What is Art

But, this inexact because it is not talking about the artistic activity itself, but the appreciation of art as art. Appreciation of art is accompanied by a pleasurable excitement of the nervous system, but many other activities do this as well.

2. Art is the external manifestation by means of colors, movements, sounds, or words of the emotions felt by man.

But a man might express his emotions this way, but not actually affect others and therefore this would not be art.

3. Art is the production of some permanent object or passing action which gives pleasure to the producer and the spectators.

But this also includes many activities that are not art (games of cards, etc.) And many things that do NOT afford said pleasure are art nonetheless.

He suggest that the definitions are all inaccurate because they consider the pleasure art can give, but not the purpose that art must serve.

“Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.[1]

Art and Speech.

We must stop thinking about art as a means to pleasure, but as a condition of human life.

Essentially involves the communication between people.

Highlights a Producer – Receiver relation.

The receiver enters into a certain kind of relationship with the producer and all other receivers.

Compares art to speech

· Speech transmits thoughts and experiences.

· Art transmits feelings.

Art is based on the capacity of man to receive another man's expression of feelings.

Note: If a person affects another person directly (likely causing them to yawn because he yawns) this is not art.

Necessary Condition:

Art is the sharing of feelings though objects (and deliberate actions). Thus, there is a necessary condition for genuine art according to Tolstoy. Only if other persons are “infected” by the feelings that the artist himself feels has he created art.

Note: If a person affects another person directly (likely causing them to yawn because he yawns) this is not art.

Tolstoy is working with what I will call a “Three Term Model” of expression. The Artist (A) expresses to the receiver (B) by means of an object/ act (C).

Tolstoy’s Definition:

Art is a human activity where one man passes on to another feelings he himself has lived through and these people are infected by an experience of these feelings.

The means by which the artists undertakes this activity can and do differ widely. (But crafting objects or expressive behaviors and speech, etc., But the goal of the activity is what unites these instances as “art”- communicating feelings Art is not merely a delightful pleasantry, but a means of joining together in the same feelings and it is important for wellbeing, both of the individual and of the community. But also for the progress of humankind.

Because man can be infected with feelings of others through art, he can experience the feelings of ancients and his contemporaries. He can also transmit his own feelings to theirs.

The activity of art is as important as speech itself.

While customarily we think of art as only what we hear of see in the theaters, exhibitions and concerts together with poetry, this is only a small fraction art (and much of it isn’t really art at all)

“We are accustomed to understand art to be only what we hear and see in theaters, concerts, and exhibitions, together with buildings, statues, poems, novels. . . . But all this is but the smallest part of the art by which we communicate with each other in life. All human life is filled with works of art of every kind - from cradlesong, jest, mimicry, the ornamentation of houses, dress, and utensils, up to church services, buildings, monuments, and triumphal processions. It is all artistic activity. So that by art, in the limited sense of the word, we do not mean all human activity transmitting feelings, but only that part which we for some reason select from it and to which we attach special importance.[2]

Notice the egalitarian nature of the arts and of artists, according to Tolstoy. “Human life is filled with works of art. Cradlesong, jest, mimicry, the ornamentations of houses, dress, and utensils.

Artists then are not some rarified tribe with special trainings, but everyday folk. Nevertheless, he acknowledged not every activity of conveying emotions is an act of art. According to Tolstoy, by art we do not mean all human activity transmitting feeling, but only that part we select and attach “special importance” to. This special important has always been given by all men, to activities which transmit feeling flowing from their religious perception. To this small part of art they attach the full meaning of the word.

“This special importance has always been given by all men to that part of this activity which transmits feelings flowing from their religious perception, and this small part of art they have specifically called art, attaching to it the full meaning of the word. …That was how man of old -- Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle - looked on art. Thus did the Hebrew prophets and the ancient Christians regard art; thus it was, and still is, understood by the Mohammedans, and thus it still is understood by religious folk among our own peasantry. Some teachers of mankind - as Plato in his Republic and people such as the primitive Christians, the strict Mohammedans, and the Buddhists -- have gone so far as to repudiate all art.

But Tolstoy says this goes too far. They were wrong to repudiate all art because it is one of the indispensable means of communication without which mankind could not exist. People today regard any art as good as long as it affords pleasure. Tolstoy believes this to be a gross mistake. Perception of what art really is has been lost he claims. Art is our society has become so perverted with respect to is judgment of art that bad art is considered good and counterfeit art is mistaken for the real thing.

Necessary to distinguish genuine art from counterfeit art

• Tolstoy finds it necessary to distinguish between genuine art and what he calls “counterfeit art.”

• A lot of “counterfeit art” is regarded as genuine, when it is not really art at all.

The distinguishing factor, the infectiousness of art.

Necessary Condition:

Only a work of art if it invokes that feeling of Joy and of spiritual union with the artist and with other receivers.

Note: This is an internal indication and some people mistake a certain excitement that they receive from counterfeit art for aesthetic feeling. But this they mistake one internal sensation for the appropriate one. Tolstoy claims that we “Cannot undeceive these people. But for people whose feeling for art is not perverted, the feeling produced by art is clearly distinguished from other feelings.”

"The Feeling”

“The chief peculiarity of this feeling is that the receiver of a true artistic impression is so united to the artist that he feels as if the work were his own and not someone else's - as if what it expresses were just what he had long been wishing to express. A real work of art destroys, in the consciousness of the receiver, the separation between himself and the artist - not that alone, but also between himself and all whose minds receive this work of art. In this freeing of our personality from its separation and isolation, in this uniting of it with others, lies the chief characteristic and the great attractive force of art.

One thinks of the line from the song “Killing Me Softly with His Son” where the narrator who had gone to see a guitarist perform began to feel uncomfortable and even exposed because his words so clearly described her deepest feelings. One line reads, “I felt he'd found my letters and read each one out loud.”

Evaluating Art: Force of the Feeling

Apart from subject matter, the stronger the infection the better the art as art. The degree of infectiousness of art depends on three conditions:

– 1. On the greater or lesser individuality of the feeling transmitted.

– 2. On the greater or lesser clearness with which the feeling is transmitted.

– 3. On the sincerity of the artist, i.e. on the greater of lesser force with which the artist himself feels the emotions he transmits.

The three conditions can be summed up in the last: Sincerity

• Sincerity, meaning that the artist must be impelled by an inner need to express his feeling. The absence of any one of these conditions excludes a work from the category of art and relegates it to that of art’s counterfeits.

The presence in various degrees of the three conditions (individuality, clearness and sincerity) decides the merit of a work of art as art, (aside from subject matter). Thus these are identity criteria and evaluative criteria. Art is divided from that which is not art and the quality of art as art is decided independently of its subject matter.

Evaluating Art: Subject Matter

We can define good and bad art with reference to its subject matter.

Art, like speech, is a means of communication, and therefore of progress (i.e. of the movement of humanity forward toward perfection).

As evolution of knowledge proceeds by truer and more necessary knowledge, dislodging and replacing what is mistaken and unnecessary, so the evolution of feeling proceeds though art- feelings less, less needful for the well-being of humankind are replaced by other, kinder, and more needful for that end. This is the purpose of art.

Thus with respect to subject matter:

The more art fulfills that purpose the better the art, and the less it fulfills that purpose, the worse the art.

And the appraisal of the feelings, as being more or less good and necessary for the well being of humankind, is made by the religious perception of the age.

Religious Perception:

In every society there exists an understanding of the meaning of life.

Defines the highest good at which that society aims.

Always clearly expressed by some advanced men and more or less vividly perceived by all the members of the society.

If a society lives, there must be a religious perception indicating the direction in which all of its members tend.

Feelings transmitted by art have always been estimated by the standard of the religious perception.

People choose art which transmits feelings making the religious perception operative in actual life. This art has always been highly valued and encouraged.

So art is divided from that which is not art by the degree of feeling and the quality of art as art is further decided relative to its subject matter, whether the feelings it transmits are good or bad (useful, useless or counterproductive) to the progress of humankind.

3 Problems

1. What do you mean "expressive?"

a.) 2 -Term meaning; Venting/inner reality revealing

b.) 3 -Term meaning; Artist communication to audience a content via the art object.

2. This account excluded a lot of things that we normally would consider art. The point of a theory of art is sharpen our pre-theoretical intuitions and perhaps even correct mistaken intuitions. However, if a theory conflicts with many of our strongly held intuitions, it must itself be very compelling and/or useful to warrant acceptance. It is not clear that Tolstoy’s theory is either that compelling or useful.

3. Is all sincere art good? Tolstoy’s theory would require that we know whether an artist was sincere before we could tell whether the work before us was a good or meritorious work or not. In fact, until we knew whether the artist was sincere or not, we could not even tell if the work before us was art all. Thus Tolstoy’s theory places un unrealistic and seemingly unnecessary epistemic burden on aestheticians, art historians and art critics

4. The ability to art to "resonate with a particular audience will change over time. Given a different audience, they may not "get it." Is the work then "not a good work for art for them?" It would seem odd to say that the work stops being great when you put it in front of a different set of eyes. To say this would imply that the greatness of the work was not a feature of the work at all. At least, that it was not a fixed objective feature of the work in itself.

5. Is Tolstoy correct in his account of emotions and emotion cognition? See Collingwood.