Single Idea 20343

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 2. Aesthetic Attitude]

Full Idea

We could not have a feeling for the beauties of art unless we had been correspondingly moved in front of nature.

Gist of Idea

A love of nature must precede a love of art

Source

Richard Wollheim (Art and Its Objects [1968], 43)

Book Reference

Wollheim,Richard: 'Art and Its Objects' [Penguin 1975], p.115


A Reaction

Wollheim offers this in defence of Kant's view, without necessarily agreeing. Similarly one could hardly care for fictional characters, but not for real people. So the aesthetic attitude may arise from life, rather than from art. Is art hence unimportant?