more from Berys Gaut

Single Idea 22686

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 2. Art as Form]

Full Idea

The formal objects which individuate the aesthetic attitude may be narrowly aesthetic, as beauty, and its subspecies, such as grace and elegance, or more broadly by other formalist criteria, such as Beardley's unity, complexity and intensity.

Gist of Idea

Formalists say aesthetics concerns types of beauty, or unity, complexity and intensity

Source

Berys Gaut (The Ethical Criticism of Art [1998], 'Objections 1')

Book Reference

'Aesthetics and the Phil of Art (Analytic trad)', ed/tr. Lamarque,P/Olsen,SH [Blackwell 2004], p.284


A Reaction

I'm not sure about unity or complexity, but intensity was endorsed by Henry James. Intensity doesn't sound very 'formal'. 'Beauty' doesn't seem the right word for the wonderful 'King Lear', or even for Jane Austen novels.