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15 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Walter Pater
Preface to the Renaissance |
-Beauty, like all human experience, is relative
-Defining the concrete, not the abstract, types of beauty is the purpose of aesthetics -Critics should ask how a particular poem, or song, or painting, affects them -What is beauty's relationship to truth or experience? We probably can't know the answer, and we definitely shouldn't care. -Critic identifies beauty and determines how it is produced -Critics cannot determine which period or style was better, since all eras and all styles have great artists, but they should select the greatest artists -William Blake: "The ages are all equal, but genius is always above its age." -Tough to separate the best sections of art from the common, ordinary sections |
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Walter Pater
"Leonardo da Vinci" from the Renaissance |
-Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist, detached from the world by his incredible genius
-curiosity and the desire for beauty are the two defining qualities of his work -according to Pater, da Vinci perceives things differently from ordinary men, |
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Walter Pater
Preface to the Renaissance |
-Beauty, like all human experience, is relative
-Defining the concrete, not the abstract, types of beauty is the purpose of aesthetics -Critics should ask how a particular poem, or song, or painting, affects them -What is beauty's relationship to truth or experience? We probably can't know the answer, and we definitely shouldn't care. -Critic identifies beauty and determines how it is produced -Critics cannot determine which period or style was better, since all eras and all styles have great artists, but they should select the greatest artists -William Blake: "The ages are all equal, but genius is always above its age." -Tough to separate the best sections of art from the common, ordinary sections |
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Walter Pater
"Leonardo da Vinci" from the Renaissance |
-Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist, detached from the world by his incredible genius
-curiosity and the desire for beauty are the two defining qualities of his work -according to Pater, da Vinci perceives things differently from ordinary men, his paintings are beautiful but oddly sinister, unworldly -Pater claims that "no-one has ever carried political indifferentism farther" than da Vinci -Pater insists that da Vinci's religion was not important in determining his genius -ideas of elitism in art, artist as visionary, artist separate from the world, all in Pater's work |
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Walter Pater
Conclusion to the Renaissance |
-Physical life is a passing sensation created by a combination of natural elements
-Thought is even more transient, filled with individual impressions and fleeting moments -Experience is the only worthwhile end in a fading world -Hedonism: enjoy every moment, because you only have so many of them -"To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstacy, is success in life." -always form opinions, but never keep just one, especially not someone else's -philosophy is just a tool to help men capture pleasure that might otherwise escape them -we are all going to die soon, so enjoy art and music to make life worthwhile |
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Walter Pater
Postscript to Appreciations |
-the terms classical and romantic distinguish between two different styles
-however, both styles are united under the category of art -many false critics try to make the classics seem boring, when in fact they are merely old -classics defined by an "order in beauty" -romantic works defined by a "strangeness in beauty" -great artists have to balance curiosity and beauty to produce great works -romance has to create beauty from unlikely elements -born classicists are obsessed with the forms of the past -born romanticists seek "original, untried matter" and shape it into a solid structure that eventually becomes like a classic -romantic and classic are relative qualities: The Odyssey is more romantic than The Iliad, because it places more emphasis on curiosity and strangeness -a critic can determine how classical or romantic a work is, but an author should not be too concerned with labels, since qualities of classics and romances can be easily mixed -all art is united against the stupidity which ignores ideas and the vulgarity which ignores style |
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Oscar Wilde
Preface to the Picture of Dorian Gray |
-series of short, pithy proverbs by Wilde on art
-basic ideas: -art is not ethical -anyone who finds something ugly in something beautiful is at fault -criticism of realism comes from people hating the truth (Caliban seeing his own face in a glass) -criticism of romanticism comes from people hating a lie (Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass) -either way, the world is hideous, like Caliban -different opinions on a work of art shows that the "work is new, complex, and vital" -art is not useful |
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Arthur Symons
The Decadent Movement in Literature |
-Impressionism and Symbolism fall under the category of "Decadence"
-Decadence, as a style of writing, is marked by "intense self-consciousness, a restless curiosity in research, an over-subtilizing refinement upon refinement, a spiritual and moral perversity." -Symons thinks that the Decadent school of art is unhealthy, and does not want to be healthy -opposed to the clarity and order of classical writings -Decadence is the result of an artificial, uncertain, materialistic society -a man named Stephane Mallarme is representative of Decadence -Mallarme writes beautiful, strange works -Marllarme does not want ordinary people to understand his writings -confusing, elitist nature of Decadence -Decadence is "fascinating, repellent, and instinctively artificial" |
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Thomas Carlyle
"Midas" from Past and Present |
-England is strangely idle, despite having 15 million skilled and industrious workers
-Men who were capable of work went to workhouses, where no meaningful work was done -however, workhouses did prevent people from starving -economic hard times of the late 1830s and early 1840s led to poverty and mass starvation -one family in England poisoned their children to keep the rest of the family alive -Carlyle uses theme of "enchantment" to emphasize the unnatural condition of the country -successful industry has not spread wealth to the rest of the country, but had simply divided everyone into Rich and Poor, divided lives between "idle luxury" and "mean scarcity and inability" -industrial progress has not created happiness -like Midas, the greed of society has caused hunger and pain |
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Thomas Carlyle
Gospel of Mammonism |
-in modern England, religion has been perverted by the desire for profit
-Hell is not making money -Heaven is making money -the only good thing about this false religion, which Carlyle labels "Mammonism", is its focus on work -however, while work is good, men should enjoy work for its own sake, not merely for the sake of profit -the Christian, sympathetic relationships between men have been reduced to the obligations of contract and wages -as long as a mill owner pays his workers the amount he promised, it does not matter if they starve to death -the insane philosphy of Mammonism has reduced England to her current state of misery -Carlyle uses the example of a poor Irish widow who could not find help, the woman ultimately dies of fever and her infection kills seventeen other people, when it all could have been prevented if her society had recognized her as their sister in Christ -the capitalist, Mammonism society is like a goose being stuffed with so much food that it will eventually die -basically, greed will doom us all |
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Thomas Carlyle
Happy |
-the modern man wants to be "happy"
-the quest for happiness, however, is a selfish quest for self-indulgence, a desire to feed the stomach and ignore the soul -Bentham's principle of greatest happiness will lead only to mass unhappiness -Byron complains about not being happy -quit seeking happiness, quit complaining about happiness, and work -not being able to work is the only thing worth being unhappy about -work towards a meaningful end and let happiness take care of itself |
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Thomas Henry Huxley
A Liberal Education, and Where to Find It |
-England now recognizes that education is good
-current public schools (which were actually private schools for the elite in England) only teach useless skills, like cricket or getting good grades -we have to agree on what education should be -Huxley thinks that teaching reading and writings is a good start, but doesn't go far enough -Huxley believes that education should focus on the laws of Nature -learning Nature's laws allows men to avoid painful experience -currently, schools only teach basic literacy, vague principles of religion, connected loosely with morality, "Jewish history and Syrian geography", rather than English history and geography, and obedience. -Huxley argues that evil actions always lead to evil consequences, in accordance with the laws of nature -knowledge is like a medicine chest: we can't just open the box, we have to know how to use what is inside -poor workers need to learn the physical laws of nature more than anyone, since they could put knowledge of how to use a pulley, or how to prepare food, to the best use -economics, physical laws, political laws, basic principles of reason, art, and history should comprise a liberal education -the classics should not just be studies of dead languages or ancient histories, but interesting, compelling stories of people and ideas |
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Matthew Arnold
Culture and Anarchy |
-Way too long to be summed up on one flash card, but here goes:
-Culture is a "study of perfection" that finds its origin in the "love of perfection" -The goal is "To make reason and the will of God prevail!" -reason, God, beauty are all on the same side -culture allows man to perfect himself -religion is part of culture -men are interconnected, so culture must perfect mankind as a whole, instead of men individually -culture expands man's capacity and understanding -however, in the modern world (Victorian England), man's individualism, his intolerance, and his misguided belief in machinery makes the work of culture difficult -culture promotes sweetness and light, or beauty and knowledge -religion has improved man, but it cannot improve man as much as culture can -freedom is only good if it is used for good ends -culture prevents freedom from becoming anarchy -people focus too much on the right to do as they like, and not enough on the responsibility to do what is right -a strong State, with authority to counter the anarchy, and culture to counter the barbarism, is required -man at his best is "united, impersonal, at harmony" with others -we should oppose public protests and uphold authority so that change can take place in a peaceful and orderly fashion |
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Thomas Henry Huxley
Science and Culture |
-physical science should be part of ordinary education
-science is not "speculative rubbish", but it has a very real use in the business world and in society at large -physical science is as important as literary scholarship in forming culture -the study of Greek and Roman culture is important today, and was important in the past, but it is incomplete without scientific education, and unnecessary for a student who wants to be a doctor or a scientist -people can pick up literary culture on their own, without formal education -the future prosperity of England depends on the scientific trainings of her future businessmen, artisans, etc. -scientific understanding will eventually extend to politics as well |
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Vernon Lee
Gospels of Anarchy |
-anarchy is a necessary and good counterbalance to the dogma of established religion
-heaven and hell probably do not exist -it is no longer considered a virtue to surrender mindlessly to tradition -however, the individual is still dependent on society as a whole -the goal for mankind should be the greatest amount of happiness, the "maximum of good behavior possible" -however, there is nothing holy about the means to that goal, which tradition has established -the majority of people must find better roads that cause less suffering but lead to the same end of happiness and good behavior -difference between sin and crime -a sin is a rebellion against the will of God, a crime is disobedience towards the laws of man -criminals are not punished because they are evil, but because they are harmful to the rest of society -such punishment is not good, but necessary -all punishment, however, should help to create a world where violence and despotism are less common -we need to shape laws that deal with specific cases, and not general maxims -an anarchist writer, Max Stirner, expresses the concept of individuals sacrificing their ego, or unique personality, to general abstractions -however, since people choose to sacrifice themselves to these ideas, the ideas must be part of their personalities -religious and civil duties are part of individual personalities -instead of concerning ourselves with "thwarting the ego in the name of morality" (tradition/religion) or "freeing the ego by abolishing ideals and habits" (modern approach of many misguided anarchists), we should try to attain an inner discipline that would attune the individual ego to motives that would be helpful for the individual and society -people must be taught to uphold their beliefs in a fashion similar to the ancient Puritans, who were able to resist momentary impulses and remain true to their long-held ideas -men evolve by choosing the best parts of themselves and removing the worst parts of themselves -existentialism: man creates his old being, no outside morality -we should shape our personalities as we see fit without making excuses about some higher power, and accepting the decisions as our own individual choices |
