@article{levine2016review: author = {Stephen K. Levine}, title = {Review: François Jullien, This Strange Idea of the Beautiful}, journal = {Creative Arts in Education and Therapy}, volume = {2}, number = {1}, year = {2016}, abstract = {When we use the arts in therapy, do we understand what we are doing? Do we rely on the concept of art that comes from our aesthetic tradition? Or does our work put this concept into question? François Jullien’s book, This Strange Idea of the Beautiful, raises these questions in the reader’s mind by interrogating the Western tradition of aesthetics through a comparative study with Chinese writings on classical landscape paintings. The Western concept of beauty, which underlies the whole metaphysical separation between the sensible and intelligible worlds, is put into question by seeing that when the Chinese literati have written about classical landscapes, they do not use the term “beautiful,” which implies a disembodied ideal form that can be viewed at a distance from the spectator. Rather, they use a multiplicity of words which describe various aspects of the landscape, all of which draw the viewer into relationship with the work. This review suggests that the use of expressive arts in therapy and education cannot base itself on the taken-for-granted concept of art which is embedded in our tradition. Rather, we must draw upon both Western and Eastern thinking in order to find a point of view which suits the actual practice of our work.}, url = {https://doi.org/10.15534/CAET/2016/1/18} doi = {10.15534/CAET/2016/1/18} }