一九八零年，著名美學家朱光潛出版了一本《談美書簡》，據維基百科上講︰
朱光潛談到創作緣由時說：「我之終於答應寫《談美書簡》；一則是要報答來信來訪和來約者的盛意；二則是從解放出來，我一直在抓緊時間學習馬列主義經典著作，對過去自己的言論中錯誤和不妥處也日漸有所認識，理應趁這段『行將就木』的餘年向讀者作個檢查或交代。」[1]
作者年青時也曾讀過這本叫做《談美》的小書。在馬齒徒長的歲月中對這『美』字仍然不得其解。嘗聞『數大就是美』，彷彿『美』之造字就是『羊』『大』肥美吧？！因此可以推論百萬名牌包比之於百元手提袋，差異的並非裝物的功能，而是數大之美耶！？聽說
There is evidence that perceptions of beauty are evolutionarily determined, that things, aspects of people and landscapes considered beautiful are typically found in situations likely to give enhanced survival of the perceiving human’s genes.[2][3]
Rayonnant rose window in Notre Dame de Paris. In Gothic architecture, light was considered the most beautiful revelation of God.
。將『美』聯繫上了人類種族的繁衍，難道不是『情人眼裡出西施 』乎！！物物皆有美，畢竟美美不同？？有人說︰
美，哲學概念，一般指「某一事物引起人們愉悅情感的一種屬性」[1]。漢字「美」是由「羊」和「大」所組成的，由此而延伸出其它美的含義。但是各個時代或者民族對於美的定義是不同的。在甲骨文中，美寫作戴羽毛頭飾的婦女，與「每」同源，都表示漂亮、好看的意思。《莊子·齊物論》：「毛嬙麗姬，人謂美也；魚見之深入 ，鳥見之高飛。」魯迅先生曾經把「美」解釋成「戴帽子的太太」 。錢鍾書曾引了伏爾泰一段話：「何謂美？詢之雄蛤蟆，必答曰『雌蛤蟆是也』。」
美的哲學定義：美是具體事物的組成部分，是具體環境、現象、事情、行為、物體對人類的生存發展具有的特殊性能、正面意義和正價值，是人們在密切接觸具體事物，受其刺激和影響產生了愉悅和滿足的美好感覺後，從具體事物中分解和抽取出來的有別於丑的相對抽象事物或元實體。
美是具體事物的組成部分，美不能夠離開具體事物單獨存在。《道德經》說：「天下皆知美之為美，斯惡已；皆知善之為善，斯不善已。」
終究得不出個尺度。那麼『美』可能『教』的嗎？又該怎麼『學』那難傳之『美』呢？？是否因此『美』就與『科學』絕了緣！事實上所謂『美學』
Aesthetics
Aesthetics (/ɛsˈθɛtɪks/; also spelled æsthetics and esthetics also known in Greek as Αισθητική, or “Aisthētiké”) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty.[1][2] It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.[3] More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as “critical reflection on art, culture and nature.”[4][5] In modern English, the term aesthetic can also refer to a set of principles underlying the works of a particular art movement or theory: One speaks for example of the Cubist aesthetic.[6]
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Aesthetics and science
The field of experimental aesthetics was founded by Gustav Theodor Fechner in the 19th century. Experimental aesthetics is characterized by a subject-based, inductive approach. The analysis of individual experience and behavior based on experimental methods is a central part of experimental aesthetics. In particular, the perception of works of art,[36] music, or modern items such as websites[37] or other IT products[38] is studied. Experimental aesthetics is strongly oriented towards the natural sciences. Modern approaches mostly come from the fields of cognitive psychology or neuroscience (neuroaesthetics[39]).
In the 1970s, Abraham Moles and Frieder Nake were among the first to analyze links between aesthetics, information processing, and information theory.[40][41]
In the 1990s, Jürgen Schmidhuber described an algorithmic theory of beauty which takes the subjectivity of the observer into account and postulates: among several observations classified as comparable by a given subjective observer, the aesthetically most pleasing one is the one with the shortest description, given the observer’s previous knowledge and his particular method for encoding the data.[42][43] This is closely related to the principles of algorithmic information theory and minimum description length. One of his examples: mathematicians enjoy simple proofs with a short description in their formal language. Another very concrete example describes an aesthetically pleasing human face whose proportions can be described by very few bits of information,[44][45] drawing inspiration from less detailed 15th century proportion studies by Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer. Schmidhuber’s theory explicitly distinguishes between what’s beautiful and what’s interesting, stating that interestingness corresponds to the first derivative of subjectively perceived beauty. Here the premise is that any observer continually tries to improve the predictability and compressibility of the observations by discovering regularities such as repetitions and symmetries and fractal self-similarity. Whenever the observer’s learning process (which may be a predictive neural network; see also Neuroesthetics) leads to improved data compression such that the observation sequence can be described by fewer bits than before, the temporary interestingness of the data corresponds to the number of saved bits. This compression progress is proportional to the observer’s internal reward, also called curiosity reward. A reinforcement learning algorithm is used to maximize future expected reward by learning to execute action sequences that cause additional interesting input data with yet unknown but learnable predictability or regularity. The principles can be implemented on artificial agents which then exhibit a form of artificial curiosity.[46][47][48][49]
Initial image of a Mandelbrot set zoom sequence with continuously colored environment
Truth as beauty, mathematics
Mathematical considerations, such as symmetry and complexity, are used for analysis in theoretical aesthetics. This is different from the aesthetic considerations of applied aesthetics used in the study of mathematical beauty. Aesthetic considerations such as symmetry and simplicity are used in areas of philosophy, such as ethics and theoretical physics and cosmology to define truth, outside of empirical considerations. Beauty and Truth have been argued to be nearly synonymous,[50] as reflected in the statement “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” in the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats, or by the Hindu motto “Satyam Shivam Sundaram” (Satya (Truth) is Shiva (God), and Shiva is Sundaram (Beautiful)). The fact that judgments of beauty and judgments of truth both are influenced by processing fluency, which is the ease with which information can be processed, has been presented as an explanation for why beauty is sometimes equated with truth.[51] Indeed, recent research found that people use beauty as an indication for truth in mathematical pattern tasks.[52] However, scientists including the mathematician David Orrell[53] and physicist Marcelo Gleiser[54] have argued that the emphasis on aesthetic criteria such as symmetry is equally capable of leading scientists astray.
Computational inference of aesthetics
Since about 2005, computer scientists have attempted to develop automated methods to infer aesthetic quality of images.[55][56][57][58] Typically, these approaches follow a machine learning approach, where large numbers of manually rated photographs are used to “teach” a computer about what visual properties are of relevance to aesthetic quality. The Acquine engine, developed at Penn State University, rates natural photographs uploaded by users.[59]
Notable in this area is Michael Leyton, professor of psychology at Rutgers University. Leyton is the president of the International Society for Mathematical and Computational Aesthetics and the International Society for Group Theory in Cognitive Science and has developed a generative theory of shape.
There have also been relatively successful attempts with regard to chess and music.[60] A relation between Max Bense‘s mathematical formulation of aesthetics in terms of “redundancy” and “complexity” and theories of musical anticipation was offered using the notion of Information Rate.[61]
Evolutionary aesthetics
Evolutionary aesthetics refers to evolutionary psychology theories in which the basic aesthetic preferences of Homo sapiens are argued to have evolved in order to enhance survival and reproductive success.[62] One example being that humans are argued to find beautiful and prefer landscapes which were good habitats in the ancestral environment. Another example is that body symmetry is an important aspect of physical attractiveness which may be due to this indicating good health during body growth. Evolutionary explanations for aesthetical preferences are important parts of evolutionary musicology, Darwinian literary studies, and the study of the evolution of emotion.
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各種流派一直常住生活中。同樣也有許多研究『美』的『科學』。如此看來『教育』理念裡是否也該有『美學』的呢？或果有果無『美育』這殿堂的耶！