Overview

"The great philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist masterfully offers his fascinating outline of Aesthetics Theory. Drawing on the art, literature, and social sciences involved, Santayana discusses the nature of beauty, form, and expression. It is remarkably appropriate that this work on aesthetics should have been written by George Santayana, who is probably the most brilliant philosophic writer and the philosopher with the strongest sense of beauty since Plato. It is not a dry metaphysical treatise, as works on aesthetics so often are, but is itself a fascinating document: as much a revelation of the beauty of language as of the concept of beauty. This unabridged reproduction of the 1896 edition of lectures delivered at Harvard College is a study of ""why, when, and how beauty appears, what conditions an object must fulfill to be beautiful, what elements of our nature make us sensible of beauty, and what the relation is between the constitution of the object and the excitement of our susceptibility."" Santayana first analyzes the nature of beauty, finding it irrational, ""pleasure regarded as the quality of a thing."" He then proceeds to the materials of beauty, showing what all human functions can contribute: love, social instincts, senses, etc. Beauty of form is then analyzed, and finally the author discusses the expression of beauty. Literature, religion, values, evil, wit, humor, and the possibility of finite perfection are all examined. Presentation throughout the work is concrete and easy to follow, with examples drawn from art, history, anthropology, psychology, and similar areas."

Full Product Details

Author:   George Santayana
Publisher:   Dover Publications Inc.
Imprint:   Dover Publications Inc.
Dimensions:   Width: 13.60cm , Height: 1.00cm , Length: 21.40cm
Weight:   0.205kg
ISBN:  

9780486202389

ISBN 10:   0486202380
Pages:   168
Publication Date:   28 March 2003
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

"INTRODUCTION PART I. THE NATURE OF BEAUTY 1. The philosophy of beauty is a theory of values 2. Preference is ultimatly irrational 3. Contrast between moral and aesthetic values 4. Work and play 5. All values are in one sense aesthetic 6. Aesthetic consecration of general principles 7. Aesthetic and physical pleasure 8. The differentia of aesthetic pleasure not its disinterestedness 9. The differentia of aesthetic pleasure not its universality 10. The differentia of aesthetic pleasure: its objectication 11. The definition of beauty PART II. THE MATERIALS OF BEAUTY 12. All human functions may contribute to the sense of beauty 13. The influence of the passion of love 14. Social instincts and their aesthetic influence 15. The lower senses 16. Sound 17. Colour 18. Materials surveyed PART III. FORM 19. There is a beauty of form 20. Physiology of the perception of form 21. Values of geometrical figures 22. Symmetry 23. Form the unity of a manifold 24. Multiplicity in uniformity 25. Example of the stars 26. Defects of pure multiplicity 27. Aesthetics of democracy 28. Values of types and values of examples 29. Origin of types 30. The average modified in the direction of pleasure 31. Are all things beautiful? 32. Effects of indeterminate organization 33. Example of landscape 34. Extensions to objects usually not regarded aesthetically 35. Further dangers of indeterminateness 36. Illusion of infinite perfection 37. Organized nature the source of apperceptive forms; example of sculpture 38. Utility the principle of organization in nature 39. The relation of utility to beauty 40. Utility the principle of organization in the arts 41. Form and adventitious ornament 42. Form in Words 43. Syntactical form 44. Literary form. The plot 45. Character as an aethetic form 46. Ideal characters 47. The religious imagination PART IV. EXPRESSION 48. Expression defined 49. The associative process 50. Kinds of value in the second term 51. Aesthetic value in the second term 52. Practical value in the same 53. Cost as an element of effect 54. The expression of economy and fitness 55. The authority of morals over aesthetics 56. Negative values in the second term 57. Influence of the first term in the pleasing expression of evil 58. ""Mixture of other expressions, including that of truth"" 59. The liberation of self 60. The sublime independent of the expression of evil 61. The comic 62. Wit 63. Humour 64. The grotesque 65. The possibility of finite perfection 66. The stability of the ideal 67. Conclusion INDEX"

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