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Full Idea
The evolution of feeling proceeds by means of art - feelings less kind and less necessary for the well-being of mankind being replaced by others kinder and more needful for that end. That is the purpose of art.
Gist of Idea
The purpose of art is to help mankind to evolve better, more socially beneficial feelings
Source
Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.16)
Book Ref
Tolstoy,Leo: 'What is Art? and Essays on Art', ed/tr. Maude,A [OUP 1975], p.231
A Reaction
Underneath his superficially expressivist view of art, Tolstoy is really an old-fashioned moralist about it, like Dr Johnson. This is the moralism of the great age of the nineteenth century novel (which was, er, the greatest age of the novel!).
| 20344 | Music is not an expressive art, because it expresses no familiar emotions [Hanslick, by Wollheim] |
| 8123 | The purpose of art is to help mankind to evolve better, more socially beneficial feelings [Tolstoy] |
| 20425 | In the cinema the emotions are weaker, but much clearer than in ordinary life [Fry] |
| 23926 | Art is distinguished by its aesthetic emotion, which produces appropriate form [Bell,C] |
| 12164 | Expressing melancholy is a good thing, but arousing it is a bad thing [Scruton] |
| 20404 | Music isn't just sad because it makes the listener feel sad [Davies,S] |