The document discusses the philosophical notion of beauty and aesthetic judgment, noting that beauty has become a discredited notion. It explores Kant's view that aesthetic judgments are normative claims expecting agreement from others, but how can one justify or expect agreement on judgments of taste when the principles governing aesthetic pleasure cannot be established. The document aims to defend aesthetic judgments while acknowledging the flaws in Kant's argument that aesthetic judgments demand universal agreement.
Art and Significant FormFrom Art, 1913. Clive Bell.docxdavezstarr61655
Art and Significant Form
From Art, 1913.
Clive Bell
www.denisdutton.com
It is improbable that more nonsense has been written about aesthetics than about anything else: the literature of the subject is not large enough for that. It is certain, however, that about no subject with which I am acquainted has so little been said that is at all to the purpose. The explanation is discoverable. He who would elaborate a plausible theory of aesthetics must possess two qualities — artistic sensibility and a turn for clear thinking. Without sensibility a man can have no aesthetic experience, and, obviously, theories not based on broad and deep aesthetic experience are worthless. Only those for whom art is a constant source of passionate emotion can possess the data from which profitable theories may be deduced; but to deduce profitable theories even from accurate data involves a certain amount of brain-work, and, unfortunately, robust intellects and delicate sensibilities are not inseparable. As often as not, the hardest thinkers have had no aesthetic experience whatever. I have a friend blessed with an intellect as keen as a drill, who, though he takes an interest in aesthetics, has never during a life of almost forty years been guilty of an aesthetic emotion. So, having no faculty for distinguishing a work of art from a handsaw, he is apt to rear up a pyramid of irrefragable argument on the hypothesis that a handsaw is a work of art. This defect robs his perspicuous and subtle reasoning of much of its value; for it has ever been a maxim that faultless logic can win but little credit for conclusions that are based on premises notoriously false. Every cloud, however, has its silver lining, and this insensibility, though unlucky in that it makes my friend incapable of choosing a sound basis for his argument, mercifully blinds him to the absurdity of his conclusions while leaving him in full enjoyment of his masterly dialectic. People who set out from the hypothesis that Sir Edwin Landseer was the finest painter that ever lived will feel no uneasiness about an aesthetic which proves that Giotto was the worst. So, my friend, when he arrives very logically at the conclusion that a work of art should be small or round or smooth, or that to appreciate fully a picture you should pace smartly before it or set it spinning like a top, cannot guess why I ask him whether he has lately been to Cambridge, a place he sometimes visits.
Edwin Landseer, Monarach of the Glen (1851)
On the other hand, people who respond immediately and surely to works of art, though, in my judgment, more enviable than men of massive intellect but slight sensibility, are often quite as incapable of talking sense about aesthetics. Their heads are not always very clear. They possess the data on which any system must be based; but, generally, they want the power that draws correct inferences from true data. Having received aesthetic emotions from works of art, they are in a position to see.
Roger Scruton explores the concept of beauty in this book. He asks what makes objects in art, nature, or the human form beautiful. Some key questions he addresses are whether there can be dangerous, corrupting, or immoral beauties. Scruton argues that beauty is a real and universal value based in human rational nature. He believes judgments of beauty have an important role to play in shaping the human world.
CHAPTER 10Pleasure, Contemplation, and JudgmentThe field o.docxcravennichole326
CHAPTER 10
Pleasure, Contemplation, and Judgment
The field of aesthetics casts a very wide net. The arts are many, and they happen in different places all over the world. They always have. Our enjoyment, appreciation, and judgment of art—together with the question of what defines art to begin with— are the key elements to consider in aesthetics. The word itself is derived from the Greek Αισθητικη ́ , aisthetikos, meaning “coming from the senses.”
More than any other branch of axiology, that is, of the philosophy of making value judgments, aesthetics has sensuality built into it as much as it has seductive, ineffable quality in its critical analysis. Still, though some philosophers disagree, it is not just a matter of taste.
Aesthetics, Art, and Criticism
You might ask, what is it critics do, exactly? Serious arts critics have to travel, usually a lot. They contemplate paintings in museums all over the world, listen to different orchestras in different concert halls, witness ballet and opera wherever they may come to life. Critics also often serve on juries, observe the impact of social and politi-cal forces on the art of their time, reflect on the art of the past and the art of the future and do so by experiencing that art in person. A literary critic can of course just sit and read a book, and that book will be the same artistic object that everyone elsewhere is reading. But the other arts, especially the performing arts, are different. To analyze painting and sculpture, or theater, music, dance, and opera, the critic has to travel wherever these artistic works may be.
Yes, critics travel. And the toughest journey a critic takes is the vast one from the statement “I like this”’ to “This is good.” The shortest distance between those two points is seldom a straight line.
“Today it goes without saying that nothing concerning art goes without saying. Everything about art has become problematic: its inner life, its relation to society, even its right to exist.”
—Theodor Adorno
One easy way of dividing the arts is between what we like, which must be good, and everything else. On some level, this remains the case even in the most complex aesthetics systems. Blaise Pascal’s clever littler dictum that “the heart has its reasons that reason does not know” is as unsettling as it is true. Say something strikes you as absolutely right in the concert hall, something in the theater has a powerful effect on you. You begin to articulate what you will choose to call the reasons for the work’s success. But maybe your heart still has other reasons; these reasons do not begin to touch. It is in this sense that criticism defines not so much what the work of art is as what happens when we witness it. The act of witnessing is what transforms a work of art standing alone into the object of our aesthetic experience. This is the moment of attention, the vehicle for the journey from the report of a private experi- ence—“I like this”—to the public utterance and jud ...
Air GuitarDave Hickey(from Air Guitar Essays on Art and.docxgalerussel59292
Air Guitar
Dave Hickey
(from Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy, Art issues. Press, 1997)
Colleagues of mine will tell you that people despise critics because they fear our power. But I
know better. People despise critics because people despise weakness, and criticism is the weakest
thing you can do in writing. It is the written equivalent of air guitar—flurries of silent,
sympathetic gestures with nothing at their heart but the memory of the music. It produces no
knowledge, states no facts, and never stands alone. It neither saves the things we love (as we
would wish them saved) nor ruins the things we hate. Edinburgh Review could not destroy John
Keats, nor Diderot Boucher, nor Ruskin Whistler; and I like that about it. It’s a loser’s game, and
everybody knows it. Even ordinary citizens, when they discover you’re a critic, respond as they
would to a mortuary cosmetician—vaguely repelled by what you do yet infinitely curious as to
how you came to be doing it. So, when asked, I always confess that I am an art critic today
because, as a very young person, I set out to become a writer—and did so with a profoundly
defective idea of what writing does and what it entails.
Specifically, I embarked upon a career in writing blithely undismayed by the fact that, as a writer,
I was primarily interested in that which writing obliterates: in the living atmosphere of all that is
shown, seen, touched, felt, smelled, heard, spoken, or sung. I knew this was a peculiar obsession,
of course, but I thought writers were supposed to be peculiar. I thought it was just a “problem,”
that it could be solved, and that, once solved, the enigmatic whoosh of ordinary experience would
become my “great subject”—that I could then proceed to celebrate the ravishing complexity and
sheer intellectual pleasure of simply being alive in the present moment forever after. I thought.
So I began by writing poems, quickly shifted to fiction, abandoned that for pharmaceutically
assisted pastiche, and abandoned that for gonzo reportage—always trying to get out of the book,
trying to get closer to the moment, and always floating farther from it, slamming myself up
against the fact that writing, even the best writing, invariably suppresses and displaces the greater
and more intimate part of any experience that it seeks to express. Ultimately, I would be forced to
admit that all the volumes of Proust were nothing, quantitatively, compared to the twenty-minute
experience of eating breakfast on a spring morning at a Denny’s in Mobile—and that the more
authoritatively and extensively I sought to encode such an experience, the more profoundly it was
obliterated from the immediacy of memory and transported into the imaginary realm of
remembrance, invested with identity, shorn of utility, and polished up as an object of delectation.
I would begin, every time, trying to approximate some fragment of that enigmatic whoosh and
end up, every time, inevitably, writing an edited, imaginary ve.
This document summarizes Edgar Allan Poe's process for writing his famous poem "The Raven." It discusses how Poe first considered the length, tone, and refrain/repetition element. He chose a melancholy tone and the word "Nevermore" as the repetitive refrain. He then developed the plot of a lover lamenting the death of his beloved Lenore, with a raven answering "Nevermore" to the man's questions. Poe explains how he crafted each stanza to vary the questions and emotional impact, building to the climax question about being reunited with Lenore in the afterlife. The document provides insight into Poe's meticulous and mathematical approach to composition.
Argumentative Discourse About Works Of ArtAngela Shin
This document discusses the discourse surrounding works of art and aesthetics. It begins by contrasting the discourse around art with that of science, noting that we can discuss aesthetic properties of art that are different from non-aesthetic properties. It then provides an overview of the history of aesthetics from Kant to the 20th century, highlighting how Kant defined aesthetics without reference to art and how later thinkers like Wittgenstein expanded aesthetic concepts and terms to better describe works of art.
- There is a notable gap between art historians and philosophers in their approaches, with art historians prioritizing specific works and visual analysis while philosophers emphasize abstract concepts.
- However, art has become more philosophical in questioning its own nature and boundaries, calling for collaboration between the disciplines in developing aesthetic theory.
- An interdisciplinary approach combining philosophical concepts and art historical context/specifics can help comprehend art's salient features and the "incomprehensibility" that needs to be understood, as emphasized by Adorno.
This document summarizes John Dewey's philosophy of art from his book Art as Experience. It discusses how Dewey rejects defining art as static objects separated from human experience. Instead, Dewey defines art as a dynamic process of interaction between a viewer and an object. The document outlines Dewey's view that art grows out of ordinary human experiences and aims to enrich experience. It also discusses how habituation and routine can diminish experience, and how art works to restore fullness of experience.
Art and Significant FormFrom Art, 1913. Clive Bell.docxdavezstarr61655
Art and Significant Form
From Art, 1913.
Clive Bell
www.denisdutton.com
It is improbable that more nonsense has been written about aesthetics than about anything else: the literature of the subject is not large enough for that. It is certain, however, that about no subject with which I am acquainted has so little been said that is at all to the purpose. The explanation is discoverable. He who would elaborate a plausible theory of aesthetics must possess two qualities — artistic sensibility and a turn for clear thinking. Without sensibility a man can have no aesthetic experience, and, obviously, theories not based on broad and deep aesthetic experience are worthless. Only those for whom art is a constant source of passionate emotion can possess the data from which profitable theories may be deduced; but to deduce profitable theories even from accurate data involves a certain amount of brain-work, and, unfortunately, robust intellects and delicate sensibilities are not inseparable. As often as not, the hardest thinkers have had no aesthetic experience whatever. I have a friend blessed with an intellect as keen as a drill, who, though he takes an interest in aesthetics, has never during a life of almost forty years been guilty of an aesthetic emotion. So, having no faculty for distinguishing a work of art from a handsaw, he is apt to rear up a pyramid of irrefragable argument on the hypothesis that a handsaw is a work of art. This defect robs his perspicuous and subtle reasoning of much of its value; for it has ever been a maxim that faultless logic can win but little credit for conclusions that are based on premises notoriously false. Every cloud, however, has its silver lining, and this insensibility, though unlucky in that it makes my friend incapable of choosing a sound basis for his argument, mercifully blinds him to the absurdity of his conclusions while leaving him in full enjoyment of his masterly dialectic. People who set out from the hypothesis that Sir Edwin Landseer was the finest painter that ever lived will feel no uneasiness about an aesthetic which proves that Giotto was the worst. So, my friend, when he arrives very logically at the conclusion that a work of art should be small or round or smooth, or that to appreciate fully a picture you should pace smartly before it or set it spinning like a top, cannot guess why I ask him whether he has lately been to Cambridge, a place he sometimes visits.
Edwin Landseer, Monarach of the Glen (1851)
On the other hand, people who respond immediately and surely to works of art, though, in my judgment, more enviable than men of massive intellect but slight sensibility, are often quite as incapable of talking sense about aesthetics. Their heads are not always very clear. They possess the data on which any system must be based; but, generally, they want the power that draws correct inferences from true data. Having received aesthetic emotions from works of art, they are in a position to see.
Roger Scruton explores the concept of beauty in this book. He asks what makes objects in art, nature, or the human form beautiful. Some key questions he addresses are whether there can be dangerous, corrupting, or immoral beauties. Scruton argues that beauty is a real and universal value based in human rational nature. He believes judgments of beauty have an important role to play in shaping the human world.
CHAPTER 10Pleasure, Contemplation, and JudgmentThe field o.docxcravennichole326
CHAPTER 10
Pleasure, Contemplation, and Judgment
The field of aesthetics casts a very wide net. The arts are many, and they happen in different places all over the world. They always have. Our enjoyment, appreciation, and judgment of art—together with the question of what defines art to begin with— are the key elements to consider in aesthetics. The word itself is derived from the Greek Αισθητικη ́ , aisthetikos, meaning “coming from the senses.”
More than any other branch of axiology, that is, of the philosophy of making value judgments, aesthetics has sensuality built into it as much as it has seductive, ineffable quality in its critical analysis. Still, though some philosophers disagree, it is not just a matter of taste.
Aesthetics, Art, and Criticism
You might ask, what is it critics do, exactly? Serious arts critics have to travel, usually a lot. They contemplate paintings in museums all over the world, listen to different orchestras in different concert halls, witness ballet and opera wherever they may come to life. Critics also often serve on juries, observe the impact of social and politi-cal forces on the art of their time, reflect on the art of the past and the art of the future and do so by experiencing that art in person. A literary critic can of course just sit and read a book, and that book will be the same artistic object that everyone elsewhere is reading. But the other arts, especially the performing arts, are different. To analyze painting and sculpture, or theater, music, dance, and opera, the critic has to travel wherever these artistic works may be.
Yes, critics travel. And the toughest journey a critic takes is the vast one from the statement “I like this”’ to “This is good.” The shortest distance between those two points is seldom a straight line.
“Today it goes without saying that nothing concerning art goes without saying. Everything about art has become problematic: its inner life, its relation to society, even its right to exist.”
—Theodor Adorno
One easy way of dividing the arts is between what we like, which must be good, and everything else. On some level, this remains the case even in the most complex aesthetics systems. Blaise Pascal’s clever littler dictum that “the heart has its reasons that reason does not know” is as unsettling as it is true. Say something strikes you as absolutely right in the concert hall, something in the theater has a powerful effect on you. You begin to articulate what you will choose to call the reasons for the work’s success. But maybe your heart still has other reasons; these reasons do not begin to touch. It is in this sense that criticism defines not so much what the work of art is as what happens when we witness it. The act of witnessing is what transforms a work of art standing alone into the object of our aesthetic experience. This is the moment of attention, the vehicle for the journey from the report of a private experi- ence—“I like this”—to the public utterance and jud ...
Air GuitarDave Hickey(from Air Guitar Essays on Art and.docxgalerussel59292
Air Guitar
Dave Hickey
(from Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy, Art issues. Press, 1997)
Colleagues of mine will tell you that people despise critics because they fear our power. But I
know better. People despise critics because people despise weakness, and criticism is the weakest
thing you can do in writing. It is the written equivalent of air guitar—flurries of silent,
sympathetic gestures with nothing at their heart but the memory of the music. It produces no
knowledge, states no facts, and never stands alone. It neither saves the things we love (as we
would wish them saved) nor ruins the things we hate. Edinburgh Review could not destroy John
Keats, nor Diderot Boucher, nor Ruskin Whistler; and I like that about it. It’s a loser’s game, and
everybody knows it. Even ordinary citizens, when they discover you’re a critic, respond as they
would to a mortuary cosmetician—vaguely repelled by what you do yet infinitely curious as to
how you came to be doing it. So, when asked, I always confess that I am an art critic today
because, as a very young person, I set out to become a writer—and did so with a profoundly
defective idea of what writing does and what it entails.
Specifically, I embarked upon a career in writing blithely undismayed by the fact that, as a writer,
I was primarily interested in that which writing obliterates: in the living atmosphere of all that is
shown, seen, touched, felt, smelled, heard, spoken, or sung. I knew this was a peculiar obsession,
of course, but I thought writers were supposed to be peculiar. I thought it was just a “problem,”
that it could be solved, and that, once solved, the enigmatic whoosh of ordinary experience would
become my “great subject”—that I could then proceed to celebrate the ravishing complexity and
sheer intellectual pleasure of simply being alive in the present moment forever after. I thought.
So I began by writing poems, quickly shifted to fiction, abandoned that for pharmaceutically
assisted pastiche, and abandoned that for gonzo reportage—always trying to get out of the book,
trying to get closer to the moment, and always floating farther from it, slamming myself up
against the fact that writing, even the best writing, invariably suppresses and displaces the greater
and more intimate part of any experience that it seeks to express. Ultimately, I would be forced to
admit that all the volumes of Proust were nothing, quantitatively, compared to the twenty-minute
experience of eating breakfast on a spring morning at a Denny’s in Mobile—and that the more
authoritatively and extensively I sought to encode such an experience, the more profoundly it was
obliterated from the immediacy of memory and transported into the imaginary realm of
remembrance, invested with identity, shorn of utility, and polished up as an object of delectation.
I would begin, every time, trying to approximate some fragment of that enigmatic whoosh and
end up, every time, inevitably, writing an edited, imaginary ve.
This document summarizes Edgar Allan Poe's process for writing his famous poem "The Raven." It discusses how Poe first considered the length, tone, and refrain/repetition element. He chose a melancholy tone and the word "Nevermore" as the repetitive refrain. He then developed the plot of a lover lamenting the death of his beloved Lenore, with a raven answering "Nevermore" to the man's questions. Poe explains how he crafted each stanza to vary the questions and emotional impact, building to the climax question about being reunited with Lenore in the afterlife. The document provides insight into Poe's meticulous and mathematical approach to composition.
Argumentative Discourse About Works Of ArtAngela Shin
This document discusses the discourse surrounding works of art and aesthetics. It begins by contrasting the discourse around art with that of science, noting that we can discuss aesthetic properties of art that are different from non-aesthetic properties. It then provides an overview of the history of aesthetics from Kant to the 20th century, highlighting how Kant defined aesthetics without reference to art and how later thinkers like Wittgenstein expanded aesthetic concepts and terms to better describe works of art.
- There is a notable gap between art historians and philosophers in their approaches, with art historians prioritizing specific works and visual analysis while philosophers emphasize abstract concepts.
- However, art has become more philosophical in questioning its own nature and boundaries, calling for collaboration between the disciplines in developing aesthetic theory.
- An interdisciplinary approach combining philosophical concepts and art historical context/specifics can help comprehend art's salient features and the "incomprehensibility" that needs to be understood, as emphasized by Adorno.
This document summarizes John Dewey's philosophy of art from his book Art as Experience. It discusses how Dewey rejects defining art as static objects separated from human experience. Instead, Dewey defines art as a dynamic process of interaction between a viewer and an object. The document outlines Dewey's view that art grows out of ordinary human experiences and aims to enrich experience. It also discusses how habituation and routine can diminish experience, and how art works to restore fullness of experience.
This manifesto outlines the Dada movement's rejection of traditional art forms and established principles. It states that Dada means nothing and was born from a need for independence and distrust of unity. The manifesto criticizes previous art movements like Cubism and Futurism for relying on established theories and principles. It advocates for art that is directly created from raw materials without symbolic or illusionistic elements, and rejects the idea that art should be analyzed or have a higher purpose beyond individual expression. The manifesto concludes that art should be a private matter without systems or theories.
This document summarizes key ideas from John Dewey's work Art as Experience regarding how he defines art. Dewey proposes that art should not be viewed as static objects, but as dynamic experiences and interactions between viewers and objects. He argues we must understand art in its unrefined forms found in everyday life, like watching a fire or construction work, before analyzing refined art forms. Dewey believes separating art from lived experience creates barriers to understanding its significance. His view defines art as a process embedded in how people engage with and find enjoyment in their activities, rather than static objects removed from human experience.
This document summarizes an episode of the online video series Crash Course Philosophy. The episode discusses the questions of what defines art and how aesthetic appreciation works. It covers different views on whether the intention of the artist or the experience of the audience is more important in defining a work as art. The episode also discusses David Hume's view that while aesthetic judgments are subjective, we can develop and learn to have better aesthetic taste or appreciation over time.
The document outlines the differences between the words "farther" and "further," with "farther" relating to physical distance such as miles and "further" relating to an additional degree or extent. It gives examples of each word used in a sentence correctly and provides a link for more
In this module, we consider the work of Viktor Shklovsky and John Dewey as two proponents of the aesthetic as an antidote to habitualized perception and experience.
This document is a student paper submitted to the Department of English comparing criticism and creativity. It discusses how criticism analyzes existing works while creativity brings new works into being. While distinct, the two are interrelated as criticism can be creative and creativity involves critical observation. The document provides examples of writers who were both critics and creatives. It argues that the ideal critic possesses both analytical skills and the vision of an artist to understand a work from its creation. In conclusion, the relationship between criticism and creativity is complex, with each relying on elements of the other.
The document discusses the discipline of art history and how it can help analyze and understand works of art. Art history answers questions about what is depicted, when and where the work was created, who the artist was, how it was made, and why certain stylistic or subject choices were made. Analyzing the formal, technical, sensory and expressive properties of a work can provide insight into its historical and cultural context. The goal of art history is to objectively understand works of art through close examination of their inherent visual qualities and consideration of the circumstances surrounding their creation.
T.S. Eliot's essay discusses the relationship between an individual poet's work and poetic tradition. It argues that the most individual parts of a poet's work may be where the influence of past poets is most evident. The essay also claims that a poet must have a historical sense of the whole of literature that came before them, and that new works of poetry alter the existing order and tradition of literature. Finally, it asserts that the poet's mind acts as a "receptacle" that combines various feelings and experiences into new artistic compounds, rather than directly expressing their own personality.
The student reflects on what they learned in their Humanities 101 course over the semester. They discuss how the course challenged some of their preconceived notions about the humanities and exposed them to new ways of thinking. The student also realized the importance of being open-minded and considering different perspectives on important issues. Overall, the course helped the student gain a broader understanding of the human experience and how to think critically.
When I first started Humanities 101, I'll admit I wasn't too excited about it. As someone who majored in science and tech in high school, the humanities wasn't really my thing.
This document provides an introduction and overview of H.G. Wells' book "A Modern Utopia". It describes the book as a hybrid between fiction and non-fiction, using an imagined "voice" to discuss ideas about utopias and social organization. The owner of the voice is described as a middle-aged man who will take the reader on curious experiences while discussing utopias, though he will periodically return to reviewing ideas at a table. The introduction aims to prepare readers for an unconventional style that blends narrative with philosophical discussion.
This document discusses the dangers of "empty concepts" in education. It argues that many students are rushed through courses without gaining a full understanding of concepts due to lack of relevant experiences. This results in students having boxes of knowledge without substance. The document traces the origins of this issue to ancient thinkers like Euclid and Cicero who viewed manual labor and direct experiences as inferior. It argues education should integrate conceptual learning with hands-on experiences to give concepts "weight" and prevent the accumulation of empty boxes of knowledge.
This document contains a collection of epigraphs and quotes from various authors on the topics of critical theory, creative research, the role of the intellectual, and the relationship between knowledge and society. The quotes address themes like the importance of marginal ideas, the connection between material and meaning in works of art, the role of aesthetics in innovation, and the relationship between solitary contemplation and social engagement.
Critical Theory and Creative Research: Epigraphspncapress
This document contains a collection of epigraphs and quotes from various authors on the topics of critical theory, creative research, the role of the intellectual, and the relationship between knowledge and society. The quotes address ideas like the importance of marginal domains of knowledge, the aesthetic dimensions of innovation, and how our senses are shaped by social and historical forces.
https://sellfy.com/p/jIvF/ (and more)
Basil, son of a father WHO values the family pedigree and WHO wouldn't let him marry below his station, falls crazy initially sight with a lady he sees on a bus. He follows her and discovers she is Margaret Sherwin, solely female offspring of a linen bargainer. He persuades her father to let him marry her on the QT. He agrees on the condition, that, as his female offspring is barely seventeen, they live apart for the primary year. initially the key works, on the other hand the mysterious Mannion, whose emotions can not be browse in his face, returns from abroad. On the last night of the year Basil follows Margaret and Mannion and discovers them in flagrante delicto. Basil attacks Mannion within the street and tries to murder him, however succeeds solely in mutilating his face by pushing it into the recent tarmacadam within the road. Mannion survives, recovers and swears revenge, and it's unconcealed that Basil's father indirectly caused Mannion's father to be hanged for forgery.
Basil repudiates Margaret, however Sherwin threatens him with exposure unless he holds to his wedding. Basil confesses to his father, WHO disowns him, however his sister Clara stands by him. Basil's brother Ralph undertakes to shop for Sherwin off, however in the meantime Margaret flees to Mannion, thereby acknowledging her guilt. Visiting Mannion in hospital, she catches rickettsial disease and dies. Basil, having been placed on her track by Ralph, visits her on her deathbed.
https://sellfy.com/p/jIvF/
The document provides guidance on effective writing styles. It discusses using a personal voice without being informal, focusing on the reader, using short and varied sentence structures, and avoiding long-winded or meaningless language. It emphasizes conveying a clear central message in a style that is accessible to readers.
This document discusses different approaches to literary criticism, including:
1. Classical - Focuses on early theorists like Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, and Horace.
2. Historical/Biographical - Sees works as reflections of authors' lives and times. Requires knowledge of historical/biographical contexts.
3. Moral/Philosophical - Believes literature should teach morality and explore philosophical issues. But can be too judgmental of works' artistic merits.
4. Formalism/New Criticism - A close reading approach focusing on textual elements like imagery, symbols, and form. But ignores contextual influences on the text.
5. Psychological - Applies theories like Freudian
Plato was a famous Greek philosopher born in 427 BC. He founded the Academy in Athens, one of the earliest known institutions of higher learning. His most famous work is The Republic, which uses the allegory of the cave to discuss the relationship between perception and reality. The allegory imagines people chained in a cave their whole lives, seeing only shadows on the cave wall from objects passing behind them. It explores what would happen if one of the prisoners was freed and brought to the outside world. Both The Republic and the allegory of the cave had significant influence on Western philosophy and political thought.
The student reflected on their experience teaching a few sessions for a course at Villanova University as part of their practicum, where they were supervised by Dr. David Dinehart and gained experience in teaching in higher education.
This document discusses Kant's views on affection and the problem of explaining the source of affection in Kant's philosophy. It outlines Hans Vaihinger's "trilemma" which presents three unsatisfactory ways of explaining affection in Kant: 1) the affecting object is the thing in itself, 2) the affecting object is objects in space, or 3) there is a double affection from things in themselves and objects in space. The document analyzes these options and Kant scholars' attempts to resolve the problems and contradictions they present. It argues that both appearances and things in themselves can be seen as the source of affection in Kant and that the key is properly distinguishing the empirical and transcendental discourses.
The document provides instructions for requesting writing assistance from HelpWriting.net. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account; 2) Complete a request form providing instructions, sources, and deadline; 3) Review bids from writers and select one; 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment; 5) Request revisions to ensure satisfaction, with the option of a full refund for plagiarized work.
The document provides instructions for creating an account, submitting a request, and receiving writing assistance on the HelpWriting.net website. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with an email and password. 2) Complete a request form with instructions, sources, and deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and choose one. 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment. 5) Request revisions to ensure satisfaction, with a refund option for plagiarism. The instructions aim to guide users through obtaining writing help on the site.
The document provides instructions for creating an account and submitting a request on the HelpWriting.net website in order to have an assignment written. Users are instructed to complete an order form with details of the assignment, and writers will then bid on the request. The user can then choose a writer, make a deposit, and receive the completed paper which can be revised if needed through the service.
This manifesto outlines the Dada movement's rejection of traditional art forms and established principles. It states that Dada means nothing and was born from a need for independence and distrust of unity. The manifesto criticizes previous art movements like Cubism and Futurism for relying on established theories and principles. It advocates for art that is directly created from raw materials without symbolic or illusionistic elements, and rejects the idea that art should be analyzed or have a higher purpose beyond individual expression. The manifesto concludes that art should be a private matter without systems or theories.
This document summarizes key ideas from John Dewey's work Art as Experience regarding how he defines art. Dewey proposes that art should not be viewed as static objects, but as dynamic experiences and interactions between viewers and objects. He argues we must understand art in its unrefined forms found in everyday life, like watching a fire or construction work, before analyzing refined art forms. Dewey believes separating art from lived experience creates barriers to understanding its significance. His view defines art as a process embedded in how people engage with and find enjoyment in their activities, rather than static objects removed from human experience.
This document summarizes an episode of the online video series Crash Course Philosophy. The episode discusses the questions of what defines art and how aesthetic appreciation works. It covers different views on whether the intention of the artist or the experience of the audience is more important in defining a work as art. The episode also discusses David Hume's view that while aesthetic judgments are subjective, we can develop and learn to have better aesthetic taste or appreciation over time.
The document outlines the differences between the words "farther" and "further," with "farther" relating to physical distance such as miles and "further" relating to an additional degree or extent. It gives examples of each word used in a sentence correctly and provides a link for more
In this module, we consider the work of Viktor Shklovsky and John Dewey as two proponents of the aesthetic as an antidote to habitualized perception and experience.
This document is a student paper submitted to the Department of English comparing criticism and creativity. It discusses how criticism analyzes existing works while creativity brings new works into being. While distinct, the two are interrelated as criticism can be creative and creativity involves critical observation. The document provides examples of writers who were both critics and creatives. It argues that the ideal critic possesses both analytical skills and the vision of an artist to understand a work from its creation. In conclusion, the relationship between criticism and creativity is complex, with each relying on elements of the other.
The document discusses the discipline of art history and how it can help analyze and understand works of art. Art history answers questions about what is depicted, when and where the work was created, who the artist was, how it was made, and why certain stylistic or subject choices were made. Analyzing the formal, technical, sensory and expressive properties of a work can provide insight into its historical and cultural context. The goal of art history is to objectively understand works of art through close examination of their inherent visual qualities and consideration of the circumstances surrounding their creation.
T.S. Eliot's essay discusses the relationship between an individual poet's work and poetic tradition. It argues that the most individual parts of a poet's work may be where the influence of past poets is most evident. The essay also claims that a poet must have a historical sense of the whole of literature that came before them, and that new works of poetry alter the existing order and tradition of literature. Finally, it asserts that the poet's mind acts as a "receptacle" that combines various feelings and experiences into new artistic compounds, rather than directly expressing their own personality.
The student reflects on what they learned in their Humanities 101 course over the semester. They discuss how the course challenged some of their preconceived notions about the humanities and exposed them to new ways of thinking. The student also realized the importance of being open-minded and considering different perspectives on important issues. Overall, the course helped the student gain a broader understanding of the human experience and how to think critically.
When I first started Humanities 101, I'll admit I wasn't too excited about it. As someone who majored in science and tech in high school, the humanities wasn't really my thing.
This document provides an introduction and overview of H.G. Wells' book "A Modern Utopia". It describes the book as a hybrid between fiction and non-fiction, using an imagined "voice" to discuss ideas about utopias and social organization. The owner of the voice is described as a middle-aged man who will take the reader on curious experiences while discussing utopias, though he will periodically return to reviewing ideas at a table. The introduction aims to prepare readers for an unconventional style that blends narrative with philosophical discussion.
This document discusses the dangers of "empty concepts" in education. It argues that many students are rushed through courses without gaining a full understanding of concepts due to lack of relevant experiences. This results in students having boxes of knowledge without substance. The document traces the origins of this issue to ancient thinkers like Euclid and Cicero who viewed manual labor and direct experiences as inferior. It argues education should integrate conceptual learning with hands-on experiences to give concepts "weight" and prevent the accumulation of empty boxes of knowledge.
This document contains a collection of epigraphs and quotes from various authors on the topics of critical theory, creative research, the role of the intellectual, and the relationship between knowledge and society. The quotes address themes like the importance of marginal ideas, the connection between material and meaning in works of art, the role of aesthetics in innovation, and the relationship between solitary contemplation and social engagement.
Critical Theory and Creative Research: Epigraphspncapress
This document contains a collection of epigraphs and quotes from various authors on the topics of critical theory, creative research, the role of the intellectual, and the relationship between knowledge and society. The quotes address ideas like the importance of marginal domains of knowledge, the aesthetic dimensions of innovation, and how our senses are shaped by social and historical forces.
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Basil, son of a father WHO values the family pedigree and WHO wouldn't let him marry below his station, falls crazy initially sight with a lady he sees on a bus. He follows her and discovers she is Margaret Sherwin, solely female offspring of a linen bargainer. He persuades her father to let him marry her on the QT. He agrees on the condition, that, as his female offspring is barely seventeen, they live apart for the primary year. initially the key works, on the other hand the mysterious Mannion, whose emotions can not be browse in his face, returns from abroad. On the last night of the year Basil follows Margaret and Mannion and discovers them in flagrante delicto. Basil attacks Mannion within the street and tries to murder him, however succeeds solely in mutilating his face by pushing it into the recent tarmacadam within the road. Mannion survives, recovers and swears revenge, and it's unconcealed that Basil's father indirectly caused Mannion's father to be hanged for forgery.
Basil repudiates Margaret, however Sherwin threatens him with exposure unless he holds to his wedding. Basil confesses to his father, WHO disowns him, however his sister Clara stands by him. Basil's brother Ralph undertakes to shop for Sherwin off, however in the meantime Margaret flees to Mannion, thereby acknowledging her guilt. Visiting Mannion in hospital, she catches rickettsial disease and dies. Basil, having been placed on her track by Ralph, visits her on her deathbed.
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The document provides guidance on effective writing styles. It discusses using a personal voice without being informal, focusing on the reader, using short and varied sentence structures, and avoiding long-winded or meaningless language. It emphasizes conveying a clear central message in a style that is accessible to readers.
This document discusses different approaches to literary criticism, including:
1. Classical - Focuses on early theorists like Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, and Horace.
2. Historical/Biographical - Sees works as reflections of authors' lives and times. Requires knowledge of historical/biographical contexts.
3. Moral/Philosophical - Believes literature should teach morality and explore philosophical issues. But can be too judgmental of works' artistic merits.
4. Formalism/New Criticism - A close reading approach focusing on textual elements like imagery, symbols, and form. But ignores contextual influences on the text.
5. Psychological - Applies theories like Freudian
Plato was a famous Greek philosopher born in 427 BC. He founded the Academy in Athens, one of the earliest known institutions of higher learning. His most famous work is The Republic, which uses the allegory of the cave to discuss the relationship between perception and reality. The allegory imagines people chained in a cave their whole lives, seeing only shadows on the cave wall from objects passing behind them. It explores what would happen if one of the prisoners was freed and brought to the outside world. Both The Republic and the allegory of the cave had significant influence on Western philosophy and political thought.
The student reflected on their experience teaching a few sessions for a course at Villanova University as part of their practicum, where they were supervised by Dr. David Dinehart and gained experience in teaching in higher education.
This document discusses Kant's views on affection and the problem of explaining the source of affection in Kant's philosophy. It outlines Hans Vaihinger's "trilemma" which presents three unsatisfactory ways of explaining affection in Kant: 1) the affecting object is the thing in itself, 2) the affecting object is objects in space, or 3) there is a double affection from things in themselves and objects in space. The document analyzes these options and Kant scholars' attempts to resolve the problems and contradictions they present. It argues that both appearances and things in themselves can be seen as the source of affection in Kant and that the key is properly distinguishing the empirical and transcendental discourses.
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The document provides instructions for creating an account and submitting a request on the HelpWriting.net website in order to have an assignment written. Users are instructed to complete an order form with details of the assignment, and writers will then bid on the request. The user can then choose a writer, make a deposit, and receive the completed paper which can be revised if needed through the service.
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Here are the key points of support that will be provided for the new Kappa chapter
establishment at Bentley University:
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Importance Of Secondary Speech And English EducJoaquin Hamad
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The passage describes a conversation between a divorcing couple, Lon and Luci, about what it means to be an adult. Lon argues that getting older does not necessarily make someone more responsible or mature. He claims people only pretend to be responsible because that is society's expectation of adulthood. Luci responds that while they are both adults, Lon is still childish in how he argues. The narrator then disagrees with Lon's view, stating that taking on responsibilities like careers and homes is necessary for survival as one ages beyond relying on parents.
The document discusses the emergence of nationalism in the 19th century. It began as a replacement for religion as the main unifying force. The French Revolution is seen as the first emergence of modern nationalism. Renaissance and Protestant Reformation ideas also contributed to rising European nationalism. The document then discusses the recorded history of Bangladesh and how it was ruled by various powers until nationalism grew in the 19th century and fueled movements for independence from British rule.
Why Do You Want To Be An Engineer College EssayJoaquin Hamad
The document provides instructions for requesting writing assistance from HelpWriting.net. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account; 2) Complete an order form providing instructions, sources, and deadline; 3) Review bids from writers and select one; 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment; 5) Request revisions until satisfied. The service aims to provide original, high-quality content and offers refunds for plagiarized work.
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This document provides instructions for creating an account and requesting writing assistance from HelpWriting.net. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with a password and email. 2) Complete a 10-minute order form providing instructions, sources, deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and choose one. 4) Receive the paper and review for quality. 5) Request revisions until satisfied. It emphasizes original, high-quality content and refunds for plagiarized work.
The 25 Best Persuasive Writing Prompts Ideas On PiJoaquin Hamad
The document discusses the process of purchasing and implementing a student management system for the Jefferson County School System (JCSS). JCSS is one of the largest school systems in the US, serving around 10,000 students across multiple elementary, middle, and high schools. In 1976, JCSS purchased a DEC PDP 11/34 computer to develop student management, financial, and other applications. Currently, JCSS uses four Dell servers running UNIX connected by a high-speed network. Previously, all applications were developed internally by the director of data processing and two programmers. A new superintendent, Dr. Harvey Greene, was recently hired and plans to modernize the student management system.
Napoleon was a great military leader who modernized the French army and established the Napoleonic Code. He rose to power as a general during the French Revolution and established himself as emperor of France through a series of military victories across Europe. However, his overconfidence led to his downfall, as he was eventually defeated and exiled due to overextending his armies.
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The document discusses space probes Voyager 1 and 2 and Cassini that were launched in 1977 to investigate the outer planets due to favorable planetary alignment conditions that won't occur again for 175 years. The probes used gravitational assists from planets to propel them further into space as solar energy decreased with distance from the sun. Information collected by the probes advanced understanding of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and their moons.
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The document discusses how to write a perfect paper using the website HelpWriting.net. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account, 2) Complete an order form providing instructions and deadline, 3) Review bids from writers and choose one, 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment, 5) Request revisions if needed, knowing plagiarized work will result in a refund. The website aims to match students with qualified writers to help ensure high-quality, original content papers are produced.
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This document discusses transracial adoption and the debates surrounding it. It provides background on transracial adoption, which involves adopting children of a different race. It notes celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt who have adopted children of varied races. The document also discusses arguments for and against transracial adoption. Those against it argue children may struggle without learning skills to cope with racism from parents of their own race. Those for it argue love and stability in a family are most important, and same-race matching can delay adoption.
This document discusses the importance of media influences on children and teens. It explains that the media plays a large role in creating social norms and influencing people of all ages through advertisements and television. The media tries to sell certain items to children and teens or influence how they act and look. Now, children and teens are constantly exposed to media influences through various platforms that provide opportunities for connection but also shape attitudes and viewpoints.
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This slide is special for master students (MIBS & MIFB) in UUM. Also useful for readers who are interested in the topic of contemporary Islamic banking.
A workshop hosted by the South African Journal of Science aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers with little or no experience in writing and publishing journal articles.
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it describes the bony anatomy including the femoral head , acetabulum, labrum . also discusses the capsule , ligaments . muscle that act on the hip joint and the range of motion are outlined. factors affecting hip joint stability and weight transmission through the joint are summarized.
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Strategies for Effective Upskilling is a presentation by Chinwendu Peace in a Your Skill Boost Masterclass organisation by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan on 08th and 09th June 2024 from 1 PM to 3 PM on each day.
Your Skill Boost Masterclass: Strategies for Effective Upskilling
An Essay On Beauty And Judgment
1. An Essay on Beauty and Judgment*
Alexander Nehamas
Beauty is the most discredited philosophical notion—so discredited that I could not even
find an entry for it in the index of the many books in the philosophy of art I consulted in order to
find it discredited. Even if I believe that beauty is more than the charm of a lovely face, the
seductive grace of a Mapplethorpe photograph, the symmetry of the sonata form, the tight
construction of a sonnet, even if it is, in the most general terms, aesthetic value, I am not spared.
For it is the judgment of aesthetic value itself—the judgment of taste—that is embarrassing. It is
embarrassing ideologically, if to be able to judge aesthetically you must be educated and learned
and if, as Pierre Bourdieu claims, “it is because they are linked either to a bourgeois origin or to
the quasi-bourgeois mode of existence presupposed by prolonged schooling, or (most often) to
both of these combined, that educational qualifications come to be seen as a guarantee of the
capacity to adopt the aesthetic disposition.” And it is embarrassing morally, if, as Martha
Nussbaum asserts, the aesthetic and the moral coincide, if “the activities of imagination and
emotion that the involved reader performs during the time of reading are not just instrumental to
moral conduct, they are also examples of moral conduct, in the sense that they are examples of
the type of emotional and imaginative activity that good ethical conduct involves” and if, when a
work of art is marred by what she calls “ethical deficiencies,” “we may… decide to read [it] for
historical interest or for rhetorical and grammatical interest.” The aesthetic judgment collapses
into an instrument of political oppression or into an implement of moral edification. In either
case, beauty disappears. It is either the seductive mask of evil or the attractive face of goodness.
But is beauty anything on its own? Is aesthetic judgment at all legitimate? Do we express
anything more than a purely personal opinion when we judge that something is beautiful or
aesthetically valuable? That was the question Kant posed for himself in his Critique of Judgment,
the work to which all modern philosophy of art is a response. Kant may have had too simple a
picture of aesthetic value in mind—a pleasing unity, as Richard Rorty has written, adopted by
the New Critics and contrasted to the romantic version of Harold Bloom, for whom “the degree
of aesthetic value is the degree to which something is done that was never done before, the extent
to which human imagination has been expanded.” But even if these two versions of aesthetic
value are distinct (and, in the end, I believe they are not), they are both suspect for the same
reason.
Here is a very rough picture of aesthetic judgment. I am exposed to a work of art; it can
be as short and simple as a three-minute rock song, a two-stanza lyric poem, or a thirty-minute
episode of Seinfeld, or as long and complex as Goya’s Los Caprichos, Dennis Potter’s The
Singing Detective, Wagner’s Ring, or Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. I may wallow in the
work, allow it to sweep over me, or study and analyze it carefully over a long time. At some
point, in some cases, the features of the work, which can range from the simplest elements of
beat, meter, or color to the most complex combinations of structures, depictions of character, or
views of the world, produce in me a feeling which, for lack of a better name, I call pleasure. That
*
From The Threepenny Review, Winter 2000.
2. pleasure is the basis on which I say that the work is funny, moving, elegant, sweeping,
passionate, unprecedented—in a word (or two) beautiful or aesthetically valuable.
The trouble is that it has proved impossible to establish the principles that govern the
production of aesthetic pleasure. We have never found any features that explain why things that
possess them create aesthetic delight. That is not simply because we disagree about beauty with
one another, that you despise what I like while I find your tastes disgusting. I cannot even find
such reasons for myself. Reasons are general. If a feature explains why something attracts me in
one case, it should do so in all. Yet whenever I appeal to something to explain why I like
something, I know that the same feature may hurt a different work: the obsessive observation of
social detail which gives such power to Remembrance of Things Past is just boring in the diaries
of the Goncourt brothers; the long-lasting sexual tension between Niles and Daphne in Frasier is
the subject of some of the series’ best scenes over a number of seasons, while the sexual tension
between Billy and Ally was deadly after two episodes of Ally McBeal. But if social detail or
sexual tension explains why I like Proust or Frasier, how can it also explain why I hate the
Goncourts and Ally McBeal? There is not in all the world’s criticism a single descriptive
statement concerning which I am willing to say in advance, “If it is true, I shall like that work so
much the better.” If I know that something is yellow, ductile, malleable, and soluble in aqua
regia, then I know that it is gold. But though I know that it is gold, as Socrates proved to Hippias
in Plato’s dialogue, I still have no idea whether or not it is beautiful. Kant expressed this problem
by saying that aesthetic judgment does not depend on concepts.
Still, he insisted, it is a genuine judgment nonetheless. It is more than an expression of
purely personal feeling, more than simply saying that I like a work of art. The aesthetic judgment
is a normative claim; it says that the work should be liked. Although my reaction is based on a
feeling, it is not beyond reason. I expect agreement. I am often upset when others, especially
people who matter to me, withhold it. Kant writes that although “there can be no rule by which
anyone should be compelled to acknowledge that something is beautiful,” aesthetic judgments
still speak with a “universal voice…and lay claim to the agreement of everyone.” But how can I
convince you that something is beautiful if there is no reason for my reaction? How can I even
expect your agreement if I have no idea how you, and the rest of the world, actually feel? Kant
therefore concluded that we have a right to make aesthetic judgments only if we can answer the
question, “How is a judgment possible which, merely from one’s own feeling of pleasure in an
object, independent of its concept, estimates a priori, that is, without having to wait upon the
agreement of others, that this pleasure is connected with the representation of the object in every
other subject?” How can I know that my feeling is right and that everyone should share it? The
Critique of Judgment was Kant’s effort to answer that question.
It was a magnificent effort, but flawed; and its failure has haunted modern aesthetics as
well as contemporary education. If we cannot justify aesthetic judgments, then we must either
stop making them or show, as Bourdieu and Nussbaum try to do, that they are really about
something else. I want to defend aesthetic judgments, but I also believe that Kant was bound to
fail, for two reasons. One is that he was right to say that no features can ever explain why an
object is beautiful. The other is that he was wrong to say that the judgment of taste demands
everyone’s agreement. That may seem like retreating to the starkest subjectivism, turning
aesthetic judgment into a purely idiosyncratic reaction I have no right to impose on anyone else.
I hope to convince you that it is not.
3. Cicero’s De Oratore, the founding text of humanism, discusses the question whether
reading the works of the Greeks (the equivalent of a humanistic education in Rome) makes one a
better citizen. Cicero had his doubts, and so have I. But the work shows that a fundamental
assumption of Roman education still governs our own. Roman children reading Greek texts went
through four stages: lectio, elementary reading, dividing words, inserting punctuation, and
memorizing; emendatio, deciding the authenticity of the parts of the text, making corrections,
and exercising their critical skills; enarratio, during which critical activity extended to
commentary on words, lines, and longer passages; and finally judicium, when they determined
the text’s aesthetic and literary value. Those who avoid evaluation and limit criticism to
interpretation do so because they do not see, with Kant, how interpretation can justify a judgment
of value. And though everyone agrees that interpretation and evaluation cannot be clearly
distinguished, I know almost no one who would reject the commonplace that “an evaluation can
only be argued for by means of a detailed description and interpretation of a work.” The final end
of criticism is agreement in judicium, in the aesthetic judgment of value. Criticism is complete
when critic and audience, teacher and student, reach a communion of vision, a unity of feeling, a
shared assessment of value.
The moment we put the point this way we see that it cannot be right. A shared assessment
of value has never stopped criticism. On the contrary, if you and I agree that The Magic
Mountain is a great novel, we will go on discussing it in greater and greater detail, often
disagreeing precisely about what is great about it. And if agreement on value is not the end of
criticism, we can also see why Kant was right that the judgment of taste is not governed by
concepts. That was not because the concept of the beautiful or the nature of the judgment is
peculiar, but because, I want to suggest to you, the judgment of taste is simply not a conclusion
we draw from interacting with, describing, or interpreting works of art.
I want to turn our common picture around. The judgment of beauty is not the result of a
mysterious inference on the basis of features of a work which we already know. It is a guess, a
suspicion, a dim awareness that there is more in the work that it would be valuable to learn. To
find something beautiful is to believe that making it a larger part of our life is worthwhile, that
our life will be better if we spend part of it with that work. But a guess is just that: unlike a
conclusion, it obeys no principles; it is not governed by concepts. It goes beyond all the
evidence, which cannot therefore justify it, and points to the future. Beauty, just as Stendhal said,
is a promise of happiness. We love, as Plato saw, what we do not possess. Aesthetic pleasure is
the pleasure of anticipation, and therefore of imagination, not of accomplishment. The judgment
of taste is prospective, not retrospective; the beginning, the middle, but never the end of
criticism. If you really feel you have exhausted a work, you are bound to be disappointed. A
piece that has no more surprises left—a piece you really feel you know “inside and out”—has no
more claim on you. You may still call it beautiful because it once gave you the pleasure of its
promise or because you think that it may have something to give to someone else. But it will
have lost its hold on you. Beauty beckons.
What you come to see as a result of such beckoning you come to see for yourself.
Odysseus had to listen to the sirens’ song on his own, not through the ears of one of his sailors. I
can talk to you forever—or close to it—about Socrates, Proust, The Magic Mountain, Pale Fire,
Wagner’s Ring, Don Giovanni, Los Caprichos, St. Elsewhere, or Frasier, but even if you learn
4. my account perfectly, it will never be yours unless you work it out for yourself, directly
interacting with the work.
An aesthetic feature cannot be reproduced unless the whole work whose feature it is is
itself reproduced. Unlike some of the endless philosophical conversations of Socrates in Plato’s
dialogues, the endless philosophical disquisitions of Naphta and Settembrini in The Magic
Mountain cannot be detached from the novel and appreciated for what they are because they are
what they are only within the novel itself. That is another way of saying that the more we love it
for itself, the more we know it in itself, in its own particularity. That is the only truth in Matthew
Arnold’s formula that the object of criticism is “to see the object as in itself it really is.” The
point has nothing to do with objectivity or reality: it has everything to do with individuality.
Aesthetic features are so specific that they only belong to one work. That’s what it means to say
that it is not any sexual tension that makes Frasier delectable, but “the particular” tension that
binds Niles and Daphne to one another—a tension you have to see for yourself, although of
course there is much more to it than meets the eye.
I am afraid that my description of the particularity of aesthetic pleasure may have left you
with an image of Odysseus tied to his mast, isolated from his deaf comrades, listening to the
sirens, who make the only sound in that isolated world. Each one of us comes to each work
alone, drawing a line between ourselves and the work on one side and the rest of the world on the
other. Harold Bloom sometimes seems to have such an image in mind:
The reception of aesthetic power enables us to learn how to talk to ourselves and how to endure
ourselves. The true use of Shakespeare or of Cervantes, of Homer or of Dante, of Chaucer or of Rabelais, is
to augment one’s own growing inner self. Reading deeply in the Canon will not make one a better or a
worse person, a more useful or more harmful citizen. The mind’s dialogue with itself is not primarily a
social reality. All that the Western Canon can bring one is the proper use of one’s own solitude, that
solitude whose final form is one’s confrontation with one’s own mortality.
Aesthetic power has nothing to do with citizenship and morality in any art. But must we
think, therefore, that art requires that sort of isolation? Must we contrast the public and the
private so starkly that we can only choose between society as a whole and the single individual?
Earlier, I rejected Kant’s view that the judgment of taste demands that everyone agree with it; I
still denied that this was subjectivism. For when I say that The Magic Mountain is beautiful, that
my life would be more worthwhile if it were to include it, I also say that the lives of some at least
of the people I care for would be more worthwhile on its account. And, further, I say that there
are people I don’t know, whose lives are made more worthwhile by that book, and that I would
care for them if I knew them. To find The Magic Mountain beautiful is to imagine that the novel
is the focus of a community to which I want to belong, a community I want partially to form by
my interpretation of the work and by whose views I want in turn to be formed. That is certainly
not society as a whole—no one would want the whole world to like the same things even if that
were possible. Its concerns are not social but personal, something between the strictly private and
the fully public. Beauty requires communication. Harold Bloom describes a solitary encounter,
but like everyone who is in love with a book or a picture, he can’t wait to tell us about it. In
5. telling us about it, he participates in a community he is in the very process of creating. And those
who are moved by his sense of the beautiful will respond in turn, in a never-ending conversation.
The conversation is never-ending partly because beauty, as I said, is a promise, an
anticipation, a hope as yet unfulfilled. To find something beautiful is, precisely, not yet to have
finished with it, to think it has something further to offer. But also because the more we come to
know the beautiful thing itself, the more we come to know other things as well. Bloom talks of
reading “deeply”: I distrust that word, with its suggestion that there is a rock-bottom. Think
instead of reading, or looking, or listening, as a broadening of vision. The better you come to
know something you love in itself, the better you understand how it differs from everything else,
how it does something that has never been done before. But the better you understand that, the
more other things you need to know in order to compare them to what you love and to
distinguish it from them. And the better you know those things, the more likely you are to find
that some of them, too, are beautiful, which will start you all over again in an ever-widening
circle of new communities and new things to say. It is a dangerous game, pursuing the beautiful.
You may never be able to stop.
Kant is famous for believing that you must never break a promise, whatever the
consequences. Beauty has no such compunctions. Like everything that beckons, beauty is risky
and dangerous. It may disappoint and hurt. Worse, it may cause harm by fulfilling its promise. I
may find beautiful what others consider disgusting and ugly; I may be tempted to find beauty in
something about which I am myself of two minds; or I may just have made the wrong choice.
Spending time with such a thing, with other things like it, with other people who like it as well
will have an effect on me which I cannot predict in advance. Once that effect is in place, I may
have changed into someone I would not have wanted to be before I began. But I may now no
longer be able to see that what I am, perhaps, is perverted. How can I tell if I have followed the
right course? Which standards should I apply to myself? Those I accepted when I believed, as I
once did, that television is vulgar, disgusting, commercial, and boring, or those that now make
Homicide a worthy competitor to Ian McEwan? Another hour with the scathing social satire of
Los Caprichos or a look at the searing sarcasm of Garry Shandling?
That is another reason why Platonists have always feared the new and transgressive.
Plato, of course, was always a step ahead of his followers. He wrote of “the ancient quarrel
between poetry and philosophy” precisely to mask the fact that philosophy did not even exist
until he composed The Republic, where he first announces the quarrel, and that it was he who
was on the side of the new and against the traditional. But his brilliant move has made his
adherents think of themselves as protectors of tradition against perverse innovation. Compared to
Milton and Shakespeare, Coleridge wrote,
I will run the risk of asserting that where the reading of novels prevails as a habit, it occasions in
time the entire destruction of the powers of the mind: it is such an utter loss to the reader, that it is not so
much to be called pass-time as kill-time. It…provokes no improvement of the intellect, but fills the mind
with a mawkish and morbid sensibility, which is directly hostile to the cultivation, invigoration, and
enlargement of the nobler powers of the understanding.
6. But as to Shakespeare himself, that is how Henry Prynne thought of the typical audience
of Elizabethan theater:
Adulterers, Adulteresses, Whore-masters, Whores, Bawdes, Panders, Ruffians, Roarers,
Drunkards, Prodigals, Cheaters, idle, infamous, base, profane, and godlesse persons, who hate all grace, all
goodnesse, and make a mock of piety.
Aesthetic and moral terms are often used together in denouncing arts that are new,
transgressive, or popular. But the moral dangers of art are small, and so are its benefits. That is
not because the arts do not address situations of moral significance. But to derive a general
lesson from those situations is to stop much too soon, before you see them in their full
particularity; and once you do, you will not be able to use them. The mark of great works, in the
end, may be the mark Nietzsche once attributed to great human beings: “One misunderstands
[them],” he wrote, “if one views them from the miserable perspective of some public use. That
one cannot put them to any use, that in itself may belong to greatness.” If you believe, as I heard
someone say in all seriousness, that Agamemnon’s anguish at having to butcher his daughter on
the altar of Artemis so that the Greek fleet can set sail in Euripides’ Iphigeneia in Aulis
illuminated her anguish over whether to attend a faculty meeting or her daughter’s school play,
then you stopped too early and learnt too little from tragedy. And if you learn more, you will
learn something too special and also too alien to apply to your everyday life. You will have
become more complex, subtle, nuanced, unusual, individual, more open to different ways of
thinking and feeling—but certainly not, for those reasons, a better mother. Perhaps you will even
be, just for those reasons, worse on that front. Moral behavior requires perceiving the ways in
which people are like one another and deserve to be treated the same. Aesthetic perception aims
to discern difference, to acknowledge individuality, to recognize what has never before been
accomplished, and perhaps to produce it. As the fifth of A.J. Verdelle’s Six Prayers, the one she
calls “For Culture,” says, “May we never have a universal language. May the lilt and trip of
sister lands and brother lexicons cause us to lean forward, to cup our ears, to strain to
understand.”
Beauty leads further into the individual features of things at the same time that it requires
a constant comparison of each individual with everything else. It is only by seeing exactly how a
work is close enough to the conventions of its time to be recognizable as a work in the first place
that we can begin to see how it is also distant enough to stand on its own and to invite further
interpretation in order to be seen for what it is. To stand on its own, it must have a discernible
structure, a narrative unity that gives it its own character among the many things it resembles.
Whatever does something that has never been done before also has its own unmistakable
arrangement. That—for these two really are one—is what makes it an individual.
It is possible that spending a life, or part of a life, in the pursuit of beauty—even if only
to find it, not to produce it—gives that life a beauty of its own. For in the end the standard by
which I can judge whether my choices of what to pursue were the right ones or not is whether
they turned me into an individual in my own right. That is a question of style. If there is
coherence in my aesthetical choices, in the objects I like, in the groups I belong to, in my reasons
for choosing as I do, then I have managed to put things together in my own manner and form. I
7. have developed, out of the things I have loved, my own style, a new way of doing things—and
that is the only truth in Oscar Wilde’s subversion of Arnold: “the primary aim of the critic,” he
wrote, “is to see the object as in itself it really is not…To the critic, the work of art is simply a
suggestion for a new work of his own, that need not necessarily bear any obvious resemblance to
the thing it criticizes.” Consider “the new work” not as a single work of criticism, but as the self
we become as a result of all the works we admire and criticize, and Wilde—who thought his life
was his greatest work of art—turns out to be less wild than he has seemed.