Race and Aesthetics Ideas in the Eighteenth-Century
Louis Pasteur once said: “In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.” Therefore,
a race represents human beings that started sorting and ranking each other’s in the eighteenth-century,
since they began to think in an aesthetical way; in other words, they started to appreciate and notice the
different kinds of principles related to nature, beauty, and things that can also be perceived as ugly. In
fact, artists were preoccupated by the investment of their pictures by trying to add to them more life in a
simple and pure way, they wanted to create a masterpiece to catch the attention of others while letting
them observe and judge every single object. In the 18th century, the relation between internal feelings
and outward manifestations were the main concern of scientific inquiries. Moreover, Lavater who was a
Swiss writer with an interest in art, used a physiognomy which is a pseudoscience to read characters and
personalities by discerning physical characteristics mainly those of the human head. Therefore, man
started to build a new and certain observation perspective as they started to adapt a new way of
analyzing and examining objects while still having different way judgements and perspectives. This
aesthetic perspective helped people to compare objects but still was unhelpful and hurtful to others.
To begin with, every human being should use aesthetic ideas while having a certain observation to
every single detail. Effectively, he should be able to mention the gradations between man and insect,
which is an inexplicable compendium, since he is considered the intrinsic nature of creation and the son
of earth. The animal, the intellectual and the moral are three different kinds of life that are united in
humans in an amazing and wonderful way. This is a kind of combination that is harmonized and
constituted in a special way since it exists only in the human body, but we should know that every kind
of them is the compendium of different faculties that can allow man to pay attention to every single
detail. For instance, man can use this combination to know, to discover new things, to desire, to act, to
observe, to research, to meditate, to wish or even to own the powers of moving or resisting in a strong
way. Moreover, with these faculties provided by every human being, everyone can be himself the
worthiest observer as well as the worthiest subject of observation of himself which can let every human
to observe things in a different way. In fact, his external form, his body, and his superficies are used to
help him find out his properties that can be unknown at some point, since each species of life is
conspicuous. Man can even exist and move in his body normally while using his own elements. To be
able to gain knowledge and good thinking man must use the medium of his senses which will allow them
to conclude things correctly. Furthermore, man own a threefold life which can let them become the
subject of research, since it shows itself in the form of the body and his faculties. All human beings can
be characterized by using external appearances which can affect the senses. These characteristics are the
origin of all human knowledge. Consequently, man move in the darkest ignorance while automatically
respecting themself and the objects that surrounds them, and making sure that they did not became
familiar with their properties and powers by the help of their externals. Also, all bodies can be sight
under a certain form and superficies. These forms can be observed by man aesthetically in a various way
since they have different perspectives and ways to pay attention to details.
However, it may be seemed that the aesthetic observation of objects or humans is an activity that can
be done easily, which is not the case. Effectively, every human being can think that they can observe
things in a general way without taking into consideration some essential details that can let them
conclude things in a logic way. Therefore, they should always remember that it is important to examine
the subject in all its different parts. He should always start by taking into consideration each part of the
subject separately to be able to detect the differences between for instance, two objects or find a detail
that can be consider wrong in his opinion, since everyone can see things in different way. Then, he
should analyze the analogy of the subject will using his whole attention and contiguous, otherwise he
will fail at the observation and will obtain at the end of the day a wrong conclusion. These steps are
essential and necessary to create and keep the different properties that can show, describe, define, and
constitute the nature of the subject that is being analyzed and examined. Also, man should always opt
for these steps to have a clear and meaningful understanding of these properties, as well as contributing
to form a whole idea and a clear one so that they won’t confound them with other objects or things as
well as they won’t get confused during the observation, even if there is resemblance. For example, the
four caricatures of broken Grecian busts can be seemed as they are alike in signification. However, if any
human looks carefully at the four caricatures, he will notice some differences such as the nose which is
clear that the four noses are not alike as well as the hair, the eyes, and the forehead. Consequently,
everyone should consider every single detail to notice the difference between the caricatures while
analyzing for instance, the drawing of the forehead to the nose so that the scientific physiognomist
develop characters almost in an opposite way. This specific detail needs a huge effort and a good
knowledge to be able to realize this difference that is not obviously clear if someone look at these four
caricatures in a general way. Furthermore, if we take the example of the black people in the eighteenthcentury we realize that when Christopher Columbus discovered the American territories, he sold the
black people to the Europeans since he did not compared the Africans with the Europeans which could
had led him to the conclusion that we are all human and we are all equal; this aesthetic perspective have
created a dark age and a dark memory in every African and American since they were treated in way that
they were inferior to others. Therefore, it is not easy to observe these characters and these specific
details, but if a men use all his senses and the three kinds of life that he naturally has it, the animal, the
intellectual, and the moral that are united in humans; they should be able to notice these aesthetic
differences easily while also using knowledge to have at the end the right conclusion.
Also, man can have different kinds of perspectives and judgements while observing a specific subject or
object. In fact, a men can have various opinions while looking at the same portrait since everyone of
them can have an extreme rarity of true spirit of observation; in other word every human being can
think, analyze, conclude, or have a different knowledge of each other’s but still they can sometimes
detect the same things while examining a certain object as well as they can have different opinions that
can be debatable. For instance, the four caricatures of broken Grecian busts are obviously different from
the nose to the ill mouth and the hair, but they used these caricatures to form four additional profiles to
show the reader how minute are traits that have a great significance, and how it is difficult to distinguish
the resemblances. If a men decided to opt for the physio gnomonical sensation, he will certainly and
without any doubt realize that the four pictures represent four sisters that looks quite the same, as they
will perceive similarity in a hundred countenances, while others can have different perspective, they can
think that the four caricatures are very different, and that the artist wanted to create various
masterpieces. Consequently, every human used his own perspective, knowledge and judgements which
led them to different conclusions that are the opposite. Moreover, the confounding of various portraits
and characters can show the rarity of spirit that a men can have. Man can make mistakes will analyzing a
subject even if he is very genius, he can sometimes miss the most important details of subject due to his
different way of judging and seeing the objects and his knowledge that can be different from others. For
example, man can use aesthetics to analyze a specific object, he can judge that the object is a wonderful
object while others can realize that the object is bad due to their different way of seeing things.
Furthermore, in the eighteenth-century European considered that Africans were inferior to them since
the European thought at that time that the white race is a pure race while the black people are bad ones
and should be treated badly, this wrong perspective created slavery and let the black people have a bad
time for a long time. Therefore, the aesthetic perspective can sometimes have a negative impact on
others if we don’t use our knowledge.
In conclusion, humans used this aesthetics thinking in the eighteenth-century in a golden age where
man started to invent more things, more machines and even began to adapt a new way of thinking, a
new lifestyle, a new perspective as well as a new philosophical thinking which are unforgettable and
useful. Furthermore, every human being should be able to observe any object or subject while
examining it, and while also paying attention to every single detail since he is the son of earth and the
owner of the three kinds of life, the animal, the intellectual, and the moral, in other words he is capable
of doing things in the right way; even if he will still have at the end of the day a various way of seeing
things and analyzing it while using a different knowledge and a different way of thinking since we are all
different. Also, always remember what Bertrand Russel once said: “The observer, when he seemed to
himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone
upon himself.”