Critique of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

Where it surfaces

• What Is Art?

  Tolstoy directly challenges the foundations of aesthetic philosophy, arguing that existing definitions are subjective and fail to capture the essence of art.

• I

  Tolstoy highlights the self-contradictory nature of art criticism, where different schools deny each other's legitimacy, leaving no clear definition of art.

• Chapter II

  Tolstoy deconstructs the vague and contradictory definitions of beauty offered by philosophers over 150 years.

• Chapter III: Aesthetic Theories of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

  Tolstoy systematically critiques the major aesthetic theories, finding them contradictory and obscure.

• IV

  Tolstoy systematically dismantles existing aesthetic theories that define art by beauty or pleasure, arguing they are circular and self-serving.

• VII

  Tolstoy systematically dismantles the invented science of aesthetics, arguing it has no foundation in ancient thought and merely justifies the pleasure-seeking art of the elite.

• XII

  Critics are described as incapable of being infected by art, and their praise of invented works perverts taste.

• III

  The chapter implicitly criticizes the aesthetic standards that would celebrate such a work, suggesting that critics and audiences have been misled.

• Endnotes

  The endnotes extensively cite Schasler, Knight, and others, critiquing the metaphysical and historical foundations of aesthetics.