A General View of Positivism: Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and LifeComte, Auguste
Philosophy
A General View of Positivism: Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and Life
Comte, Auguste
Positivism
The popular element of the spiritual power has not so well marked an
aptitude for art, since the active nature of their occupations hardly
admits of the same degree of intellectual life. But there is a minor
class of poems, where energy of character and freedom from worldly
cares are the chief sources of inspiration, for which working men
are better adapted than women, and far more so than philosophers.
When Positivist education has extended sufficiently to the People of
the West, poets and musicians will spontaneously arise, as in many
cases they have already risen, to give expression to its own special
aspirations. But independently of what may be due to individual
efforts, the People as a whole has an indirect but most important
influence upon the Progress of Art, from the fact of being the
principal source of language.
Such, then, is the position which Art will finally assume in the
Positive system. There will be no class at present, exclusively devoted
to it, with the exception of a few special masters. But there will be
a general education, enabling every class to appreciate all the modes
of idealization, and encouraging their culture among the three elements
which constitute the moral force of society and which are excluded
from political government. Among these there will be a division of
esthetic labour. Poetry descriptive of public life will emanate from
the philosophic class. The poetry of personal or domestic life will
be written by women or working men, according as affection or energy
may be the source of inspiration. Thus the form of mental activity
most appropriate to Humanity will be more specially developed among
those classes in which the various features of our nature are most
prominently exhibited. The only classes who cannot participate in
this pleasant task are those whose life is occupied by considerations
of power or wealth, and whose enjoyment of Art, though heightened by
the education which they in common with others will receive, must
remain essentially passive. Our idealizing powers will henceforth be
directly concentrated on a work of the highest social importance, the
purification of our moral nature. The speciality by which so much of
the natural charm of Art was lost will cease, and the moral dangers of
a life exclusively devoted to the faculty of expression, will exist no
longer.
[Value of Art in the present
crisis]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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