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Ideas of Leo Tolstoy, by Text

[Russian, 1828 - 1910, Born at Yasnaya Polyana, where he ran family estate. Military service as a young man. Novelist. Died at Astapovo Station.]

1898 What is Art?
p.206 People estimate art according to their moral values
     Full Idea: The estimation of the value of art …depends on men's perception of the meaning of life; depends on what they hold to be the good and evil of life.
     From: Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898]), quoted by Iris Murdoch - The Sublime and the Good p.206
     A reaction: [No ref given] This is put to the test by the insightful depiction of wickedness. We condemn the wickedness and admire the insight. Every reading of a novel is a moral journey, though I'm not sure how the true psychopath reads a novel.
Ch.16 p.231 The purpose of art is to help mankind to evolve better, more socially beneficial feelings
     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.
     From: Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.16)
     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!).
Ch.17 p.251 The highest feelings of mankind can only be transmitted by art
     Full Idea: The highest feelings to which mankind has attained can only be transmitted from man to man by art.
     From: Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.17)
     A reaction: We are much more nervous these days of talking about 'highest' feelings. Tolstoy obviously considers religion to be an ingredient of the highest feelings, but that prevents us from judging them purely as feelings. Music is the place to rank feelings.
Ch.17 p.257 The upper classes put beauty first, and thus freed themselves from morality
     Full Idea: The people of the upper class, more and more frequently encountering the contradictions between beauty and goodness, put the ideal of beauty first, thus freeing themselves from the demands of morality.
     From: Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.17)
     A reaction: The rich are a great deal freer to pursue the demands of beauty than are the poor. They also have a tradition of 'immorality' (such as duels and adultery) which was in place long before they discovered art.
Ch.3 p.91 We separate the concept of beauty from goodness, unlike the ancients
     Full Idea: The ancients had not that conception of beauty separated from goodness which forms the basis and aim of aesthetics in our time.
     From: Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.3)
     A reaction: This is written at around the time of the Aesthetic Movement, but Tolstoy's own novels are intensely moral. This separation makes abstract painting possible.
Ch.5 p.123 Art is when one man uses external signs to hand on his feelings to another man
     Full Idea: Art is a human activity in which one man consciously by means of external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and other are infected by those feelings, and also experience them.
     From: Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.5)
     A reaction: Such definitions always work better for some art forms than for others. This may fit 'Anna Karenin' quite well, but probably not Bach's 'Art of Fugue'. Writing obscenities on someone's front door would fit this definition.
Ch.9 p.149 True works of art transmit completely new feelings
     Full Idea: Only that is a true work of art which transmits fresh feelings not previously experienced by man.
     From: Leo Tolstoy (What is Art? [1898], Ch.9)
     A reaction: I think a great composer will probably not have any new feelings at all, but will discover new expressions which contain feelings by which even they are surprised (e.g. the Tristan chord).