The Essence Of Aesthetic

‎"The Essence of Aesthetic" is a lecture by the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce prepared for the inauguration of the Rice Institute. In his works, he placed great importance on art, beauty, intuition, and imagination. This short work includes a number of his key ideas, like what aesthetic is, the essence of art, its role in spirit and humanity, criticism, and the history of art.

Excerpt from The Essence of Aesthetic When I first visited Naples, in 1909, I was quite unprepared for making the discovery of a new philosopher, and nothing was further from my mind than to become his prophet to the English-speaking world. Yet so it has happened. If I may be permitted the use of metaphor and to take the eternal activities of the spirit of man as equivalent to the eternal ideas of Plato, yet far more real than they, because immanent and not transcendental, and if I may push yet further the metaphor and figure these activities of the spirit as planets, then one might say that Croce is the Adams-Leverrier of philosophy, and his Theory of Æsthetic the discovery of the planet Neptune. For just as those astronomer-mathematicians proved the independent existence of that planet, hitherto unknown, by observing the perturbations it set up throughout the planetary system, so Croce has proved the independent existence of Æsthetic, the last of the great planetary activities of the spirit of man to come into line with thought. Just as the action of Neptune was falsely attributed to other causes, so the action of Æsthetic has been falsely confused with Ethic, Economic and Logic. Croce has disentangled and proved its independence. And just as we can now say that there is no other planet to be discovered in the heavens, so we can say that there is no other activity of the spirit to be discovered. Returning to 1909 and my visit to Naples, I was not long in finding a copy of the "Estetica," and a single reading made clear to me its supreme importance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Benedetto Croce: A Case of International Misunderstanding "When I reached Naples and had the privilege of meeting and becoming acquainted with Benedetto Croce, (...) I can say that (...) Croce is the most democratic man I have ever met. Every evening his home was full of friends, both young and old, and no introduction was necessary to meet him. They would meet to discuss democratically the problems of the day, and to ask his advice in various fields of scholarship. He specifically criticizes the "aesthetic critics" who would judge a work of art in abstraction from history, thereby depriving it of its real meaning. In answer to the question of the whole history of a time is necessary for the aesthetic judgment of the art of that time, he answers: "It certainly is, because, as we know, poetic creation presupposes all the rest of the mind which it is converting into lyrical imagery, and the one aesthetic creation presupposes all the other creations (passions, feelings, customs, etc.) of the given historical moment." This is a recurrent theme in many of his writings, and it forms the conclusion of The Essence of Aesthetic. Croce's philosophy is important today because in a world in which cynicism, materialism, and utility dominate, it affirms its faith in the reality and efficacy of all basic human values. In aesthetics particularly he has defended the reality and autonomy of artistic activity against all the encroachments of science, economics, and morality, and he has fought the many perversions of philosophy into ideology and politics. He has succeeded, like Dewey, in making philosophy an active force in the guidance of human affairs. He calls his philosophy historism, which he defines as the doctrine that life and reality are history and nothing else but history, and operationally as "the creation of one's own art, thought, and action moving from the present consciousness of the past." Finally, Croce's philosophy may be designated a modern humanism, but it is a humanism with whose consequences even pragmatism can not disagree." - Frederic S. Simoni, Benedetto Croce, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism Vol. 11, No. 1 (Sep., 1952), pp. 7-14

According to the author, this book has grown out of lectures to students at the University of Michigan and embodies his effort to express to them the nature and meaning of art. While intended primarily for students, the book can appeal to people who are interested in the intelligent appreciation of art.

Presents a collection of the author's works, including concept art and finished products.

Get to know more about the world of aesthetics as George Santayana dissects the true nature of beauty in 'The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory'. In the book, derived from his lectures at Harvard University, Santayana challenges the age-old notions of beauty as a mere symbol of divine perfection. Instead, he delves deep into the perception of values and the profound impact they have on the human experience.