What Philosophy Is

Æsthetics and the Good

As you read the material for the next class, keep the questions below in mind. To answer these questions you will have to reflect critically on what you have read and possibly re-read important passages. Keep in mind that there are two basic kinds of information that you need to look for in the readings.

1. What are the main points or conclusions that an author accepts with respect to a particular issue?
2. What are the reasons or important considerations that lead the author to accept that conclusion?

For our purposes, it is information of the latter sort (2) that will be our primary concern since our most basic task is to evaluate the reasons that are offered to support accepting one possible conclusion about an issue, rather than another.

Although I strongly suggest that you write out brief answers to these questions, you do not have to turn in written responses. You do, however, need to be prepared to speak intelligently to these issues in the next class meeting. Also, it is reasonable to assume that the final exam’s questions will be drawn from these questions—particularly those in bold.

Readings:

• Leo Tolstoy, What is Art? (handout).

Questions:

1. According to Leo Tolstoy, what is the purpose of art? How is it a form of communication? How is it different from regular communication? Why is the artistic form of communication so important?
2. What are the two features of good art that Tolstoy claims separate it from bad art? Why is beauty not a feature of good art? What is Tolstoy’s analysis of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? Is this a good work of art?
3. David Hume and Immanuel Kant see beauty as a necessary feature of art, whereas Tolstoy does not. Where do these thinkers diverge on this issue? Who has the strongest and most compelling argument? Why?

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