The Concepts of Criticism (Foundations of Language Supplementary Series, 20)

Tbis inquiry may be thought of as a sequel to The Concepts of Value and as an extension of the brief core-vocabulary of aesthetic concepts found in one of the appendices to it. In terms of sheer numbers, most of the value concepts of our language are to be found in the area of human relations and of the aesthetic. There are also other value vocabularies, shorter but equally important, for example, the cognitive and logical. These and other objects of pbilosopbical study (for example, the question of "other minds") deserve the kind of empirical survey that has been made of moral and aesthetic notions, if only to test a priori approaches to them. In the present studyan even more determined empirical approach than that adopted for the first has been found necessary. Once the moral or human value vocabulary has been identified, sentential contexts for the use of the terms readily come to mind. In a study of the language of criticism, however, the vocabulary has first to be sought in the utterances of critics themselves and quoted in sufficient context to make their critical intentions clear. The outcome is that the present study is of great length, about half of it being quotations from critics. The rule adopted for arriving at tbis length go on collecting quotations as long as new types of appraisal came was to to light. Front Matter....Pages I-XI Introduction....Pages 1-33 Front Matter....Pages 35-35 Paracritical and Noncritical Discourse....Pages 37-57 Front Matter....Pages 59-62 Creative Powers....Pages 63-100 Creative Response....Pages 101-123 Back Matter....Pages 124-124 Front Matter....Pages 125-133 Order....Pages 134-173 Elemental Quality....Pages 174-189 Presentation....Pages 190-224 Essential Characterization....Pages 225-271 Style and Totality....Pages 272-294 Contextual Characterization and Generalization....Pages 295-319 Front Matter....Pages 321-325 General and Ultimate Appraisal....Pages 326-338 Critical Source Book....Pages 339-536 Back Matter....Pages 537-551