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Introduction v
Author’s Preface xxxiii
Time and labor spent on art—Lives stunted in its service—Morality sacrificed to and anger justified by art—The rehearsal of an opera described 1
Does art compensate for so much evil?—What is art?—Confusion of opinions—Is it “that which produces beauty”?—The word “beauty” in Russian—Chaos in æsthetics 9
Summary of various æsthetic theories and definitions, from Baumgarten to to-day 20
Definitions of art founded on beauty—Taste not definable—A clear definition needed to enable us to recognize works of art 38
Definitions not founded on beauty—Tolstoy’s definition—The extent and necessity of art—How people in the past have distinguished good from bad in art 46
xxxviiiCHAPTER VI
How art for pleasure has come into esteem—Religions indicate what is considered good and bad—Church Christianity—The Renaissance—Skepticism of the upper classes—They confound beauty with goodness 53
An æsthetic theory framed to suit this view of life 61
Who have adopted it?—Real art needful for all men—Our art too expensive, too unintelligible, and too harmful for the masses—The theory of “the elect” in art 67
Perversion of our art—It has lost its natural subject-matter—Has no flow of fresh feeling—Transmits chiefly three base emotions 73
Loss of comprehensibility—Decadent art—Recent French art—Have we a right to say it is bad and that what we like is good art?—The highest art has always been comprehensible to normal people—What fails to infect normal people is not art 79
Counterfeits of art produced by: Borrowing; Imitating; Striking; Interesting—Qualifications needful for production of real works of art, and those sufficient for production of counterfeits 106
Causes of production of counterfeits—Professionalism—Criticism—Schools of art 118
Wagner’s “Nibelung’s Ring” a type of counterfeit art—Its success, and the reasons thereof 128
xxxixCHAPTER XIV
Truths fatal to preconceived views are not readily recognized—Proportion of works of art to counterfeits—Perversion of taste and incapacity to recognize art—Examples 143
The quality of art, considered apart from its subject-matter—The sign of art: infectiousness—Incomprehensible to those whose taste is perverted—Conditions of infection: Individuality; Clearness; Sincerity 152
The quality of art, considered according to its subject-matter—The better the feeling the better the art—The cultured crowd—The religious perception of our age—The new ideals put fresh demands to art—Art unites—Religious art—Universal art—Both co-operate to one result—The new appraisement of art—Bad art—Examples of art—How to test a work claiming to be art 156
Results of absence of true art—Results of perversion of art: Labor and lives spent on what is useless and harmful—The abnormal life of the rich—Perplexity of children and plain folk—Confusion of right and wrong—Nietzsche and Redbeard—Superstition, Patriotism, and Sensuality 175
The purpose of human life is the brotherly union of man—Art must be guided by this perception 187
The art of the future not a possession of a select minority, but a means towards perfection and unity 192
The connection between science and art—The mendacious sciences; the trivial sciences—Science should deal with the great problems of human life, and serve as a basis for art 200
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