Steven C. Bourassa's theory of landscape aesthetics is introduced and criticized in this paper. Bourassa's theory is a more comprehensive one which regards ”landscape” as aesthetic object and ”landscape aesthetics” as a system of constraints and opportunities. Bourassa has constructured a tripartite paradigm which inc1uded biological, cu1tural and individual aspects and applied to bilolgical laws, cultural rules and personal stratgies of aesthetic experiences. But, Bourassa only gave attention to the genetic dimension of experiences, and lost a more comprehensive perspective which will see ”region” as an environmental aesthetic object. Bourassa does not study landscape aesthetics properly from geopraphical perspective and be suspect of shifting allegiance to philosophical aesthetics.
I regard ”region” as a more important object of environmental aesthetics by examining Bourassa's theory and consider that the relationship between environmental aesthetic experiences and regional geography must be approached. Such a perspective refers to two dimensions: (1) environmental aesthetic experiences, (2) the expression of regional style. On the former, we must give attention to the dialectic of presence/absence which can resolve the absolute dualism on inside/outside and engagement/detachment. On the latter, the expression of regional style shows a hierachical structure-sense of locale, sense of place and locality. Geographers must play a role as artistic historians and critics.
