102 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



56. 

 Herbart. 



moment, most, if not exclusive, attention in Germany, 

 where the metaphysical or essentially philosophical 

 treatment has wellnigh died out.-^ 



This fundamental change may be traced back to the 

 influence of the writings of Herbart. Ilerbart himself 

 has not devoted any larger treatise ^ to aesthetics. 



^ This becomes very evident if we 

 compare with the historical works 

 of Schasler, Lotze, and Bosanquet, 

 referred to in the text, such recent 

 statements as are contained in the 

 two representative works frequent- 

 ly referred to already in earlier 

 chapters, the ' Festschrift ' in hon- 

 our of Kuno Fischer, and the 

 volume entitled ' Systematische 

 Philosophic. ' The former contains 

 an article on " ^Esthetics" by Prof. 

 Karl Groos. He distinguishes be- 

 tween a metaphysical, a critical, 

 and a psychological treatment of 

 sesthetical problems, finds that the 

 first survives mostly only in the 

 influence of Schopenhauer's specula- 

 tion, but that the latter defines the 

 position of the majority of recent 

 philosophical writers on .Esthetics, 

 defining the latter as a " psychology 

 of ajsthetical enjoyment and artistic 

 creation" (quoted from Kiilpe, vol. 

 ii. p. 138). He then enters on an 

 interesting discussion of the ques- 

 tion whether psychology is able to 

 deal with the highest problems of 

 ffisthetical judgment or value which 

 the critical treatment puts in the 

 foreground, and comes to the con- 

 clusion that psj'chologists might do 

 well if they left out the reference 

 to value, especiallj' if it were pos- 

 sible to arrive through a critical 

 analysis at absolute standards, 

 which he, however, considers 

 to be doubtful (p. 149). The 

 author tlien deals at some length 

 with a conception which pervades 

 recent esthetics, notably in Ger- 

 many, and which has received 



through R. Vischer a special desig- 

 nation — namely, the term EinfiM- 

 ung. It means that sesthetical 

 contemplation and enjoyment is 

 based upon the possibility of " feel- 

 ing yourself into " the object you 

 contemplate. This view is also 

 that of another prominent repre- 

 sentative of modern German aes- 

 thetics. Prof. Theodor Lipps, who 

 makes it the principal subject of 

 his article on " Esthetics " in the 

 other volume mentioned above, and 

 enlarges it by the conception of ajs- 

 thetical sympathy ; his definition of 

 the sensation of the beautiful being 

 " the feeling of a positive living 

 activity which I experience in a 

 sensuous object" (Lipps' ' Grund- 

 legung der ^sthetik,' 1903, p. 140). 

 In the interest of the history of 

 Thought it is gratifying to see that 

 both authors trace the beginning of 

 this conception to the writings of 

 Lotze in his ' Historj' ' as well as in 

 his ' Microcosmus.' An interesting 

 account of recent German esthetics 

 from this special point of view 

 " which at present governs it " 

 ('Systematische Philosophie,' p. 

 385) will be found in a valuable 

 article by Vernon Lee on "Recent 

 ^Esthetics " in the April number of 

 'The Quarterly Review,' 1904, to 

 which I desire especially to direct 

 the attention of my readers. 



^ The principal passages in Her- 

 bart's Works which refer to this 

 subject will be found in his ' Intro- 

 duction to Philosophy ' (1813), re- 

 printed in the first vol. of the 

 ' Collected Works,' ed. by Harten- 



