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SCHOPENHAUR’S AESTHETICS
The essence of the work of art is to create a moment in which we feel the breath of the infinite.
― Lee Ufan
“SCHOPENHAUR’S AESTHETICS”
“The supreme fact about life according to Schopenhauer is that it is dominated by will; and the importance of art lies in the rare capacity it has to escape from this domination.
'If, raised by the power of mind, a man relinquishes the common way of looking at things, gives up tracing, under the guidance of the forms of the principle of sufficient reason, their relations to each other, the final goal of which is always a relation to his own will, if he thus ceases to consider the where, the when, the why, and the whither of things, and looks simply and solely at the what; if, further, he does not allow abstract thought, the concepts of the reason, to take possession of his consciousness, but, instead of all this, gives the whole power of his mind to perception, sinks himself entirely in this, and lets his whole consciousness be filled with the quiet contemplation of the natural object actually present, whether a landscape, a tree, a mountain, a building, or whatever it may be, inasmuch as he loses himself in this object i.e., forgets even his individuality, his will, and only continues to exist as the pure subject, the clear mirror of the object, so that it is as if the object alone were there, without any one to perceive it, and he can no longer separate the perceiver from the perception, but both have become one, because the whole consciousness is filled and occupied with one single sensuous picture, if thus the object has to such an extent passed out of all relation to something outside it, and the subject out of all relation to the will, then that which is so known is no longer the particular thing as such, but it is the Idea, the eternal form, and, therefore, he who is sunk in this perception is no longer individual, for in such perception the individual has lost himself, but he is pure, will-less, painless, timeless subject of knowledge.' (1, p. 231)”
Diffey, T.J., “Shchopenhaur’s Account of Aesthetic Experience,” British Journal of Aesthetics, Vo. 30, No 2, April 1990.
The essence of the work of art is to create a moment in which we feel the breath of the infinite.
― Lee Ufan
“SCHOPENHAUR’S AESTHETICS”
“The supreme fact about life according to Schopenhauer is that it is dominated by will; and the importance of art lies in the rare capacity it has to escape from this domination.
'If, raised by the power of mind, a man relinquishes the common way of looking at things, gives up tracing, under the guidance of the forms of the principle of sufficient reason, their relations to each other, the final goal of which is always a relation to his own will, if he thus ceases to consider the where, the when, the why, and the whither of things, and looks simply and solely at the what; if, further, he does not allow abstract thought, the concepts of the reason, to take possession of his consciousness, but, instead of all this, gives the whole power of his mind to perception, sinks himself entirely in this, and lets his whole consciousness be filled with the quiet contemplation of the natural object actually present, whether a landscape, a tree, a mountain, a building, or whatever it may be, inasmuch as he loses himself in this object i.e., forgets even his individuality, his will, and only continues to exist as the pure subject, the clear mirror of the object, so that it is as if the object alone were there, without any one to perceive it, and he can no longer separate the perceiver from the perception, but both have become one, because the whole consciousness is filled and occupied with one single sensuous picture, if thus the object has to such an extent passed out of all relation to something outside it, and the subject out of all relation to the will, then that which is so known is no longer the particular thing as such, but it is the Idea, the eternal form, and, therefore, he who is sunk in this perception is no longer individual, for in such perception the individual has lost himself, but he is pure, will-less, painless, timeless subject of knowledge.' (1, p. 231)”
Diffey, T.J., “Shchopenhaur’s Account of Aesthetic Experience,” British Journal of Aesthetics, Vo. 30, No 2, April 1990.