Readings in the History of Æsthetics

An Open-Source Reader

Ver. 0.11

Lee Archie

John G. Archie

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Image Credits. The following images have been determined to be of fair use or in the public domain.

Antiquities Project. Immanuel Kant.

Antonio, A. Summa theologica, Franz Renner e Niccolè da Francoforte. 1474. Summa Theologica, III.

Antonio, S. Summa theologica, Venezia, Niccolò Jenson. 1477. Summa Theologica, II.

Centre for Social Philosophy. University of Pavia Galleries. Jean-Paul Sartre; Benetto Croce.

Cary, Elizabeth Luther. William Morris, Poety, Craftsman, Socialist. London: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1902. William Morris frontspiece; Acanthus 61; Kelmscott Monor House 100.

Columbia University. Arthur C. Danto.

Didacus Valades, Rhetorica Christiana, 1579. Great Chain of Being.

Duykinck, Evert A. History of the World from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. New York: Johnson, Fry and Company, 1869-1871. Athens from the Ilysus, 380. Porus before Alexander, 461.

Duykinck, Evert A. A Portrait Gallery of Eminent Men and Women of Europe and America, with Biographies. New York: Johnson, Wilson and Company, 1872-1874. 2 vol. Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Friedrich Schiller, William Wordsworth.

EpistemeLinks.com. George Santayana.

Faith, William Powell. The Railway Station. 1862.

Frances Loeb Library. Harvard University. Aldred, J. E. Estate Formal Garden, [mhsdalad 160120].

Galleri degli Uffizi, Florence. Giotto di Bondone, Ognissanti Madonna (detail) c. 1310; Cimabue, The Madonna in Majesty (detail) 1285-6.

Geldsetzer, Lutz. Philosophengalerie: Bildnesse &Bibliographien von Philosophen aus dem 11-17 Jahrhundert.. Philosophisches Institut der Heinrich-Heine-Universität. Thomas Aquinas.

Jerdan, William. Engravings of 18th and 19th Century British Portraits. London: Fisher, Son & Jackson, 1830-1834. 5 Vol. Edmund Burke, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Sir Joshua Reynolds, self-portrait.

Lamb, Henry. Clive Bell (adapted).

Library of Congress: P&P Online Catalog. Photographs of Athens, Greece 400 BC (detail) Theodor Horydazak, [LC-H814-T-2654-002-x]; Joseph Addsion [LC-USZ62-1151184], Chinese Garden [LC-G612-37175], Wuhan University, Wuchang, China, [LC-USZ62-121748]; Trinty College, Oxford University, [LC-DIG-ppmsc-08773];Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire Lithograph of Carmontelle painting, [LC-USZ62-72043], University of Glasgow [LC-DIG-ppmsc-07600], Devon, England LC-DIG-ppmsc-08542], Interior of House of Commons (Parliament House) [LC-USZ62-97721], Castle, Königsberg, Prussia [LC-DIG-ppmsca-00739], Schiller Statue, Stuttgard Palace [LC-USZ62-109085], Carrara Quarry for Italy's Master Sculptures [LC-USZ62-73500], Tübingen, Würtenburg, Germany [LC-DIG-ppmsca-01197], Arthur Schopenhauer [LC-DIG-ppmsca-00753], The Great Bridge, Danzig, West Prussia [LC-DIG-ppmsca-00753], Birth-day Ode, Royal Band [LC-USZ62-45437], University of Bonn, The Rhine [LC-DIG-ppmsca-00789], John Stuart Mill [LC-USZ62-76491], Leo Tolstoy 1828-1910 [LC-USZ62-67518], In Iasnaia Poliana [LC-DIG-proke-20160], Il Posilippo and Waterfront, Naples [LC-DIG-ppmsc-06574], Puerta del Sol, Heart of Madrid [LC-USZ62-99648], Sigmund Freud [LC-USZ61-2065], Front: Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, C.G. Jung; Back: A.A. Brill, Ernest Jones, Sandor Ferenczi [LC-USZ62-9457].

Library of Congress Rare Book & Special Collections Division. Isaac Newton, Philosophiciae naturalis principia mathematica, London: Royal Society, 3rd. ed., 1726 (123.1). Handwritten page from Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis Manuscript Division.

MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive. University of St. Andrews. Plato; Plato's Academy; Aristotle.

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Oberlin College. Allen Memorial Art Museum. Brillo Boxes, Andy Warhol.

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Pics4Learning. Giza, Egypt, Mary Wagner; British Museum, Dr. Steve Canipe.

Projekt Gutenberg-DE. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling; G.W.F. Hegel; Frederich Nietzsche.

Portraits of Well-known Economists. The Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University. Jeremy Bentham; August Comte.

Thoemmes Continuum. History of Ideas Portrait Gallery: Voltaire; David Hume; Edmund Burke; Percy Bythe Shelley; Herbert Spencer; Samuel Alexander.

Thompson, Pishey. The History and Antiquities of Boston. London: Longman. 1853. Painted Window East End of Boston Church.

University of Glasgow Collection. Francis Hutcheson. Adapted from an oil painting by Alan Ramsay. c.1740.

Wikipedia. Horace; Tacitus.

Wright, Thomas. The Life of Walter Pater. New York: Putnam. 1907. Walter Pater; Pater's Residence, Oxford.

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Table of Contents
"Preface"
Why Open Source?
A Note about Selections
1. "Art as Imitation and the Form of Beauty" by Plato
Ideas of Interest from The Republic and The Symposium
The Reading Selection from The Republic
[The Artist as Imitator]
[The Three Arts]
[Two Principles of Soul]
[The Dangers of Poetry]
The Reading Selection from the Symposium
[Love as a Mean]
[Why Beauty Is Desired]
[The Eternal Nature of Love]
[Creation and Science of Beauty]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
2. "Art As Idealization" by Aristotle
Ideas of Interest from Aristotle's Æsthetics
Æsthetic Selections
Nicomachean Ethics Bk. II [Æsthetic Standards]
Metaphysics
Poetics
Rhetoric Bk. I [Beauty Relative to Us]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
3. "Authentic Beauty Is Not Sensuous" by Plotinus
Ideas of Interest from The Enneads
The Reading Selection from The Enneads
1. [Beauty Is Not Based on Symmetry or Pattern]
2. [The Source of Beauty in the World]
3. [Unity in Diversity]
4. [Beauty Induces the Spirit of Love]
5. [The Ugly As Descent Into Matter]
6. [Sophrosyne]
7. [The Struggle for the Absolute Beauty of the Good]
8. [Inner Vision]
9. [Training the Soul]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
4. "Beauty is a Kind of Knowledge" by Thomas Aquinas
Ideas of Interest from Summa Theologica
The Reading Selection from Summa Theologica
I, Q5 Of Goodness in General, A1 Whether goodness and being are the same really?
I, Q5 of Goodness in General, A4 Whether goodness has the aspect of a final cause?
I, Q5 Of Goodness in General, A6 Whether goodness is divided into the virtuous, the useful and the pleasant?
Part I, Question 39 Of Persons in Relation to the Essence, Article 8 Which attributes shoud be be appropriated to each person?
I, Q91 The Production of the First Man's Body, A3 Whether the body of man was given an apt disposition?
II, First Part, Q2 Of Those Things in Which Man's Happiness Consists, Q6 Whether man's happiness consists in pleasure?
II, First Part, Q27 A1 Whether good is the only cause of love?
II, First Part, Q27 Of the Cause of Love, A2 Whether knowledge is a cause of love?
II, Second Part, Q145 Of Honesty, A2 Whether the honest is the same as the beautiful?
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
5. "Pleasures of the Imagination" by Joseph Addison
Ideas of Interest from The Spectator
The Reading Selection from The Spectator
No. 411. Saturday, June 21, 1712. [Pleasures of the Imagination]
No. 412. Monday, June 23, 1712. [Sources of Pleasures]
No. 413. Tuesday, June 24, 1712. [Final Causes of Beauty]
No. 414. Wednesday, June 25, 1712. [The Art of Nature]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
6. "The Sense of Beauty" by Francis Hutcheson
Ideas of Interest from Hutcheson's Inquiry
The Reading Selection from Hutcheson's Inquiry
Section I: Concerning some Powers of Perception, distinct from what is generally understood by Sensation.
Section II: Of Original or Absolute Beauty
Section III: Of the Beauty of Theorems
Section IV: Of Relative or Comparative Beauty
Section VI: Of the Universality of the Sense of Beauty Among Men
Section VII: Of the Power of Custom, Education, and Example, as to our Internal Senses
Section VIII: Of the Importance of the Internal Senses in Life, and the Final Causes of Them
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
7. "Æsthetic Principles Are Not Universal" by Voltaire
Ideas of Interest from "Beauty"
The Reading Selection from "Beauty"
[Beauty Varies]
[Beauty Not Teleological]
[Beauty Often Relative]
[Beauty In Morality Often Universal]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
8. "Æsthetic Principles Are Universal" by David Hume
Ideas of Interest from Of the Standard of Taste
[The Reading Selection from Of the Standard of Taste]
[Standards of Taste]
[Principle of Natural Equality of Tastes is Mistaken]
[Rules of Art Not Fixed by Reason But Experience]
[The Proper Sentiment of Beauty]
[Æsthetic Sentiment Is Improved Through Education]
[Scientific Standards More Disputed]
[Sources of Varaiation in Standards]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
9. "Art is Ideal Imitation" by Joshua Reynolds
Ideas of Interest from Discourses On Art
The Reading Selection from Discourses on Art: VII
[Learning the Science of Art]
[Artistic Taste]
[Criticism: Two Kinds of Truth]
[Principles of Art]
[Standards of Taste]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
10. "Taste Is Universal" by Edmund Burke
Ideas of Interest from "On Taste"
The Reading Selection from "On Taste"
[Logic of Taste]
[Senses of All Persons Are Similar]
[The Power of Imagination]
[How Differences in Tastes Arise]
[Definition of Taste]
[Taste Is Not a Unique Faculty]
Of the Sublime
The Sublime and Beautiful Compared
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
11. "Æsthetic Judgements are Necessary" by Immanuel Kant
Ideas of Interest from "Analytic of the Beautiful"
The Reading Selection from "Analytic of the Beautiful"
First Moment. Of the Judgment of Taste:[1] Moment of Quality
Second Moment. Of the Judgment of Taste: Moment of Quantity.
Third Moment. Of Judgements of Taste: Moment of the Relation of the Ends brought under Review in such Judgements.
Fourth Moment. Of the Judgement of Taste: Moment of the Modality of the Delight in the Object.
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
12. "Art as Living Form" by Frederich Schiller
Ideas of Interest: Æsthetical Education of Man
The Reading Selection from Æsthetical Education of Man
Letter I [Morality and The Beautiful]
Letter II [Æsthetics Entails Political Freedom]
Letter VII [The Faculties of Understanding and Sensibility]
Letter XI [Sensuous-Rational Nature of Man]
Letter XII [Sensation Is Temporal; Formal Is Eternal]
Letter XIII [Human Nature and Culture]
Letter VIX [The Play Instinct]
Letter XV [Beauty, Common Object of the Play Instinct]
Letter XXVI [The Condition of Humanity]
Letter XXVII [Art Necessary for Free Social Order]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
13. "Art Expresses the Universal" by Friedrich Wilhelm von Schelling
Ideas of Interest from Über das Verhältnis der bildenden Künste zu der Natur
The Reading Selection from Über das Verhältnis der bildenden Künste zu der Natur
[Imitation Theory of Art is Mistaken]
[Creative Principle]
[Art and Nature]
[The Essence of Beauty: the Universal in the Particular]
[Passion]
[Soul]
[Gradations in Art]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
14. "Art is a Mode of Absolute Spirit" by G.W.F. Hegel
Ideas of Interest from The Philosophy of Fine Art and Lectures on Æsthetics
The Reading Selection from The Philosophy of Fine Art and Lectures on Æsthetics
The Philosophy of Fine Art—Introduction
Lectures on Æsthetics—Introduction: Development of the Ideal in the Special Forms Of Art
Part I Of the Symbolic Form of Art
Part II Of the Ideal of Classic Art
Part III Of the Romantic Form of Art
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
15. "Art Transcends Suffering" by Arthur Schopenhauer
Ideas of Interest from The World as Will and Idea
The Reading Selection from The World as Will and Idea
[Two Kinds of Knowledge: Science and Art]
[The Pure Idea of Art]
[Æsthetic Contemplation]
[Respite from the Will]
[Will-less Perception of Nature vs. Will-ful Perception of Relation]
[World of Idea]
[Æsthetic Contemplation and the Sublime]
[Nature of the Beautiful]
[Two Kinds of Æsthetic Impression]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
16. "Art as Intrinsic Personal Feeling" by John Stuart Mill
Ideas of Interest from "Thoughts on Poetry and Its Varieties"
The Reading Selection "Thoughts on Poetry and Its Varieties"
[Part I]
[Part II]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
17. "Music Is The Language of Emotion" by Herbert Spencer
Ideas of Interest from "On the Origin and Function of Music"
The Reading Selection from "On the Origin and Function of Music"
[The Connection Between Emotion and Music]
[Loundess]
[Timbre]
[Pitch]
[Intervals]
[Variation]
[Theory of Music]
[Other Vocal Qualities]
[Music is Emotional Language]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
18. "Æsthetics as Life's Affirmation" by Frederich Nietzsche
Ideas of Interest from The Will to Power
The Reading Selection from The Will to Power
¶ 1 Apollonian, Dionysian
¶ 2 [Antagonism of the Two Conditions]
¶ 3 [Beauty]
¶ 4 [Intoxication of Love]
¶ 5 Pessimism in Art?
¶ 6 Romanticism and Its Opposite
¶7 What is Tragic?
¶ 8 The Tragic Artist
¶ 9 Art in the "Birth of Tragedy"
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
19. "Art is the Pleasure in Work" by William Morris
Ideas of Interest from "The Aims of Art"
The Reading Selection from "The Aims of Art"
[The Moods of Man]
[Growth of Industry and Decline of Art]
[Capitalism and Disappearing Art]
[The Rediscovery of Art]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
20. "Art Evokes Feeling" by Leo Tolstoy
Ideas of Interest from What Is Art?
The Reading Selection from What Is Art?
Chapter V [Art As Communication of Feeling]
[Art Is Not Simply Expression]
[Some Harmful Conceptions of Art]
Chapter XV [Genuine Art]
[Conditions of Excellence in Art]
Chapter XVI [Purpose of Art]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
21. "Art is Emotion" by Walter Pater
Ideas of Interest from The Renaissance
The Reading Selection from The Renaissance
Preface [Æsthetic Criticism]
Conclusion [The Flux of Life]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
22. "Art is Expression" by Benedetto Croce
Ideas of Interest from The Essence and Æsthetic
The Reading Selection from The Essence and Æsthetic
I. Art as Intuition
II. Intuition and Expression
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
23. "Beauty as Intrinsic Pleasure" by George Santayana
Ideas of Interest from The Sense of Beauty
The Reading Selection from The Sense of Beauty
[Theory of Values]
[Preference is Irrational]
[Moral and Æsthetic Values]
[Work and Play]
[All Values Æsthetic]
[General Principles]
[Physical Pleasures]
[Disinterestedness Not Essential]
[Æsthetic Pleasure Not Universal]
[Objectification of Pleasure]
[Definition of Beauty]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
24. "Art as Significant Form" by Clive Bell
Ideas of Interest from Art
The Reading Selection from Art
[Qualities of an Art Critic]
[Significant Form]
[Æsthetic and Nonæsthetic Beauty]
[Art and Nonart]
[Art and Morality]
[Primitive Art]
[Rightness of Form]
[Artistic Representation]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
25. "Art as Unrepressed Wish-Fulfillment" by Sigmund Freud
Ideas of Interest from Introductory Lectures
The Reading Selection from Introductory Lectures
[Origin of Phantasy-Making]
[Introversion and Phantasy]
[The Path of the Artist]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
26. "Art as Archetypal Form" by C. G. Jung
Ideas of Interest from "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry"
The Reading Selection from "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry"
[Psychology and Art]
[Freud's Medical Model]
[Two Kinds of Art Works]
[The Collective Unconscious}
[The Creative Process of Art]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
27. "Æsthetics Is Impersonal" by Samuel Alexander
Ideas of Interest from Space, Time, and Deity
The Reading Selection from Space, Time, and Deity
[Beauty Involves Illusion]
[Æsthetic Semblance]
[Beauty in Nature and Art Is Impersonal]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
28. "Art is Representational" by Arthur C. Danto
Ideas of Interest from "Philosophy of Art"
The Reading Selection from "Philosophy of Art"
[The Place of Art in Philosophy]
[Philosophical Questions]
[Search for a Definition]
[Art Is Representation]
Related Ideas
Topics Worth Investigating
Index
Colophon