The Aesthetics of Self-Giving

Sammanfattning: We are used to regarding aesthetic experience from the point of view of a spectator, rather than something we actively provide and give. It is not common in the aesthetic debate to analyse what it is like to offer an aesthetic experience, but it is rather the opposite. Philosophers and aestheticians tend to study and focus on how the experience is perceived by someone, not on how it unfolds for the one who provides it. I believe that the experience of giving - especially when we give ourselves to others - is an aesthetic experience in itself. By "giving ouselves to others" I mean opening ourselves to others through acts of generous and disinterested service. In fact, it seems that we are truly and fully happy when we are willing to give ourselves to others in this way. Accordingly, the questions I am going to answer in this research are: why can we be happy by giving ourselves to another person? Can we be "gifts" for others without expecting something back? Is this experience aesthetic? I argue that love and disinterestedness are two key-concepts which help us understand how it is possible to selflessly give ourselves. In addition to that, I claim that such an act is aesthetic because we judge it as "beautiful" and not only as "good". The experience of self-giving is aeshetic because we invoke aesthetic concepts when we describe it.