المستخلص
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It is the purpose of my study here to trace the varying relations between form and content in aesthetics, the philosophy of fine art. By the word art I mean a different shape that renders content beauty, whether that shape is a sonnet, a painting, a limestone relief, a symphony, a Persian carpet, or even a Saxon tower, for all these fall under the realm of beauty. What is beautiful is significant in form, i.e. A work of art has an aesthetic content because its shape makes it distinct from another work of art, this actual form is an outcome of both the artist and the age he lived in, and it is needless to say that the surrounding social network of that age affects, directly or indirectly, the very context or content of that particular work of art. What I am concerned with here is not a historical study of the philosophy of fine art, but rather the historical development of the varying relations between the form and content of artifacts within the essence of art itself. Thus, I elaborate every now and then on the psychology of art and criticisms, as one is related to the wealthy accumulation of content, and the other to the history of the development of form. Having narrowed down my topic to the historic development of the varying relations between form and content in aesthetics, I devote my study to the consideration of what beautiful is, and start naturally with Hegel’s concept of art; but I oppose it, normally, with his disciple’s concept of art, Marx, I elaborate on the dialectics of form and content between both German philosophers, pay special attention to the major trends in American and English aesthetics, and find formalism has won the battle against ideology, while Gombrich asserts the cultural tradition, Sparshott draws heavily from linguistic philosophy
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