Empiricism and Aesthetics

EMPIRICISM AND AESTHETICS I T is not strange that an age that marks its greatest achievements in the physical sciences should be tempted to re-examine traditional philosophical statements about the nature of truth and goodness and beauty with the tool that has been revealing so many other secrets of the universe. Consequently, in an effort to delimit the terms of a discussion of values in the humanities, one encounters innumerable aesthetic positions, each approaching man and art differently and, therefore, each analyzing the relationships of empiricism and aesthetics in its own way. Even a simple definition of terms must be defended since it inevitably will favor one or another point of view. Instead of assuming an eclectic approach or discussing only one opinion, this study will examine three positions: Positivism, Pragmatism, and Thomism. Their solutions to the problem of the significance of empiricism, in terms of disparate aesthetic positions are, to a certain degree, substantially different. If there is any common ground here, it is not in aesthetic definitions or in the relevance of empiricism. Moreover, even within the ranks of these philosophies there are minor squabbles. Thomists, Pragmatists, and Positivists have their own family arguments. But, in general, the positions are representative of various approaches that have been assumed. At any rate, the subject matter involves the acts, powers, and habits of man and his " art." At this point it is safer to omit any discussion of " values " since this word is a signal to spring to the defence of one's philosophical position; it is wiser to look for agreement at the start. It seems that one can begin by defining empiricism and evoke fewer objections from various stands. In its broadest meaning, empiricism is the study of phenomena and changing dimensions in the region of particular experiences. This definition is so wide as to include any kind of self-analysis, either the intro90 EMPIRICISM AND AESTHETICS 91 spection that observes what is common experience shared by all men, the type used by Aristotle or Aquinas: spontaneous utterances of everyone's sense of reality; or introspective analysis of a special experience, a scientific tool developed by Kiilpe and the Wiirzburg school of psychology: In order to avoid the objections generally leveled at introspective methods by behaviorists or structuralists, this paper will exclude any kind of self-analysis from the meaning of empiricism. Obviously, observation of experience can be of various kinds. For example, in 1938 a New York radio station polled its listeners and discovered that Beethoven's fifth and seventh symphonies were first and second among favorite compositions requested in 23.9 and 18.3 per cent of letters received. Tschaikovsky 's fifth, sixth, and fourth symphonies took third, fifth, and seventh place; and Beethoven's ninth, third, and seventh ranked fourth, sixth, and twelfth, respectively. Wagner and Brahms just about tied for third in these tabulations.2 However , despite the huge populations and percentages which seem to lend a certain amount of authority and scientific aura, any conclusions from such a loosely organized popularity poll are suspect. Of what significance is the poor showing of a composer like Bach or of a form like opera? A more rigorous control of subjects and materials is needed for a study to qualify as topdrawer empiricism. More must be known about the subjects than that they are " music lovers " who listen to serious music on their radios. A more ideal empiric approach is represented by Charles Morris' study of human values." In his research he attempted to determine the values basic to human nature by means of statistical investigation. Morris submitted a questionnaire describing different "ways of life," Christianity, Buddhism, et 1 Robert Brennan, Thomistic Psychology (New York: Macmillan, 1941), pp. 58-9; and John Dashiell, "Introspection," Encyclopedia Americana, 1958 ed., XV, ~!!. •wallace Brockway and Herbert Weinstock, Men of Music (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), p. 194n and p. 481n. • Charles Morris, Varieties of Human Value (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956) . 92 EDMUND J. DEHNERT cetera, to carefully screened groups from all parts of the world. Each individual in the survey ranked these ideologies according to his own feelings about moral standards. A similar study was...