Chapter I: Front Matter

ÆSTHETIC

_As science of expression and general linguistic_

BY

BENEDETTO CROCE

_translated, from the Italian by_ DOUGLAS AINSLIE

THE NOONDAY PRESS

_A division of_

FARRAR, STRAUS, AND COMPANY

1920

THE

ÆSTHETIC

IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR TO THE MEMORY OF HIS PARENTS

PASQUALE AND LUISA SIPARI

AND OF HIS SISTER

MARIA

CONTENTS

EXTRACT FROM INTRODUCTION xix

NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR xxv

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xxvii

I

THEORY OF ÆSTHETIC

I

INTUITION AND EXPRESSION

Intuitive knowledge--Its independence with respect to intellectual knowledge--Intuition and perception--Intuition and the concepts of space and time--Intuition and sensation--Intuition and association--Intuition and representation--Intuition and expression--Illusion as to their difference--Identity of intuition and expression

II

INTUITION AND ART

Corollaries and explanations--Identity of art and intuitive knowledge--No specific difference--No difference of intensity--The difference is extensive and empirical--Artistic genius--Content and form in Æsthetic--Criticism of the imitation of nature and of the artistic illusion--Criticism of art conceived as a fact of feeling, not a theoretical fact--Æsthetic appearance, and feeling--Criticism of the theory of æsthetic senses--Unity and indivisibility of the work of art--Art as liberator

III

ART AND PHILOSOPHY

Inseparability of intellectual from intuitive knowledge--Criticism of the negations of this thesis--Art and science--Content and form: another meaning--Prose and poetry--The relation of first and second degree--Non-existence of other forms of cognition--Historicity--Its identity with and difference from art--Historical criticism--Historical scepticism--Philosophy as perfect science. The so-called natural sciences, and their limits--The phenomenon and the noumenon

IV

HISTORICISM AND INTELLECTUALISM IN ÆSTHETIC

Criticism of the probable and of naturalism--Criticism of ideas in art, of theses in art, and of the typical--Criticism of the symbol and of the allegory--Criticism of the theory of artistic and literary kinds--Errors derived from this theory in judgements on art--Empirical sense of the divisions of kinds

V

ANALOGOUS ERRORS IN THE THEORY OF HISTORY AND IN LOGIC

Criticism of the philosophy of History--Æsthetic intrusions into Logic--Logic in its essence--Distinction between logical and non-logical judgements--Syllogistic--Logical falsehood and æsthetic truth--Reformed logic--Note to the fourth Italian edition

VI

THE THEORETIC ACTIVITY AND THE PRACTICAL ACTIVITY

The will--The will as an ulterior stage in respect to knowledge--Objections and explanations--Criticism of practical judgements or judgements of value--Exclusion of the practical from the æsthetic--Criticism of the theory of the end of art and of the choice of content--Practical innocence of art--Independence of art--Criticism of the saying: the style is the man--Criticism of the concept of sincerity in art

VII

ANALOGY BETWEEN THE THEORETIC AND THE PRACTICAL

The two forms of the practical activity--The economically useful--Distinction between the useful and the technical--Distinction of the useful from the egoistic--Economic will and moral will--Pure economicity--The economic side of morality--The merely economical and the error of the morally indifferent--Criticism of utilitarianism and the reform of Ethics and of Economics--Phenomenon and noumenon in practical activity

VIII

EXCLUSION OF OTHER SPIRITUAL FORMS

The system of the spirit--The forms of genius--Non-existence of a fifth form of activity--Law; sociability--Religion--Metaphysic--Mental imagination and the intuitive intellect--Mystical Æsthetic--Mortality and immortality of art

IX

INDIVISIBILITY OF EXPRESSION INTO MODES OR DEGREES AND CRITICISM OF RHETORIC

The characters of art--Non-existence of modes of expression--Impossibility of translations--Criticism of the rhetorical categories--Empirical sense of the rhetorical categories--Their use as synonyms of the æsthetic fact--Their use to indicate various æsthetic imperfections--Their use in a sense transcending æsthetic, in the service of science--Rhetoric in the schools--The resemblances of expressions--The relative possibility of translations

X

ÆSTHETIC FEELINGS AND THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE UGLY

Various significations of the word feeling--Feeling as activity --Identification of feeling with economic activity--Criticism of hedonism--Feeling as a concomitant of every form of activity --Meaning of certain ordinary distinctions of feelings--Value and disvalue: the contraries and their union--The beautiful as the value of expression, or expression without qualification--The ugly, and the elements of beauty which compose it--Illusion that there exist expressions neither beautiful nor ugly--True æsthetic feelings and concomitant and accidental feelings--Criticism of apparent feelings

XI

CRITICISM OF ÆSTHETIC HEDONISM

Criticism of the beautiful as that which pleases the higher senses--Criticism of the theory of play--Criticism of the theory of sexuality and of triumph--Criticism of the Æsthetic of the sympathetic: meaning in it of content and form--Æsthetic hedonism and moralism--The rigoristic negation, and the pedagogic justification of art--Criticism of pure beauty

XII

THE ÆSTHETIC OF THE SYMPATHETIC AND PSEUDO-ÆSTHETIC CONCEPTS

Pseudo-æsthetic concepts, and the Æsthetic of the sympathetic--Criticism of the theory of the ugly in art and of the overcoming of it--Pseudo-æsthetic concepts belong to Psychology--Impossibility of rigorous definitions of them--Examples: definitions of the sublime, of the comic, of the humorous--Relation between these concepts and æsthetic concepts

XIII

THE "PHYSICALLY BEAUTIFUL" IN NATURE AND IN ART

Æsthetic activity and physical concepts--Expression in the æsthetic sense, and expression in the naturalistic sense--Representations and memory--The production of aids to memory--Physical beauty--Content and form: another meaning--Natural beauty and artificial beauty--Mixed beauty--Writings--Free and non-free beauty--Criticism of non-free beauty--Stimulants of production

XIV

ERRORS ARISING FROM THE CONFUSION BETWEEN PHYSICS AND ÆSTHETIC

Criticism of æsthetic associationism--Criticism of æsthetic Physics--Criticism of the theory of the beauty of the human body--Criticism of the beauty of geometrical figures--Criticism of another aspect of the imitation of nature--Criticism of the theory of the elementary forms of the beautiful--Criticism of the search for the objective conditions of the beautiful--The astrology of Æsthetic

XV

THE ACTIVITY OF EXTERNALIZATION. TECHNIQUE AND THE THEORY OF THE ARTS

The practical activity of externalization--The technique of externalization--Technical theories of the different arts--Criticism of æsthetic theories of particular arts--Criticism of the classification of the arts--Criticism of the theory of the union of the arts--Relation of the activity of externalization to utility and morality

XVI

TASTE AND THE REPRODUCTION OF ART

Æsthetic judgement: its identity with æsthetic reproduction--Impossibility of divergences--Identity of taste and genius--Analogy with other activities--Criticism of æsthetic absolutism (intellectualism) and relativism--Criticism of relative relativism--Objection founded on the variation of the stimulus and of psychic disposition--Criticism of the distinction of signs into natural and conventional--The surmounting of variety--Restorations and historical interpretation

XVII

THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE AND OF ART

Historical criticism in literature and art: its importance--Literary and artistic history: its distinction from historical criticism and from the æsthetic judgement--The method of artistic and literary history--Criticism of the problem of the origin of art--The criterion of progress and history--Non-existence of a single line of progress in artistic and literary history--Errors committed against this law-- Other meanings of the word "progress" in relation to Æsthetic

XVIII