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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!).
| 22710 | People estimate art according to their moral values [Tolstoy] |
| 8123 | The purpose of art is to help mankind to evolve better, more socially beneficial feelings [Tolstoy] |
| 8124 | The highest feelings of mankind can only be transmitted by art [Tolstoy] |
| 8125 | The upper classes put beauty first, and thus freed themselves from morality [Tolstoy] |
| 8064 | We separate the concept of beauty from goodness, unlike the ancients [Tolstoy] |
| 8121 | Art is when one man uses external signs to hand on his feelings to another man [Tolstoy] |
| 8122 | True works of art transmit completely new feelings [Tolstoy] |