Æsthetic as science of expression and general linguistic — John Shaqi
Æsthetic as science of expression and general linguisticCroce, Benedetto
Philosophy
Æsthetic as science of expression and general linguistic
Croce, Benedetto
Aesthetics; Language and languages -- Philosophy; Philosophy
Those, therefore, who look upon intuition as sensation formed and
arranged simply according to the categories of space and time, would
seem to approximate more nearly to the truth. Space and time (they
say) are the forms of intuition; to have an intuition is to place
it in space and in temporal sequence. Intuitive activity would then
consist in this double and concurrent function of spatiality and
temporality. But for these two categories must be repeated what was
said of intellectual distinctions, when found mingled with intuitions.
We have intuitions without space and without time: the colour of a
sky, the colour of a feeling, a cry of pain and an effort of will,
objectified in consciousness: these are intuitions which we possess,
and with their making space and time have nothing to do. In some
intuitions, spatiality may be found without temporality, in others,
_vice versa_; and even where both are found, they are perceived by
later reflexion: they can be fused with the intuition in like manner
with all its other elements: that is, they are in it _materialiter_
and not _formaliter,_ as ingredients and not as arrangement. Who,
without an act of reflexion which for a moment breaks in upon his
contemplation, can think of space while looking at a drawing or a
view? Who is conscious of temporal sequence while listening to a story
or a piece of music without breaking into it with a similar act of
reflexion? What intuition reveals in a work of art is not space and
time, but _character, individual physiognomy._ The view here maintained
is confirmed in several quarters of modern philosophy. Space and time,
far from being simple and primitive functions, are nowadays conceived
as intellectual constructions of great complexity. And further, even
in some of those who do not altogether deny to space and time the
quality of formative principles, categories and functions, one observes
an effort to unite them and to regard them in a different manner from
that in which these categories are generally conceived. Some limit
intuition to the sole category of spatiality, maintaining that even
time can only be intuited in terms of space. Others abandon the three
dimensions of space as not philosophically necessary, and conceive the
function of spatiality as void of all particular spatial determination.
But what could such a spatial function be, a simple arrangement that
should arrange even time? It represents, surely, all that criticism
and refutation have left standing--the bare demand for the affirmation
of some intuitive activity in general. And is not this activity
truly determined, when one single function is attributed to it, not
spatializing nor temporalizing, but characterizing? Or rather, when it
is conceived as itself a category or function which gives us knowledge
of things in their concreteness and individuality?
[Sidenote: _Intuition and sensation._]
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