Æsthetic: As science of expression and general linguistic by Benedetto Croce

Æsthetic: As science of expression and general linguistic Reviews

• 
  Calmbob

  For me, this book isn't about aesthetics as "the beautiful", but about understanding how to function with some kind of real sense in a world that is all-to-much in the grips of Cartesian rationality. Even if philosophy long ago (like 300 years) moved beyond the mechanical world view of Descartes, the professional/engineering world in which I work is still bound to a narrow view that discounts impulses that cannot be addressed within a reductionist framework. This book gives help, or at least the feeling of company, in bringing concerns forward that are usually absent in professional/engineering circles. It's also a good preread to Gramsci and to Merleau-Ponty.
• 
  John Barber

  I'm happy I have a degree in philosophy or I would not have finished the book due to its technical verbiage. However, it was extremely useful as a tool in my doctoral research that included a section on aesthetics. Croce's idealism pervades the book which keeps him from grounding aesthetics in the reality he thought he had discovered. The result is a view of aesthetics and linguistics (Croce ties the two together well) that floats in abstraction. His work remains a classic read on the contemporary distinction in aesthetics between the expressive and the representative functions of art.
• 
  Andrea

  Non vi è molto da dire sul tentativo di Croce di riassegnare dignità all'intuizione, modalità di conoscenza del fatto estetico - che è forma, e nient'altro che forma - tramite una spietata critica delle teoriche precedenti sull'Estetica, che avevano finito per oscurarne la valenza gnoseologica: rivoluzionaria nell'epoca in cui fu scritta, e subito direttamente inattuale per comprendere il '900 letterario, artistico, e più in generale culturale.
  
  L'unica ragione, dunque, per leggere quantomeno la parte di "Teoria" della sua "Estetica", è per liberarsi dai pregiudizi, negare la stessa opera, e ripartire tramite siffatta purificazione intellettuale con un nuovo percorso, quello che Croce, pur avendo avuto possibilità e strumenti, scelse di non compiere poiché schiavo della circolarità in cui aveva ascritto il proprio sistema filosofico, nonché della sua formazione classicista verso cui si rivolgeva nel pensare all'arte.
• 
  João Victor

  O melhor livro sobre estética já feito
• 
  William Anderson

  This book is an unnecessarily tough read. While insights, and sections are well worth the effort, often you may find yourself lost in intense verbosity that obfuscates any semblance of meaning from the text.
  
  This may in part be a product of the translation, though my assumption is that given its date and subject that that is more true to form. However, this piece still remains at the very least the most affordable text on Aesthetic as a science and its delve into its relationship to speech is intriguing and ultimately well constructed as long as you are willing to swim in circles long enough to find the meaning.
• 
  Marcus

  Tough read. But well worth the struggle.
• 
  Tim Houston

  "Poetry is the maternal language of human kind." - Benedetto Croce (1866 - 1952)