A Basis for Criticism.

CRITICISM; AESTHETICIANS (Philosophers); CONDUCT of life; RHETORIC; CIVILIZATION; ETHICS; ART; PHILOSOPHY

Focuses on the foundations of literary criticism. Emphasis on biographical and historical criticism through facts; Reports that moral criticism of art makes no pretence to be anything but practical; Opinion that beauty lies in the arrangement of the stimuli and that the precise nature of the stimuli themselves does not particularly matter; Discussion on the difference between katharsis and wish-fulfillment; Description of beauty the concept or hypothesis on which the whole structure of aesthetic criticism rests; Suggestion that the arts are held in importance exactly in proportion as their freedom to play on association increases; Fact that attempt of the aesthetician to eliminate from art all that he cannot comfortably call aesthetic is certainly interesting, as showing what is perhaps a tendency which increases with civilization.