The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory — George Santayana
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory Author : George Santayana Release date : October 8, 2008 [eBook #26842] Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26842 Credits : Produced by Ruth Hart *** START OF I have also made one spelling change: "ominiscient intelligence" to "omniscient intelligence".] THE SENSE OF BEAUTY BEING THE OUTLINES OF AESTHETIC THEORY by GEORGE SANTAYANA CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Printed in the United States of America CONTENTS Preface Introduction — The Methods of Aesthetics 1-13 Part I. — The Nature of Beauty § 1. The philosophy of beauty is a theory of values 14 § 2. Preference is ultimately irrational 18 § 3. Contrast between moral and aesthetic values 28 § 4. Work and play 25 § 5. All values are in one sense aesthetic 28 § 6. Aesthetic consecration of general principles 31 § 7. Contrast of aesthetic and physical pleasures 35 § 8. The differentia of aesthetic pleasure not its disinterestedness 37 § 9. The differentia of aesthetic pleasure not its universality 40 § 10. The differential of aesthetic pleasure: its objectification 44 § 11. The definition of beauty 49 Part II. — The Materials of Beauty § 12. All human functions may contribute to the sense of beauty 53 § 13. The influence of the passion of love 56 § 14. Social instincts and their aesthetic influence 62 § 15. The lower senses 65 § 16. Sound 68 § 17. Colour 72 § 18. Materials surveyed 76 Part III. — Form § 19. There is a beauty of form 82 § 20. Physiology of the perception of form 85 § 21. Values of geometrical figures 88 § 22. Symmetry 91 § 23. Form the unity of a manifold 95 § 24. Multiplicity in uniformity 97 § 25. Example of the stars 100 § 26. Defects of pure multiplicity 106 § 27. Aesthetics of democracy 110 § 28. Values of types and values of examples 112 § 29. Origin of types 116 § 30. The average modified in the direction of pleasure 121 § 31. Are all things beautiful? 126 § 32. Effects of indeterminate form 131 § 33. Example of landscape 133 § 34. Extensions to objects usually not regarded aesthetically 138 § 35. Further dangers of indeterminateness 142 § 36. The illusion of infinite perfection 146 § 37. Organized nature the source of apperceptive forms 152 § 38. Utility the principle of organization in nature 155 § 39. The relation of utility to beauty 157 § 40. Utility the principle of organization in the arts 160 § 41. Form and adventitious ornament 163 § 42. Syntactical form 167 § 42. Literary form. The plot 171 § 44. Character as an aesthetic form 174 § 45. Ideal characters 176 § 46. The religious imagination 180 § 47. Preference is ultimately irrational 185 Part IV. — Expression § 48. Expression defined 192 § 49. The associative process 198 § 50. Kinds of value in the second term 201 § 51. Aesthetic value in the second term 205 § 52. Practical value in the same 208 § 53. Cost as an element of effect 211 § 54. The expression of economy and fitness 214 § 55. The authority of morals over aesthetics 218 § 56. Negative values in the second term 221 § 57. Influence of the first term in the pleasing expression of evil 226 § 58. Mixture of other expressions, including that of truth 228 § 59. The liberation of self 233 § 60. The sublime independent of the expression of evil 239 § 61. The comic 245 § 62. Wit 250 § 63. Humour 253 § 64. The grotesque 256 § 65. The possibility of finite perfection 258 § 66. The stability of the ideal 263 § 67. Conclusion 266-270 Footnotes Index 271-275 PREFACE This little work contains the chief ideas gathered together for a course of lectures on the theory and history of aesthetics given at Harvard College from 1892 to 1895. The only originality I can claim is that which may result from the attempt to put together the scattered commonplaces of criticism into a system, under the inspiration of a naturalistic psychology. I have studied sincerity rather than novelty, and if any subject, as for instance the excellence of tragedy, is presented in a new light, the change consists only in the stricter application to a complex subject of the principles acknowledged to obtain in our simple judgments. My effort throughout has been to recall those fundamental aesthetic feelings the orderly extension of which yields sanity of judgment and distinction of taste. The influences under which the book has been written are rather too general and pervasive to admit of specification; yet the student of philosophy will not fail to perceive how much I owe to writers, both living and dead, to whom no honour could be added by my acknowledgments. I have usually omitted any reference to them in foot-notes or in the text, in order that the air of controversy might be avoided, and the reader might be enabled to compare what is said more directly with the reality of his own experience. G. S. September, 1906. INTRODUCTION The sense of beauty has a more important place in life than aesthetic theory has ever taken in philosophy. The plastic arts, with poetry and music, are the most conspicuous monuments of this human interest, because they appeal only to contemplation, and yet have attracted to their service, in all civilized ages, an amount of effort, genius, and honour, little inferior to that given to industry, war, or religion. The fine arts, however, where aesthetic feeling appears almost pure, are by no means the only sphere in which men show their susceptibility to beauty. In all products of human industry we notice the keenness with which the eye is attracted to the mere appearance of things: great sacrifices of time and labour are made to it in the most vulgar manufactures; nor d