22 May 2009

Gilson

Etienne Gilson's Arts of the Beautiful sort of misses the whole picture, i think, but this is a good quote:

“To assign art its end is to assign its nature.”


2 comments:

La Bibliotecaria Laura said...

That is simply a Thomistic and even more specifically Aristotelian idea of Telos... that a thing's nature is determined by its end... a seed is an oak in its aim, or end. Gilson is just applying this to art...

I don't know if any of the Neo-Thomists do a good job with aesthetics. There is a really excellent book by Umberto Eco which deals with the aesthetics of Aquinas called _The aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas_. It is a worthwhile read for anyone interested. :)

j'aime said...

Bibliotecaria,

i think gilson makes some good points; i think it is the narrowness of his topic, rather than of his philosophy, that limits the book.
i do think that Maritain is excellent, especially in his Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry. i have been trying to get my hands on his Liturgy and Contemplation, which i would love to read.