[Note: for this online edition I have moved the Table of Contents to the beginning of the text and slightly modified it to conform with the online format. I have also made one spelling change: "ominiscient intelligence" to "omniscient intelligence".]

THE SENSE OF BEAUTY

BEING THE OUTLINES OF AESTHETIC THEORY

by

GEORGE SANTAYANA

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON

COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS

[Preface]
[Introduction — The Methods of Aesthetics]1-13
[Part I. — The Nature of Beauty]
§ 1. [The philosophy of beauty is a theory of values] 14
§ 2. [Preference is ultimately irrational] 18
§ 3. [Contrast between moral and aesthetic values] 28
§ 4. [Work and play] 25
§ 5. [All values are in one sense aesthetic] 28
§ 6. [Aesthetic consecration of general principles] 31
§ 7. [Contrast of aesthetic and physical pleasures] 35
§ 8. [The differentia of aesthetic pleasure not its disinterestedness] 37
§ 9. [The differentia of aesthetic pleasure not its universality] 40
§ 10. [The differential of aesthetic pleasure: its objectification] 44
§ 11. [The definition of beauty] 49
[Part II. — The Materials of Beauty]
§ 12. [All human functions may contribute to the sense of beauty] 53
§ 13. [The influence of the passion of love] 56
§ 14. [Social instincts and their aesthetic influence] 62
§ 15. [The lower senses] 65
§ 16. [Sound] 68
§ 17. [Colour] 72
§ 18. [Materials surveyed] 76
[Part III. — Form]
§ 19. [There is a beauty of form] 82
§ 20. [Physiology of the perception of form] 85
§ 21. [Values of geometrical figures] 88
§ 22. [Symmetry] 91
§ 23. [Form the unity of a manifold] 95
§ 24. [Multiplicity in uniformity] 97
§ 25. [Example of the stars] 100
§ 26. [Defects of pure multiplicity] 106
§ 27. [Aesthetics of democracy] 110
§ 28. [Values of types and values of examples] 112
§ 29. [Origin of types] 116
§ 30. [The average modified in the direction of pleasure] 121
§ 31. [Are all things beautiful?] 126
§ 32. [Effects of indeterminate form] 131
§ 33. [Example of landscape] 133
§ 34. [Extensions to objects usually not regarded aesthetically] 138
§ 35. [Further dangers of indeterminateness] 142
§ 36. [The illusion of infinite perfection] 146
§ 37. [Organized nature the source of apperceptive forms] 152
§ 38. [Utility the principle of organization in nature] 155
§ 39. [The relation of utility to beauty] 157
§ 40. [Utility the principle of organization in the arts] 160
§ 41. [Form and adventitious ornament] 163
§ 42. [Syntactical form] 167
§ 42. [Literary form. The plot] 171
§ 44. [Character as an aesthetic form] 174
§ 45. [Ideal characters] 176
§ 46. [The religious imagination] 180
§ 47. [Preference is ultimately irrational] 185
[Part IV. — Expression]
§ 48. [Expression defined] 192
§ 49. [The associative process] 198
§ 50. [Kinds of value in the second term] 201
§ 51. [Aesthetic value in the second term] 205
§ 52. [Practical value in the same] 208
§ 53. [Cost as an element of effect] 211
§ 54. [The expression of economy and fitness] 214
§ 55. [The authority of morals over aesthetics] 218
§ 56. [Negative values in the second term] 221
§ 57. [Influence of the first term in the pleasing expression of evil] 226
§ 58. [Mixture of other expressions, including that of truth] 228
§ 59. [The liberation of self] 233
§ 60. [The sublime independent of the expression of evil] 239
§ 61. [The comic] 245
§ 62. [Wit] 250
§ 63. [Humour] 253
§ 64. [The grotesque] 256
§ 65. [The possibility of finite perfection] 258
§ 66. [The stability of the ideal] 263
§ 67. [Conclusion]266-270
[Footnotes]
[Index]271-275