DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41588#0095
Jan Srzednicki
Melbourne
SOME PHILOSOPHICAL REMARKS ON AESTHETICS
I am going to raise three issues. The first two are perennial, the last is perhaps emergent. In the
twenties sirst two gained specisic character due to the emerging character os philosophy, and
especially the device known as reduction or reductionism. There were other lines os development, but
it is the case that these were less novel, more traditional than the one I am going to talk about, allbeit
in a somewhat indirect manner.
The tradition I am referring to is mainly, even is not exclusively Anglo American, with an accent on
Anglo, especially in the twenties. The ideas did spread over the ocean rather later. The difserence can
be illustrated in a reasonably simple manner. While old style subjectivists held that values in general,
or even that all knowledge were simply subjective, the new style was to reduce all values, or whatever
to subjective reactions. A typical sormula was used in political philosophy — statements about states
say nothing over and above what is said by statements about individual people, and can be translated
into such statements without loss or residue. Statements about mother love, can be translated without
residue into statements about mothers loving their children, and so on. In Aesthetics all statements
about aesthetic values could be translated without residue or loss into statments about subjective
reactions by individual people (subjectivism), or into statments about relations (relativism).
In controversy one was wont to discuss eg. whether states, or mother-love or aesthetic values, could
be emerging qualities attendant on certain situations. With an answer yes, one could deny
subjectivism, or relativism, as the case may be. This is os course a gross oversimplisication, but it does
give some idea os the kind os style that emerged out os the struggle against absolute idealism
Hegelianism and similar. Other movements os the time were perhaps less new than this one, ergo
perhaps less characteristic os that time.
One cannot limit a reasonable discussion os these events to just the twenties os our century sor they
came to sruition later, and reached their hey day later as well. They came to dominate the British
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Melbourne
SOME PHILOSOPHICAL REMARKS ON AESTHETICS
I am going to raise three issues. The first two are perennial, the last is perhaps emergent. In the
twenties sirst two gained specisic character due to the emerging character os philosophy, and
especially the device known as reduction or reductionism. There were other lines os development, but
it is the case that these were less novel, more traditional than the one I am going to talk about, allbeit
in a somewhat indirect manner.
The tradition I am referring to is mainly, even is not exclusively Anglo American, with an accent on
Anglo, especially in the twenties. The ideas did spread over the ocean rather later. The difserence can
be illustrated in a reasonably simple manner. While old style subjectivists held that values in general,
or even that all knowledge were simply subjective, the new style was to reduce all values, or whatever
to subjective reactions. A typical sormula was used in political philosophy — statements about states
say nothing over and above what is said by statements about individual people, and can be translated
into such statements without loss or residue. Statements about mother love, can be translated without
residue into statements about mothers loving their children, and so on. In Aesthetics all statements
about aesthetic values could be translated without residue or loss into statments about subjective
reactions by individual people (subjectivism), or into statments about relations (relativism).
In controversy one was wont to discuss eg. whether states, or mother-love or aesthetic values, could
be emerging qualities attendant on certain situations. With an answer yes, one could deny
subjectivism, or relativism, as the case may be. This is os course a gross oversimplisication, but it does
give some idea os the kind os style that emerged out os the struggle against absolute idealism
Hegelianism and similar. Other movements os the time were perhaps less new than this one, ergo
perhaps less characteristic os that time.
One cannot limit a reasonable discussion os these events to just the twenties os our century sor they
came to sruition later, and reached their hey day later as well. They came to dominate the British
93