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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Page viii
... unity of a manifold § 24. Multiplicity in uniformity . $ 25 . Example of the stars . § 26. Defects of pure multiplicity $ 27 . Esthetics of democracy • 82 85 88 91 95 97 # 100 106 • 110 • § 28. Values of types and values of examples 112 ...
... unity of a manifold § 24. Multiplicity in uniformity . $ 25 . Example of the stars . § 26. Defects of pure multiplicity $ 27 . Esthetics of democracy • 82 85 88 91 95 97 # 100 106 • 110 • § 28. Values of types and values of examples 112 ...
Page 43
... unity of human taste within the range of conventional history helps the pre- tension . But in principle it is untenable . Noth- ing has less to do with the real merit of a work of imagination than the capacity of all men to appre- ciate ...
... unity of human taste within the range of conventional history helps the pre- tension . But in principle it is untenable . Noth- ing has less to do with the real merit of a work of imagination than the capacity of all men to appre- ciate ...
Page 92
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Contents
1 | |
2 | |
3 | |
4 | |
5 | |
6 | |
7 | |
8 | |
Form the unity of a manifold 24 Multiplicity in uniformity 25 Example of the stars | 100 |
Defects of pure multiplicity | 106 |
27 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 33 Example of landscape | 133 |
14 | |
16 | |
17 | |
43 | |
44 | |
45 | |
46 | |
47 | |
48 | |
49 | |
50 | |
51 | |
Practical value in the same | 52 |
THE MATERIALS OF BEAUTY 12 All human functions may contribute to the sense of beauty 13 The influence of the passion of love | 53 |
The lower senses | 65 |
PAGE | 68 |
18 Materials surveyed | 76 |
FORM 19 There is a beauty of form | 82 |
Physiology of the perception of form 21 Values of geometrical figures | 88 |
Symmetry | 91 |
Extensions to objects usually not regarded æsthetically | 138 |
Further dangers of indeterminateness 36 The illusion of infinite perfection | 151 |
Organized nature the source of appercep tive forms | 152 |
Utility the principle of organization | 160 |
The authority of morals over æsthetics 56 Negative values in the second term 57 Influence of the first term in the pleasing expression of evil | 192 |
Mixture of other expressions including that of truth | 228 |
The liberation of self | 233 |
The sublime independent of the expression of evil | 236 |
The comic 233 239 | 245 |
62 | 246 |
Humour | 247 |
62 | 250 |
The grotesque | 256 |
The possibility of finite perfection 66 The stability of the ideal 256 | 258 |
CONCLUSION 266270 | 266 |
INDEX 271275 | 271 |
The relation of utility to beauty | 272 |
126 | 273 |
157 | 275 |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract aesthetic æsthetic value appeal apperception appreciation appropriate art Aristotle artist associations attention becomes cation ception character charm colour comic conceive consciousness constitute definite delight direction effect elements emotion ence epithets in Homer essence Esthetic education evil existence experience expression external fact fancy feel function give happiness human nature idea ideal imagination impressions indeterminate individual infinite instinct interest intrinsic judgments kind King Lear landscape Lebanon less material meaning ment mind moral ness never nomical object objectified observed organ Othello ourselves pain passion perceived perception perfection perhaps poet possible practical present principle reality reason relation remain retina rience romanticism satisfaction sensation sense sensuous sexual sion soul sound specific spontaneous stellar distances stimulation sublime suggestion Sybaris symbol symmetry taste tendency theory thetic things thought tical tion tive trinsic truth ugly unity utility vague virtue vision words
Popular passages
Page 52 - ... 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 52 - 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 42 - 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 82 - 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 43 - ... 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 268 - 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 50 - 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 44 - 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 19 - ... 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...