# Critique of Aesthetics and Art Criticism in What Is Art?

> Theme guide for What Is Art? by Leo Tolstoy.

The book condemns formal aesthetic theories and professional art critics for justifying whatever art pleases the elite, thereby perverting taste and promoting counterfeit works over genuine art.

## Where it surfaces

- [What Is Art?](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/iii): Tolstoy systematically critiques the major aesthetic theories, finding them contradictory and obscure.
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/iv): Tolstoy systematically dismantles existing aesthetic theories that define art by beauty or pleasure, arguing they are circular and self-serving.
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/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](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/xii): Critics are described as incapable of being infected by art, and their praise of invented works perverts taste.
- [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/iii): The chapter implicitly criticizes the aesthetic standards that would celebrate such a work, suggesting that critics and audiences have been misled.
- [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/chapters/endnotes): The endnotes extensively cite Schasler, Knight, and others, critiquing the metaphysical and historical foundations of aesthetics.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/themes/critique_of_aesthetics_and_criticism
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_art_se/themes