Ideas from 'Public Text and Common Reader' by Roger Scruton [1982], by Theme Structure
[found in 'The Aesthetic Understanding' by Scruton,Roger [Methuen 1983,0-416-36160-9]].
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21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 3. Taste
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12163
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Literary meaning emerges in comparisons, and tradition shows which comparisons are relevant
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Full Idea:
We must discover the meanings that emerge when works of literature are experience in relation to each other. ...The importance of tradition is that it denotes - ideally, at least - the class of relevant comparisons.
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From:
Roger Scruton (Public Text and Common Reader [1982], p.27)
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A reaction:
This is a nice attempt to explain why we all agree that a thorough education in an art is an essential prerequisite for good taste. Some people (e.g. among the young) seem to have natural good taste. How does that happen?
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21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 5. Art as Language
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12162
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In literature, word replacement changes literary meaning
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Full Idea:
In literary contexts semantically equivalent words cannot replace each other without loss of literary meaning.
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From:
Roger Scruton (Public Text and Common Reader [1982], p.25)
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A reaction:
The notion of 'literary meaning' is not a standard one, and is questionable whether 'meaning' is the right word, given that a shift in word in a poem is as much to do with sound as with connotations.
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21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 1. Artistic Intentions
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12159
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Without intentions we can't perceive sculpture, but that is not the whole story
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Full Idea:
A person for whom it made no difference whether a sculpture was carved by wind and rain or by human hand would be unable to interpret or perceive sculptures - even though the interpretation of sculpture is not the reading of an intention.
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From:
Roger Scruton (Public Text and Common Reader [1982], p.15)
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A reaction:
Scruton compares it to the role of intention in language, where there is objective meaning, even though intention is basic to speech.
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21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 3. Artistic Representation
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12160
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In aesthetic interest, even what is true is treated as though it were not
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Full Idea:
In aesthetic interest, even what is true is treated as though it were not.
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From:
Roger Scruton (Public Text and Common Reader [1982], p.18)
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A reaction:
A nice aphorism. I always feel uncomfortable reading novels about real people, although the historical Macbeth doesn't bother me much. Novels are too close to reality. Macbeth didn't speak blank verse.
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21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 5. Objectivism in Art
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12161
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We can be objective about conventions, but love of art is needed to understand its traditions
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Full Idea:
An historian can elucidate convention while having no feeling for the art that exploits it; whereas an understanding of tradition is reserved for those with the critical insight which comes from the love of art, both past and present.
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From:
Roger Scruton (Public Text and Common Reader [1982], p.24)
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A reaction:
This aesthetic observation is obviously close to Scruton's well-known conservatism in politics. I am doubtful whether the notion of 'tradition' can stand up to close examination, though we all know roughly what he means.
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