The Sense of BeautyGeorge Santayana, poet, philosopher, and literary and cultural critic, was one of the key figures in classical western philosophy. He was a man before his time . . . before the popularization of naturalism, multiculturalism, philosophy as literature, and spirituality without being a religious believer. "The Sense of Beauty" is a primary source for the study of aesthetics. Critics have described it as a milestone in aesthetic theory. Santayana's writings are thematically full of the relationships between literature, art, religion, and philosophy. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
Part H The Materials of Beauty | 53 |
Sound | 68 |
Colour | 72 |
Part IT Expbbsuojt | 73 |
Materials surveyed | 76 |
Form | 77 |
There is a beauty of form | 82 |
Example of landscape | 138 |
Further dangers of tadeterminateaess | 142 |
The illusion of infinite perfection | 151 |
Organised nature the source of appercep tive forms | 152 |
Utility the principle of organization in nature | 155 |
The relation of utility to beauty | 157 |
Utility the principle of organization in the arte | 160 |
Form and adventitious oraamant | 168 |
Physiology of the perception of form | 86 |
Values of geometrical figures | 88 |
Symmetry | 91 |
Form the unity of a manifold | 100 |
Example of the stars | 103 |
Defects of pure multiplicity | 106 |
Esthetics of democracy | 110 |
Values of types and values of examples | 112 |
Origin of types | 116 |
The average modified in the direction of pleasure | 121 |
Are all things beautiful? | 126 |
Effects of indeterminate form | 131 |
Form in words | 192 |
The associative process | 198 |
JEsthetic value in the second term | 205 |
153 Cost as an element of effect | 211 |
The authority of morals over satieties | 218 |
Influence of the first term in the pleasing | 228 |
The liberation of self | 238 |
The comic | 245 |
63 Humour | 253 |
The stability of the ideal | 263 |
Iwmsx 271278 | 271 |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract activity actual aesthetic appeal apperception appreciation artist associations attention beauty becomes cause character charm colour common conceive conception consciousness constitute course definite delight determined direction distinction easily effect elements emotion equally essence evil example existence experience expression external fact fancy feel felt function give given happiness human idea ideal imagination important impressions individual infinite instance intelligence interest intrinsic judgments kind language less lines live material meaning ment merely mind moral nature never object observation organ origin ourselves pain particular passion perceived perception perfection perhaps person pleasure positive possible practical present principle produce reality reason relation remain seems seen sensation sense sensuous soul sound stimulation sublime suggestion taste theory things thought tion truth turn unity utility vague various vision whole
Popular passages
Page 51 - ... deem For that sweet odour which doth in it live. The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye As the perfumed tincture of the roses, Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly When summer's breath their masked buds discloses : But, for their virtue only is their show, They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade, Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so ; Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made : And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, When that shall fade, my verse distils your truth.
Page 51 - The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem For that sweet odour which doth in it live. The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye As the perfumed tincture of the roses, Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly When summer's breath their masked buds discloses: But, for their virtue only is their show, They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade; Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made...
Page 41 - It is unmeaning to say that what is beautiful to one man ought to be beautiful to another. If their senses are the same, their associations and dispositions similar, then the same thing will certainly be beautiful to both. If their natures are different, the form which to one will be entrancing will...
Page 81 - The beauty of material is thus the groundwork of all higher beauty, both in the object, whose form and meaning have to be lodged in something sensible, and in the mind, where sensuous ideas, being the first to emerge, are the first that can arouse delight.
Page 42 - ... associations and dispositions similar, then the same thing will certainly be beautiful to both. If their natures are different, the form which to one will be entrancing will be to another even invisible, because his classifications and discriminations in perception will be different, and he may see a hideous detached fragment or a shapeless aggregate of things, in what to another is a perfect whole — so entirely are the unities of objects unities of function and use. It is absurd to say that...
Page 267 - Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable: what it is or what it means can never be said. By appealing to experiment and memory we can show that this feeling varies as certain things vary in the objective conditions; that it varies with the frequency, for instance, with which a form has been presented, or with the associates which that form has had in the past.
Page 49 - The definition of beauty. We have now reached our definition of beauty, which, in the terms of our successive analysis and narrowing of the conception, is value positive, intrinsic, and objectified. Or, in less technical language, Beauty is pleasure regarded as the quality of a thing.
Page 43 - Nothing has less to do with the real merit of a work of imagination than the capacity of all men to appreciate it; the true test is the degree and kind of satisfaction it can give to him who appreciates it most.
Page 18 - ... be noted, its relations would be observed, its recurrence might even be expected ; but all this would happen without a shadow of desire, of pleasure, or of regret. No event would be repulsive, no situation terrible. We might, in a word, have a world of idea without a world of will. In this case, as completely as if consciousness were absent altogether, all value and excellence would be gone. So that for the existence of good in any form it is not merely consciousness but emotional consciousness...
References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Sense of Beauty |
| Author | George Santayana |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | Cosimo, Inc., 2004 |
| ISBN | 1596050187, 9781596050181 |
| Length | 288 pages |
| Subjects | › Philosophy / Aesthetics |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |