Leo Tolstoy's book 'What is Art? & Wherein is Truth in Art?' is a profound exploration of the role of art in society, delving into the essence of true artistic expression. Written in a philosophical and contemplative style, Tolstoy challenges traditional notions of art and beauty, arguing that true art must serve a moral purpose and connect with universal truths. Through a series of meditations on aesthetics and literature, Tolstoy urges readers to seek a deeper understanding of art beyond mere decoration or entertainment. Drawing inspiration from his own experiences as a renowned novelist, Tolstoy offers a unique insight into the power of art to transform and uplift the human spirit. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the philosophical underpinnings of art and its significance in shaping society.
This carefully crafted ebook: "WHAT IS ART? & WHEREIN IS TRUTH IN ART? (Meditations on Aesthetics & Literature)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Table of Contents Introduction: Leo Tolstoy - Biography What is Art? Wherein Is Truth In Art? On the Significance of Science and Art Shakespeare and the Drama The Works of Guy De Maupassant A. Stockham'sTokology Amiel's Diary S. T. Seménov's Peasant Stories Stop and Think! Criticisms on Tolstoy: "Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky” by Maurice Baring My Literary Passions: "Tolstoy” by William Dean Howells Essays on Russian Novelists: "Tolstoi” by William Lyon Phelps "Tolstoy the Artist” and "Tolstoy the Preacher” by Ivan Panin "Tolstoy and the Cult of Simplicity” by G. K. Chesterton The Critical Game: "Tolstoy” by John Macy "Count Tolstoi and the Public Censor” by Isabel Hapgood Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) which are often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays.
This edition includes: Introduction: Leo Tolstoy - Biography What is Art? Wherein Is Truth In Art? On the Significance of Science and Art Shakespeare and the Drama The Works of Guy De Maupassant A. Stockham'sTokology Amiel's Diary S. T. Seménov's Peasant Stories Stop and Think! Criticisms on Tolstoy: "Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky" by Maurice Baring My Literary Passions: "Tolstoy" by William Dean Howells Essays on Russian Novelists: "Tolstoi" by William Lyon Phelps "Tolstoy the Artist" and "Tolstoy the Preacher" by Ivan Panin "Tolstoy and the Cult of Simplicity" by G. K. Chesterton The Critical Game: "Tolstoy" by John Macy "Count Tolstoi and the Public Censor" by Isabel Hapgood Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) which are often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays.
The four classic tales in this volume illuminate Leo Tolstoy's radical orientation toward war and commerce, revealing his vision for a sustainable, peaceable world. The feature story, Ivan the Fool, presents an archetypal fool who works hard, cooperates with everyone, and manages to foil every attempt to cause his downfall. In the end, peasant life comes out on top, while the pillars of imperial Russian society topple down. Esarhaddon, King of Assyria explores a king's empathy-based revelation to end all violence; and A Grain as Big as a Hen's Egg playfully looks at the relationship between health, soil, labor, and food economies. Three Questions sums up Tolstoy's highest ideal of serving others in the present moment. Some may critique these stories as being too simplistic or too moralistic. But these tales have stood the test of time precisely because they entertain well while evoking universal truths that lift us above humanity's self-serving impulses.
I do not think of aesthetic theory as an attempt to investigate and expound eternal verities concerning the nature of an eternal object called Art, but as an attempt to reach, by thinking, the solution of certain problems arising out of the situation in which artists find themselves here and now. Everything written in this book has been written in the belief that it has a practical bearing, direct or indirect, upon the condition of art in England in 1937, and in the hope that artists primarily, and secondarily persons whose interest in art is lively and sympathetic, will find it of some use to them. Hardly any space is devoted to criticizing other people’s aesthetic doctrines; not because I have not studied them, nor because I have dismissed them as not worth considering, but because I have something of my own to say, and think the best service I can do to a reader is to say it as clearly as I can. Of the three parts into which it is divided, Book I is chiefly concerned to say things which any one tolerably acquainted with artistic work knows already; the purpose of this being to clear up our minds as to the distinction between art proper, which is what aesthetic is about, and certain other things which are different from it but are often called by the same name. Many false aesthetic theories are fairly accurate accounts of these other things, and much bad artistic practice comes from confusing them with art proper. These errors in theory and practice should disappear when the distinctions in question are properly apprehended. In this way a preliminary account of art is reached; but a second difficulty is now encountered. This preliminary account, according to the schools of philosophy now most fashionable in our own country, cannot be true; for it traverses certain doctrines taught in those schools and therefore, according to them, is not so much false as nonsensical. Book II is therefore devoted to a philosophical exposition of the terms used in this preliminary account of art, and an attempt to show that the conceptions they express are justified in spite of the current prejudice against them; are indeed logically implied even in the philosophies that repudiate them. The preliminary account of art has by now been converted into a philosophy of art. But a third question remains. Is this so-called philosophy of art a mere intellectual exercise, or has it practical consequences bearing on the way in which we ought to approach the practice of art (whether as artists or as audience) and hence, because a philosophy of art is a theory as to the place of art in life as a whole, the practice of life? As I have already indicated, the alternative I accept is the second one. In Book III, therefore, I have tried to point out some of these practical consequences by suggesting what kinds of obligation the acceptance of this aesthetic theory would impose upon artists and audiences, and in what kinds of way they could be met. This book is organized as follows: I. Introduction Book I. Art and Not Art II. Art and Craft III. Art and Representation IV. Art as Magic V. Art as Amusement VI. Art Proper: (1) As Expression VII. Art Proper: (2) As Imagination Book II. The Theory of Imagination VIII. Thinking and Feeling IX. Sensation and Imagination X. Imagination and Consciousness XI. Language Book III. The Theory of Art XII. Art as Language XIII. Art and Truth XIV. The Artist and the Community XV. Conclusion
For most of the last century the methodology of art history has followed a positivist approach, emphasizing form and style, fact and history as the means of studying works of art. By contrast the philosophical pursuit of truth, once central to the fine arts and humanities has largely been abandoned. In For The Love of Beauty, Arthur Pontynen offers a searching and ambitious critique of modern aesthetic practice that aims to restore the pursuit of the knowledge of reality--Being--to its rightful place.Pontynen begins by addressing the question of why the pursuit of truth (be it called Dao, Dharma, God, Logos, Ideal, etc.) is no longer acceptable in academic circles even though it has been intrinsic to the purpose of art at most times and in most cultures. Lacking the pursuit of truth, of some degree of knowledge of what is true and good, the humanities necessarily lack intellectual and cultural grounding and purpose. Fields of study such as philosophy, music, art, and history are therefore trivialized and brutalized. Pontynen's focus on the study of the visual arts details the how the denial of purpose and quality in modernist and postmodernist aesthetics has denied art any possibility of transcending entertainment, therapy, or propaganda.In place of the established narratives, Pontynen offers a counter-narrative based on a cross-cultural pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful. He recognizes that substantively different cultural traditions exist and that the truth claims of each may be valid in whole or in part. He shows how the history of art parallels the intellectual history of Western culture and how these parallels affect both aesthetics and ethics. Pontynen engages with those elements of modernist and postmodernist thought that might be true. His purpose is not simply to deny their validity but to engage a viewpoint that does not privilege the notion of a purposeless cosmos. For the Love of Beauty will be of interest
