possible. The state of perfect objectivity cannot exist, but being as close to objective as possible is ideal when making judgments, especially towards aesthetics. Is everything equally difficult to attempt to remain objective about? Or are there some things that exist which are easier to remain objective about than others? Do you think that it depends on the individual or are there a few universal things which are easier to remain objective towards than others?