Now, on its normative side, aesthetics is ideally the
complete rationale of criticism, the systematic achievement, for its
own sake, of what the thoughtful critic attempts with less exactness
and for the direct purpose of appreciation. It is beyond the province
of aesthetics to criticize any particular work of art, except by way
of illustration. The importance of illustration for the sake of
explaining and proving general principles is, however, fundamental;
for, as we have seen, a valuable aesthetic theory is impossible unless
developed out of the primary aesthetic life of enjoyment and estimation,
a life of contact with individual beautiful things. No amount of
psychological skill in analysis or philosophical aptitude for definition
can compensate for want of a real love of beauty,--of the possession
of something of the artistic temperament. People who do not love art,
yet study it from the outside, may contribute to our knowledge of it
through isolated bits of analysis, but their interpretations of its
more fundamental nature are always superficial. Hence, just as the
wise critic will not neglect aesthetics, so the philosopher of art
should be something of a critic. Yet the division of labor is clear
enough. The critic devotes himself to the appreciation of some special
contemporary or historical field of art--Shakespearean drama,
Renaissance sculpture, Italian painting, for example; while the
philosopher of art looks for general principles, and gives attention
to individual works of art and historical movements only for the purpose
of discovering and illustrating them.
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