Santayana, Art, and Aesthetics (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 303 understands Nietzsche's objections to a Hitler. Hitler was not sufficiently radical for Nietzsche or for Nietzsche's heir, Heidegger. Intellectually dishonest or self-deluded from Nietzsche's point of view, Hitler insisted upon viewing Aryans as naturally or inherently superior to inferior races. Similarly, the Jew=haters castigated by Nietzsche were convinced that Christians or Aryans were inherently superior. In this spirit, Nietzsche would have subscribed to Heidegger's distinction between "the inner truth and greatness" of Nazism and its corruption by those who, like Hitler, justified their deeds by fishing in "the murky waters of values and universals" (Einfiihrung in die Metaphysik, p. 152). In short, Hitler was too Platonic for the radical relativists, Nietzsche and Heidegger. Neither objected to bestial, arbitrary measures as such, so long as no attempt at justification was made by recourse to standards whose apprehension presupposed an objective, Platonic-Aristotelian intellect (cf. G. K. Romoser, "Heidegger and Political Philosophy," The Review o] Politics, XXIX [1967], 261-268). Kaufmaun's interpretation of the "Nazi" elements in The Will to Power tends to overlook Nietzsche's radical sympathy with the practice of Nazism as distinct from its theory or ideology. The following minor errors were noted: p. 67, n. 83: Freisch~tz ascribed to Lortzing; p. 461, n. 2: "gold" should be "golden"; p. 479, n. 12: "esay"; p. 514, n. 60: "kep"; p. 336, aphorism 630: "I beware of" for "Ieh hire reich"; p. 348, aphorism 659: "is" should be "it" (line 4 from end); p. 354, aphorism 670: "little images" for "Bildern" (why "little"?); pp. 423424 , aphorism 804: incomplete translation; p. 432, aphorism 815: "membership" for "meisterschaft"; p. 487, aphorism 921: "bewaring of" for "Vorsicht vor"; p. 505, aphorism 963 : "englightened." HAP~Y N~.VMAm~ Scripps College Claremont, Cali]ornia Santayana, Art, and Aesthetics. By Jerome Ashmore. (Cleveland: The Press of Western Reserve University, 1966. Pp. ix -f 139. $5) Neither interpretation nor criticism, Jerome Aslunore's work is essentially an exposition, with some analysis, of Santayana's writings about art and the arts. The distinction made in the title is between aesthetics--in Santayana's case mainly a theory of beauty--and the meaning, role, and importance of art to man and society. A third matter that is treated does not get into the title : literary criticism. Santayana's traffic with art was a lifelong preoccupation, starting with his first book The Sense o] Beauty and including Reason in Art, Three Philosophical Poets, Interpretations o] Poetry and Religion, parts of Dominions and Powers, and some essays. He knew that he was regarded by many people as a philosopher of art, although he did not believe there could be such a thing, but he always insisted he was a moralist. That was because he judged art, in the end, by its contribution to social progress and human happiness, and sharply rebuked the pretensions of artists to autonomy or importance per se. All the same, Santayana was a real, though usually unacknowledged, influence on criticism and an important and acknowledged influence on aesthetics. (Are critics more jealous than philosophers of a reputation for originality?) Mr. Ashmore does a thorough and careful job on this aspect of Santayana's philosophy and is very helpful in establishing its systematic quality. As he describes Santayana's writings, it becomes clear how much of their persuasiveness and power come from the single-mindedness with which he developed and elaborated a set of ideas he held as a young man and expressed briefly in his verse. How different he was in this from Russell and Wittgenstein, whether for good or ill I RALP~ Ross Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School Claremont, CaliIornia 304 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Conversazionl dl Estetica. By Lulgi Pareyson. (Milan: U. Mursia, 1966.Pp. 187. L 1600) Some of these 22 essays by Luigi Pareyson, editor of Riv~ta di Estetica, were read at international meetings or congresses; others were published in Rivista di Estetica or in Filosofia. But most of them have not been published thus far and deal with aesthetic problems which are of special concern to Pareyson. Some are historical and reflect on the aesthetics of Croce, Stefanini, or Kierkegaard...