The Metaphysics of Fine Art
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~4,210 words · 20 passages
Cite this work
- APAArthur Schopenhauer. (n.d.). The Metaphysics of Fine Art. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/schopenhauer/the-metaphysics-of-fine-art
- MLAArthur Schopenhauer. The Metaphysics of Fine Art. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/schopenhauer/the-metaphysics-of-fine-art.
- ChicagoArthur Schopenhauer. The Metaphysics of Fine Art. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/schopenhauer/the-metaphysics-of-fine-art.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
A short text on art as knowledge of the Ideas and as a momentary suspension of the will.
Context and history
For Schopenhauer art is no ornament: it is the only truce there is in a world of wanting, and music is the extreme case because it represents not Ideas but the will itself. Short, and a good way into his aesthetics. This is an old English translation, in the public domain. The German original is also in the catalogue, and is what should be cited.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Therein lies the difficulty, and this is just why the condition of mind necessary in artistic creation is so rare; because all our thoughts and endeavours, our powers of sight and hearing, are always naturally exerted, directly or indirectly, in the service of our numerous personal aims, great and small. It is the will that drives the intellect to the fulfilment of its function, and the intellect flags at once if the spur is withdrawn. Rendered active in this way, the intellect is perfectly sufficient for the needs of practical life, nay, even for the kind of knowledge required in professional business. For there the aim is to understand only the relations of things, not the inner reality peculiar to them; and this kind of knowledge proceeds by applying such principles of reasoning as govern the relations in which things may stand to one another. But though in the conception of a work of art the intellect is all in all, in the execution of it, where the aim is to communicate and represent what has been conceived, the will may, nay, must become active again; just because there is an aim to be carried out. Accordingly, in this sphere, the principles of reasoning which govern the relations of things again come into play. It is in conformity with these principles that the means used by Art are so contrived as to produce artistic effects. Thus we find the painter concerned with the accuracy of his drawing and the manipulation of his colours, and the poet looking first to the arrangement of his subject and then to a right use of expression and the laws of metre.