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Aesthetics (Sikhism)

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Sikhism

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Indian Religions ((EIR))

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Synonyms

Art; Embodiment; Image; Music; Performance; Rasa; Sensory experience

Definition

Aesthetic experience is defined by the imaginative capacity to grasp and experience the world holistically based on a nonconceptual encounter of complex forms in art and nature. It is an experience that is invested with the potential to achieve spontaneous breakthroughs, transformations that tend to be acknowledged as significant in a generic sense. Aesthetic experience is is at the same time defined by a paradoxical relationship to its object that results from the dispensation of both, the laws of rational thought and the sensual, insofar as both structure desire and the realms of the intentional acting subject. [40] It assumes a specific form of surrender of the ego-self and opens a space for creativity and imagination in contradistinction to common regimes of good taste and consumption.

As an intellectual field of reflecting the relevance of aesthetic experience in relation to art, politics, and...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, M3J1P3, Canada

    Michael Nijhawan

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  1. Michael Nijhawan
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Correspondence to Michael Nijhawan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair

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Nijhawan, M. (2017). Aesthetics (Sikhism). In: Mandair, AP.S. (eds) Sikhism. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0846-1_495

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