The Theoretical Innovation of Environmental Aesthetics and the Three Turns of Aesthetics

By the enlargement of subject matter and scope of aesthetics from art to environment and object in environment beyond art,environmental aesthetics proposes and justifies a new conception of environment,a new conception of aesthetics and various kinds of models of environmental appreciation and environmental aesthetic experience. Environment is not only physical surroundings or setting in its common sense,but also environmental Gestalt perceived by human agent; Aesthetics is not only the philosophy of beauty,but also the theories of aesthetic appreciation and experience. To appreciate environments appropriately and aesthetically needs proper models of aesthetic appreciation. The relationship between aesthetics and environment becomes closer today because environment enlarges the research field of aesthetics and aesthetics in turn promotes a new type of conception of environment,which show an effort to overcome the dualism of man-environment and advocates the harmonious co-existence of man and environment. There are three turns implied in environmental aesthetics: ecological turn,soma turn and spatial turn.