Philosophy
Benedetto Croce was a very popular figure in the initial years of the 20th century with respect to aesthetics, philosophy as well as literary criticism. Most of Croce’s general philosophy was akin to that of the earlier century. A relentless theme in the philosophy of Croce is that he pursued a path that lied between ‘transcendentalism’ by Scylla and ‘sensationalism’ of the Charybdis, which for a wide number of reasons may be regarded as co-extensive encompassing both rationalism as well as empiricism. In the view of Croce, these lie at the bottom of the similar error of abstracting from usual experience to something that is perhaps not possible to experience at all.
Transcendentalism denotes that the world of sense is illusory, chaotic or mediocre, and it is the theorist, reflecting on all these aspects in a priori sitting in a comfortable state and seeing beyond the existing to a point of reality. Croce’s explanation of 'Sensationalism', on the contrary is just an instantaneous impressions of the color and the identical as prevailing, all other things prevailing in some sense a simple logical structure arising out of it, possessing no independent authenticity. The correct path as defined by Croce is the immanentism, which means that “all but only lived human experience, taking place concretely and without reduction, is real.”
John Dewey is well-known for his logic, philosophy of education as well as his scientific inquiry. Though the writings of Dewey look extremely simple, it is quite dense and difficult to understand. The theories of expression and creativity, as articulated by Dewey, were the specific goals of analytic attack. The theories of Dewey were among the interpretations that were singled out in a universal criticism of expression as a crucial characteristic of art, even though the same is his own unique theory was disregarded in the process.
Santayana defines beauty as a species of value. It is largely regarded by his contemporaries, especially David Hume, that for Santayana, all values are finally what an individual’s mind states and makes and the same is irrefutable. Santayana strongly holds that the eventual ethical values are essentially ratified on the basis of aesthetics. This translates to the fact that there is an instant sense of pleasure in considering and envisioning them, and no additional reasoning or explanation is obtainable. However, this does not make them random of subjective in nature because human nature is quite consistent, and according to the above explanation of how the common rules evolve out of the individual acts of consent and authorization, the fact that some unusual perceivers will strike down these views is not an opposition to the basic moral or aesthetic principles.
For Santayana, beauty is something that is objective, as the reaction towards a beauty is instantaneous and real, and not that can be controlled by the individual, and that if an individual looks at an artwork in a cranky or ill-tempered mood or so, only then an abnormal reaction comes out, and even in such a situation, the blame would be on the individual looking at the artwork and not the artwork itself.
Discussion Questions:
- How did Croce prove the independent existence of aesthetics?
- How is Dewey’s work similar to Corce’s work?
- What is the fundamental premise of Santayana’s take on aesthetics?
Works Cited
Beardsley, Di Monroe C. "Contemporary Developments." Beardsley, Di Monroe C. Aesthetics from Classical Greece to the Present: A Short History. University Alabama Press, 1975. 317-342.
