Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 9.djvu/535

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIuHidK Al, sn hi n| l;r .VJ | their own sake can only be solved by studying the psychology both of artists and of their public. The " art-impulse " und the " art-sense," as referring to subjective tendencies in creators and spectators are the chief notions with which we have to operate in such an investigation. And when we. are obliged to introduce the notion of the "work of art" we him- to remember that this term, strictly speaking, refers to an abstract and ideal datum. Only by thus restricting our attention to the psychical facts can we attain any clear con- ception of that autotelic aspect of art on which so much stress has been laid in all aesthetic philosophy. It is needless to say, however, that even a purely philo- sophical interpretation of art would be impossible without a knowledge of the works and manifestations as they appear in real life, with all their extraneous, non-aesthetic elements. The psychological examination must therefore necessarily be supplemented by an historical one. The methods of the latter research cannot be the same as those used in a strictly aesthetic inquiry. And the words will naturally be employed in a different sense. We shall not demand of a poem, a painting or a drama that it should fulfil more than the tech- nical requirements of the several arts. The ornamentation of a vase, e.g., is in this sense a work of art even if it serves a magical, i.e., a supposed practical purpose. Indeed it is most advantageous, if we wish to bring out the influence of sociological factors with the greatest possible clearness, to concentrate our attention upon the very qualities which we have to disregard in the treatment of purely artistic activity. The productions of primitive tribes, in which art is so closely connected with life, supply the most profitable material for such a study. After having examined, in these simple forms, all the sociological aspects of art, it will be possible to place the two art-factors in the most illustrative antithesis, and to study their mutual influence. Thus we shall learn why it is that the concrete work of art, although its historical origin may be entirely non-aesthetic, has always proved so eminently adapted to serve the needs of the purely aesthetic craving. And by starting from the conception of aesthetic activities which has been arrived at on psychological grounds, it will be possible to determine the particular qualities in individual works of art which make them more or less able to satisfy this craving. The peculiar tasks of aesthetic proper, such as the critical estimation of works of art or the formulation of laws for artistic production, can therefore be undertaken only by constant reference to the psychological and sociological principles of art-theory.