I am at most times a practical thinker. When it comes to my decision making, I first try to observe the practical advantages and disadvantages of what might come from my decision. One event I’ve been fortunate enough to be party to, stands in the face of all practical thought and reason as to why it should be done, but there is reason for it I assure you. What would the practical thinker find most fault with? I would respond, anything that only stands to put one at risk, has no practical advantages, and always provides for a chance of failure. Take these parameters and you have it; jumping out of an airplane. Riding up to around two miles above the ground and jumping out of a rickety old Cessna with only a paper thin piece of nylon keeping you from reaching terminal velocity and slamming into the hard deck. From a practical point of view, skydiving has no value, but there is value beyond the scope of what is practical and what isn’t.
But what is practicality? An action has practical value if its completion produces a tangible advantage. Practical reasoning discounts non-necessary action in order to achieve maximum production. Practical value is very different from something that may have aesthetic value. Aesthetic value does not necessarily provide a practical advantage, but it allows for the development of the person doing the action. Aesthetic advantages provide for new look on a situation, on the earth itself or an abstract portion of life in general. Watching a flower bloom, or a child stand up may not have any practical applications, but it is my belief that partaking in an action that may be alien to you, develops the character of that being. This character development may potentially outweigh the impracticality of a situation. This is my argument for the value of aesthetics in our practical world.
To assert that aesthetics are inherently separate from practicality would to commit serious fallacy. Perhaps most people would believe that practicality is...