Irving Babbitt the Aestheticians

his original monistic theory of beauty
(art=expression) and introduce a dual
criterion. How much simpler and truer it
would be to say, with Babbitt: “narrow
art” may be perfect as expression, but
what is expressed is too superficial. Why
did Croce shy away from this obvious con-
clusion when the facts of aesthetic experi-
ence were so obvious to him? He had
staked his prestige on a theory that re-
jected as “moralism” any reference to the
varying ethical quality of the “what.” It
would have been more honest, less mis-
leading, if he had followed Pallavicino’s
example of openly recanting the superficial
aestheticism he had once embraced.
IV
Will contemporary aesthetic theory,
which is based on the Romantic Aestheti-
cism that also inspired Croce’s Estetica
and which has indeed developed under the
continuous influence of this work, grad-
ually move in the direction of a new
Classicism, as did Croce himself? Will it
extricate itself from that flirtation with
our modern Baroque by which Professors
of Philosophy try to give evidence of their
aesthetic sensibility? Will they rediscover
and re-examine the nexus that unites
aesthetic and moral values, both with one
another and with the total context of hu-
man life? Will aesthetic theory follow the
road already taken by the most discerning
of modern critics? Some of the representa-
tive works in this new vein are Wladimir
Weid16’s Les abeiUes GAristBe, Roger Cail-
lois’ Babel, Walter Muschg’s Die Zersto-
rung der deutschen Literatur; also a book
recently translated into English, Hans
Sedlmayr’s Art in Crisis. To a considerable
extent the philosophical aestheticians are
lagging behind the critics; their books still
read like translations into technical termi-
nology of a somewhat domesticated Oscar
Wilde. When they catch up with the crit-
ics, the time will have come for a long-de-
layed discovery of Irving Babbitt in the
field of aesthetics similar to that which has
already taken place in political theory
through the writings of Russell Kirk and
Peter Viereck.
Notes
I. Babbitt, Rorcsseau and Romanticism, 1919, pp.
171-2 (Meridian Books pp. 307-8).
E. Cassirer, An Essay on Man, 1944, pp. 147,
169 f.
B. Croce, Saggi sulla letteratura italiana del
Seicento, 1911, pp. xxi, 171 f., 382 f., 413, 429.
Nuovi saggi di estetica, 1920, pp. 70, 132-8.
Aesthetic (D. Ainslie’s transl.), pp. 194, 201 f.
Scoria della et6 barocca in ltalia, Bari 1929,
D. 324.
I. &Edman, Arts and the Man (Mentor Books),
pp. 28, 30, 71, 132.
G. R. Hocke. Die Velt als Labyrinth. Hamburg -
1957 (Rowohlt).
Manierismus in der Literatur, Hamburg 1959
(Rowohlt).
S. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key (Mentor
Books), pp. 82, 178-198.
Feeling and Form, London 1953, p. 292.
V. Sainati. L’estetica di Benedetto Croce. Firenze
1953. ’
A. Warren, New England Saints, Ann Arbor
1956, pp. 154-161.
W. K. Wimsatt, Jr. and Cl. Brooks, Literary Crit-
icism, New York 1957.
See also F. Leander, “Irving Babbitt and Bene-
detto Croce” in Goteborgsstudier i litteratur-
historia tilliignade Sverker Ek, Goteborg 1954.
404 Fall 1960