| Abstract |
The aesthetic evaluation of decisions of the Hellenic Council of the State, which either
strictly concern legal matters or express common sense, is of major importance
because of the normative force of these decisions and has a significant impact upon
the interpretation and adoption of rules concerning environmental ethics. The question
raised is what the meaning of “environmental aesthetics” within the Greek Law is and
in what way the decisions of the Council of the State have been influenced by
philosophical aesthetics. Furthermore, what are the criteria of aesthetic evaluation and
what is the object of aesthetic significance or value protected by the law? Does
aesthetics include principles or rules which could set the normative basis for
environmental protection? In the framework of the above mentioned questions, the
present study examines the reference to aesthetics in Greek Law concerning that
which is protected in article 24 of the Constitution of Greece, i.e. the natural and
cultural environment, and identifies the points of aesthetic evaluation included in the
decisions of the case law of the Council of the State.
As a philosophical reflection on the nature of interest in objects valuable in a particular
way, aesthetics is strongly influenced by philosophical theories. The present study
aims at defining and understanding the identity of the specific theoretical philosophical
framework connected with the decisions of the Council of the State related to aesthetic
evaluation as the framework has not been specified. To this end, aesthetic theories
developed throughout history are examined in order to determine the core of
philosophy formed by various aspects of philosophical thought and study the impact of
philosophical theories on aesthetic theories which lead to the development of the
modern system expressed in Greek Law. Philosophical theories are necessarily
presented briefly without demand for extensive substantiation and to such a degree
that serves the needs of the present study.
What gives beauty to things? How is the “beautiful” expressed in the physical reality?
What are the criteria of aesthetic value? What is the particular nature of aesthetic
pleasure? On the basis of these questions and by means of analyzing aesthetic
theories, two key aspects of interest have been identified: The first one is identified by
the term “beautiful” and includes the description and analysis of major aesthetic
qualities as defined by thinkers, whereas the second one is identified by the terms
“sensibilities” or “taste” and requires examination of the nature of the critic’s
deduction, the nature of the critic’s judgement and the justification of this judgement,
i.e. it requires a normative research. Nevertheless, these two thematic aspects are
closely connected and often interlaced as the analysis of theories of aesthetics aims at
defining the nature of aesthetic pleasure and clarifying the controversial ideas about
taste and “energy enthusiasm”.
{PA 8
The points of aesthetic evaluation included in the decisions of the case law of the Council
of the State are elaborated, and philosophical theories of aesthetics are used in order
to point out the “concepts” or “qualities of aesthetics” on which the evaluation was
based. The study of these concepts in the framework of formulated theories of
aesthetics helps understanding the aesthetic evaluation of the case law.
The “aesthetic concepts” outlined in this study are classified in seven (7) categories
according to the theories of aesthetics where these concepts are of major importance.
The concepts are the points of aesthetic evaluation and aesthetic value in the case law
and are defined through theories of aesthetics as the simple aesthetic qualities of
objects of Nature and Art and as common “properties” of all the “beautiful” objects.
The definition and extensive analysis of these “qualities of aesthetics” contribute to the
development and clarification of the concept of “beautiful”, the interpretation of its
impact, the justification of assessments upon it and the understanding of the aesthetic
experience. These “aesthetic concepts” are analyzed on the basis of specific
philosophical theories by the pre-Socratic thinkers, philosophers of classical antiquity
and of the Hellenistic period, Neo-Platonists, thinkers of the Middle ages and the
Renaissance, Cartesian rationalists, experientialists, philosophers of the German
idealism, of Romantic intuitionism, of social realism and modern anti-formalist,
naturalistic experientialists, metaphysics, existentialists and formalists of the 20th
century.
The seven “concepts” or “qualities” or points of aesthetic significance or value in the
evaluation of the Council of the State are determined as follows: 1. distinctiveness or
specific individuality and self-identity, 2. composition of a separate discernible unity, 3.
form or shape or figure, 4. harmony, 5. diversity, 6. beauty or natural beauty and 7.
aesthetic experience and pleasure. The last concept arises from aesthetic evaluation
and follows it and the “beautiful” becomes sensible through it.
The natural and cultural environment as evaluated on the basis of these concepts in the
decisions of the case law includes inter alia: forestlands as aesthetic forests for
aesthetic pleasure, wetlands and aquatic ecosystems of aesthetic value, landscapes
with significant natural ecosystems presenting explicitly their features through
diversity, variety and alternation of their elements, areas of particular natural beauty
with particular form, character and composition pertaining to collective identity,
natural or cultural creations cohesively connected in balance and concord preserving
historical memories and aesthetic values, significant natural ecosystems where balance
and harmony of components is important for preserving their distinctive character,
sensitive natural ecosystems whose special morphological and physiogeographical
features are objects of natural heritage, biological entities and natural landscape
formations either as distinctive special objects or as parts of a beautiful and special
image, the cohesion and self-existence of natural and cultural units and the special
{PA 9
attributes of their parts, periurban recreational forests, groves and parks in cities and
settlements considered to pertain to natural environment and cultural goods.
After assessing the data during the process of setting a specific theoretical framework for
each one of the seven qualities on the basis of the analyzed philosophical theories, I
argue that the decisions of the case law of the Council of the State concerning
aesthetic evaluation of the environment are idealistic, namely a Kantian aesthetic
approach distanced from the subjectivity of experientialism and from the rationalistic
and formalistic perception.
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