HUMAN ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE ENVIRONMENT

Aesthetic is a field in philosophy where it

discusses theories of beauty, primarily
in art. Later development, beauty is
applied in non-artistic products such as
environment. There have been a lot of
theories in Aesthetics, from Plato in
ancient times to the twentieth century
aesthetic theorists. All philosophers agree
on a common ground that aesthetics
focuses on beauty. The aesthetic
experience happens in the encounter
between the person and the object
that possesses beauty. But how do we understand that a thing is beautiful or not? Getting us clarified with the
meaning of aesthetic attitude is the key to the inquiry. And this aesthetic attitude begets aesthetics theories.
Aesthetic attitude is a state of mind about orienting ourselves towards the world in optimistic way. In other words, it
is a person's distinct disposition of approaching anything outside of us in a positive light. Reality tells us that not every
human experience with the environment is positive. This aesthetic attitude, as agreed by thinkers of this field,
is an optimistic attitude. The encounter with the bad experience can be spin something as positive, since positive
attitude implies that all bad things are not really that bad.

TWO TYPES OF ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ENVIRONMENT

The first perspective is aesthetic attitude. It is seen as a special kind of attitude towards the environment. The
person who encounters the aesthetic object, in this case, the environment, is very objective. He is unbiased towards
the environment in the sense of not thinking what it can benefit him, or thinking the environment is within his own
interest. Let us compare between economic attitude and aesthetic attitude to shed light on understanding our role
towards the environment. Suppose a certain person owns an expensive art of Michelangelo. The person could say to
himself that the piece of art is very rare and costly, and praises his self for owning one. This is an example of
economic attitude because his motivation of owning that art is in the value of the price itself. But when someone
looks at that piece of art, trying to contemplate now the artist has drawn, wonder at the elements of the art
depicting a theme, and what are the materials he used, such as the quality of ink and canvass is an aesthetic attitude.

SHOW THAT CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT CONTRIBUTES TO HEALTH, WELL-BEING

AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Environment is vital to human beings because it gives us the means to live a quality life and make our lives
meaningful which other sentient beings do not. Specifically, it contributes to our health and well-being. The place
where we stand right now and the things that we see around us are factors that make our life more enhanced
physically with other human beings. Without the environment, our life is unthinkable, that is, no human beings would
be found in this planet. Thus, we need the environment so that our species would lead not to extinction.
 MEANINGS OF HEALTH, WELL-BEING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The first two terms - health and well-beings are not identical. Health, as defined by the World Health
Organization-is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity (Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization 1948). It clearly specifies that health entails
more than physical fitness so that he can have the capacity to relate well with his fellow human persons. But well-
being is more than health. Aside from physical, mental and social aspects, the term well-being includes emotional,
psychological, intellectual, community, spiritual, financial, career, occupational, environmental and economic
(See: http://ravingwellness.com on the difference between wellness and well-being). It tells us only one thing that
well-being is more than just health, for it includes all the things in our surrounding that affect our being. For the
result of well- being is life satisfaction, free from depression and anxiety but with positive moods and
healthy emotions. But this health and well-being that we enjoy at present is the decision of our grandparents
and great-grand-grandparents who kept the environment viable to us. And this calls for our action to do the same for
the future generations. This is an indirect move for to attain health and well-being, we need to balance between our
needs and the availability of resources from the environment. If we maintain this balance, we pass on the goodness
of the environment to the next generation. This is what we call sustainable development. The term sustainable
development was introduced to us in Brundtland Report of 1987 see: https://www.iisd.org/sd/). This report was
presented during the conference in Ontario, Canada to look back on how the country implemented the sustainable
development in the past twenty years. The report defined the term as the "development that meets the needs
or the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It is clearly stated
that the needs we enjoy today are products of decision-making of the past generation, and we are obliged to do the
same for the next generation.