CHAPTER XVIII 



HELMHOLTZ ON ESTHETICS 



is still one department of human 

 -*- thought in which Helmholtz made his mark. 

 His manifold studies in the physiology of vision and 

 of hearing brought him into relationship with the 

 principles of art, and with that branch of philosophy 

 which we include under the name of aesthetics. He 

 was a lover of art in all its forms, and the contempla- 

 tion of works of art was one of his favourite recrea- 

 tions. The writings of Kant, Schelling, Hegel, and 

 Schopenhauer on art were familiar to him, and 

 although he did not agree with the metaphysical 

 conceptions on which many of their notions were 

 founded, his writings show that they exercised an 

 important influence on his ideas. On the whole, his 

 notions as to what constitutes the beautiful lean to 

 those of Kant, namely, that the beautiful, through 

 the harmony of its form with the faculty of know- 

 ledge, awakens a disinterested, universal, and necessary 

 satisfaction. Art is not merely the pleasure of the 

 senses ; it has in view the feeling of pleasure, but it 

 always implies judgment. It must be free from 

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