The Creative Will: Studies in the Philosophy and the Syntax of Æsthetics

Excerpt from The Creative Will: Studies in the Philosophy and the Syntax of AEsthetics
Art and the Human Body. - The symbol (in the sense of philosophic analogy) of aesthetic truth, like the symbol of all knowledge, is the human body. The deeper facts of art and the deeper facts of life (the two being synonymous) can be tested by the forces, construction, poise, plasticity, needs, laws, reactions, harmonies, growth, forms and mechanism of the body. The body is the microcosmos of all life; and art, in all of its manifestations, is, in its final analysis, an interpretation of the laws of bodily rhythm and movement. The perception of art is an activity of our own consciousness. Art cannot exist as an isolated absolute: in order to be perceived it must be relative to ourselves. Our bodies are our only basis of reaction. Therefore art must accord with that basis. Furthermore, the sources and the end of nature are in the body. Only the aspects of nature are without. Nature is not discovered by way of the aspect to the symbol, but by way of the symbol to the aspect. Representation in art reveals only the aspect of life. The truth must emanate from, and be verified by, the body.
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