Art and Morality: Essays in the Spirit of George Santayana (American Philosophy)

The Guiding Theme Of These Essays By Aesthetician, Musician, And Santayana Scholar Morris Grossman Is The Importance Of Preserving The Tension Between What Can Be Unified And What Is Disorganized, Random, And Miscellaneous. Grossman Described This As The Tension Between Art And Morality: Art Arrests A Sense Of Change And Yields Moments Of Unguarded Enjoyment And Peace; But Soon, Shifting Circumstances Compel Evaluation, Decision, And Action. According To Grossman, The Best Art Preserves The Tension Between The Aesthetic Consummation Of Experience And The Press Of Morality Understood As The Business Of Navigating Conflicts, Making Choices, And Meeting Needs. This Concern Was Intimately Related To His Reading Of George Santayana. The Best Philosophy, Like The Best Art, Preserves The Tension Between What Can Be Ordered And What Resists Assimilation, And Grossman Read Santayana As Exemplifying This Virtue In His Embrace Of Multiple Perspectives. Other Scholars Have Noted The Multiplicity Or Irony In Santayana's Work, But Grossman Was Unique In Taking Such A Style To Be A Substantive Part Of Santayana's Philosophizing-- Considers The Tension Between Art And Morality In Literature, Artistic Performance, Economics, Statecraft, And Human Rights; In Religion, Drama, Sculpture, Philosophical Methodology, Biography, And Attitudes Toward Mortality; In The Work Of Gotthold Lessing, Lewis Carroll, Charles Peirce, Leo Tolstoy, William James, Jean-paul Sartre, Monroe Beardsley, And George Santayana-- Art And Morality: On The Ambiguity Of A Distinction -- Morality Bound And Unbound: Some Parameters Of Literary Art -- Music, Modulation, And Metaphor -- Performance And Obligation: Musical Variations On Art And Morality -- A Mozartian Recognition Scene -- A Note On Economy And Art -- An Aesthetic Glance At The Constitution: Style, Intention, Performance -- Human Rights And Artistic Appreciations -- Interpreting Peirce -- On Ruf's The Creation Of Chaos: William James And The Stylistic Making Of A Disorderly World -- How Sartre Must Be Read: An Examination Of Philosophic Method -- On Beardsley's An Aesthetic Definition Of Art -- Lessing As Philosophical Dramatist: On Nathan The Wise -- Lewis Carroll: Pedophile And/or Platonist? -- Art And Death: A Sermon In The Form Of An Essay -- Brancusi: Some Changing And Changeless Perspectives -- Drama And Dialectic: Ways Of Philosophizing -- Ontology And Morality: Santayana On The Really Real -- Spirited Spirituality -- Interpreting Interpretations -- Santayana's Aesthetics -- Santayana's The Last Puritan -- Santayana In California: The Environment, Transcendentalism, And Nature -- Ultimate Santayana. Morris Grossman ; Edited By Martin A. Coleman. Includes Index. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page xi) Editor's Preface (page xiii) Introduction (page 1) Part I. Art and Morality 1 Art and Morality: On the Ambiguity of a Distinction (page 19) 2 Morality Bound and Unbound: Some Parameters of Literary Art (page 27) 3 Music, Modulation, and Metaphor (page 33) 4 Performance and Obligation: Musical Variations on Art and Morality (page 57) 5 A Mozartian Recognition Scene (page 85) 6 A Note on Economy and Art (page 91) 7 An Aesthetic Glance at the Constitution: Style, Intention, Performance (page 97) 8 Human Rights and Artistic Appreciations (page 107) Part II. Artistic Philosophers and Philosophical Artists 9 Interpreting Peirce (page 117) 10 On Ruf's The Creation of Chaos: William James and the Stylistic Making of a Disorderly World (page 127) 11 How Sartre Must Be Read: An Examination of a Philosophic Method (page 133) 12 On Beardsley's "An Aesthetic Definition of Art (page 145) 13 Lessing as Philosophical Dramatist: On Nathan the Wise (page 161) 14 Lewis Carroll: Pedophile and/or Platonist? (page 177) 15 Art and Death: A Sermon in the Form of an Essay (page 191) 16 Brancusi: Some Changing and Changeless Perspectices (page 199) Part III. Santayana 17 Drama and Dialectic: Ways of Philosophizing (page 211) 18 Ontology and Morality: Santayana on the "Really Real" (page 229) 19 Spirited Spirituality (page 239) 20 Interpreting Interpretations (page 249) 21 Santayana's Aesthetics (page 263) 22 Santayana's The Last Puritan (page 267) 23 Santayana in California: The Environment, Transcendentalism, and Nature (page 275) 24 Ultimate Santayana (page 281) Notes (page 295) Index (page 313)