Research Article

Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change as an Aesthetic Problem

Volume: 24 Number: 1 March 28, 2025
EN TR

Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change as an Aesthetic Problem

Abstract

Climate change inherently involves moral considerations, including the unequal distribution of responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, the growing problem of desertification, the alarming loss of biodiversity, and other related issues. The central discussion revolves around three distinct aesthetic approaches. First, the paper critically evaluates formalist and subjectivist accounts, arguing that these perspectives are insufficient for comprehending the ethical and moral dimensions of climate change. Because, while formalist aesthetics develops a disinterested and abstract view on nature, the subjectivist approach is problematic due to the impossibility of reconciliation on the aesthetic judgments of nature. However, second, by integrating both cognitivist and moralist accounts, the paper offers a comprehensive perspective on climate change-driven aesthetic loss, incorporating both scientific objectivity and the moral significance of the issue. Illustrating this argument, in the paper, it examines specific examples of climate-related aesthetic loss, including Arctic ice melt, wildfires, and the aesthetic transformation of urban environments, framing these losses within the context of negative aesthetics. In conclusion, at the end, this paper aims to demonstrate that climate change should not be perceived solely as a political and ecological problem. Aesthetic theory, through a hybrid cognitivist and moralist account, offers crucial insights into the experience of climate change, while the moralist account offers the ethical and moral involvement, the cognitivist approach offers the scientific foundation for nature.

Keywords

References

  1. Badiou, A. (2004). Handbook of Inaesthetics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  2. Beardsley, M. (1958). Taste Can Be Disputed. Swarthmore College Alumni Bulletin, 1-5.
  3. Beardsley, M. (1969). The End of Aesthetic Experience. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2-4.
  4. Bell, C. (1914). Art as Significant Form. In Art.
  5. Bennett, M. M. (2020). Ruins of the Anthropocene: The Aesthetics of Arctic Climate Change. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 1-9.
  6. Berleant, A. (2004). The Aesthetics of Art and Nature. In A. C. Arnold Berleant, The Aesthetics of Natural Environments (pp. 76-86). Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press.
  7. Berleant, A. (2010). Sensibility and Sense: The Aesthetic Transformation of the Human World. World Imprint Academic.
  8. Brady, E. (2011). The Ugly Truth: Negative Aesthetics and Environment. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 85-99.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

21st Century Philosophy

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

March 28, 2025

Submission Date

January 15, 2025

Acceptance Date

March 9, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Volume: 24 Number: 1

APA
Kızmaz, M. C., & Polat, İ. H. (2025). Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change as an Aesthetic Problem. Kaygı. Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe Dergisi, 24(1), 335-358. https://doi.org/10.20981/kaygi.1667264
AMA
1.Kızmaz MC, Polat İH. Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change as an Aesthetic Problem. Kaygı. 2025;24(1):335-358. doi:10.20981/kaygi.1667264
Chicago
Kızmaz, Melih Can, and İbrahim Halil Polat. 2025. “Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change As an Aesthetic Problem”. Kaygı. Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe Dergisi 24 (1): 335-58. https://doi.org/10.20981/kaygi.1667264.
EndNote
Kızmaz MC, Polat İH (March 1, 2025) Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change as an Aesthetic Problem. Kaygı. Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe Dergisi 24 1 335–358.
IEEE
[1]M. C. Kızmaz and İ. H. Polat, “Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change as an Aesthetic Problem”, Kaygı, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 335–358, Mar. 2025, doi: 10.20981/kaygi.1667264.
ISNAD
Kızmaz, Melih Can - Polat, İbrahim Halil. “Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change As an Aesthetic Problem”. Kaygı. Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe Dergisi 24/1 (March 1, 2025): 335-358. https://doi.org/10.20981/kaygi.1667264.
JAMA
1.Kızmaz MC, Polat İH. Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change as an Aesthetic Problem. Kaygı. 2025;24:335–358.
MLA
Kızmaz, Melih Can, and İbrahim Halil Polat. “Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change As an Aesthetic Problem”. Kaygı. Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Felsefe Dergisi, vol. 24, no. 1, Mar. 2025, pp. 335-58, doi:10.20981/kaygi.1667264.
Vancouver
1.Melih Can Kızmaz, İbrahim Halil Polat. Is Climate Change Ugly? Considering Climate Change as an Aesthetic Problem. Kaygı. 2025 Mar. 1;24(1):335-58. doi:10.20981/kaygi.1667264

e-ISSN: 2645-8950