Formal Qualities in the Natural Environment

In this discussion I consider the significance of qualities in the aesthetic appreciation and evaluation of the natural environment. The topic is of interest for at least two reasons. The first is that there is a marked emphasis on qualities in much of the current nontheoretical research in environmental aesthetics. The second is that recent philosophical discussion of the aesthetics of the natural environment suggests that the whole question of aesthetic qualities in the natural environment is more perplexing than it at first appears. Initially, it is useful to introduce a working notion of formal Writers in philosophical aesthetics have identified and classified the aesthetic qualities of objects in various ways. Two groupings of qualities about which there is some agreement, however, are sensory or sensuous qualities and or design qualities. The former are qualities of textures, colors, and lines of objects, such as the smoothness and luster of a polished stone or the sharpness and sparkle of a crystal. Sensory qualities are worth noting here in that their specification aids in the clarification of qualities. This is so in part because textures, lines, and colors combine in relations to create the shapes, patterns, and designs which constitute the perceived form of an object. It is the qualities of such forms, such as their being unified or chaotic, balanced or unbalanced, harmonious or confused, which I will call qualities. It follows that qualities are qualities which objects or combinations of objects have in virtue of that which constitutes their forms. This includes not only their shapes, patterns, and designs, but also their textures, lines, and colors.