Between professional objectivity and Simmel’s moods: a pragmatist-aesthetic proposal for landscape character

This paper provides, in the first part, a critical examination of the standard framing of the subjectivism vs objectivism dualism in the concept and practice of ‘landscape character’ (LC) and, in the second part, some philosophical suggestions for its improvement. After a brief overview of the emergence of the LC notion, partly in response to the modernist-aestheticist view of landscape, and of the mentioned dualism that this notion harbours, I will discuss some main problems associated with the currently dominant ‘objectivist strain’ in the framing of the dualism. Such problems have a common root, namely a narrow unexamined view of experience and the aesthetic dimension. In the constructive part, I will propose to reframe the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity on a pragmatist-aesthetic basis, drawing on Simmel’s notion of landscape ‘mood’. Finally, I will outline some implications and advantages of the suggested alternative over both the objectivist strain in the current discourse and the modernist-aestheticist paradigm.