Chto takoe iskusstvo?
📖 Summary
Chto takoe iskusstvo?, translated into English as What Is Art?, is a profound and radical philosophical treatise written by Count Leo Tolstoy and published in 1898. Spanning a substantial length of 882 pages in its comprehensive editions, the book represents the culmination of a massive intellectual and spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's later life, during which he reevaluated his own literary masterpieces and questioned the entire purpose of aesthetic creation in human society. Tolstoy begins his inquiry by looking at the enormous financial expenditures, labor, and societal prestige devoted to the production and consumption of art, asking whether this vast sacrifice is truly justified. He notes that critics, academies, and the upper classes have long struggled to define art objectively, usually falling back on subjective and elusive concepts of beauty. Tolstoy strongly rejects the traditional aesthetic theory that defines art as the pursuit or expression of beauty, arguing that beauty is merely what pleases us without evoking any deeper moral or social purpose. Instead, Tolstoy proposes a radical and radically egalitarian definition of art based on human communication and emotional infection. According to Tolstoy, art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and experience them. For Tolstoy, the value of a work of art is entirely dependent on the nature of the feelings it transmits. He divides art into two primary categories: good art and bad art. Good art is accessible to the common person and unites humanity by conveying feelings of universal brotherhood, religious perception, and Christian love. Bad art, by contrast, is exclusive, decadent, and incomprehensible to the masses, serving only to entertain the wealthy elite while promoting egoism, pessimism, and sexual obsession. Throughout the treatise, Tolstoy applies his rigorous moral lens to the established canon of European art and literature, famously criticizing even his own earlier novels and the works of esteemed masters like Shakespeare, Beethoven, and Baudelaire for straying into obscurity, artificiality, and moral vacuity. He argues that true art must be sincere, simple, and capable of uniting all people in a shared emotional experience, rather than catering to the sophisticated tastes of a privileged few. Ultimately, Tolstoy calls for a complete revolution in artistic production, urging creators to turn away from elite individualism and instead embrace subjects that promote the physical and spiritual well-being of all mankind. What Is Art? remains a monumental and provocative challenge to conventional aesthetic values, forcing readers to examine the ethical responsibilities of creators and the profound social power of cultural expression.
🎯 Key Lessons
⚖️ Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
Offers a deeply thought-provoking and original perspective on the ethics of aesthetic creation.
Challenges elitism in culture by advocating for art that speaks to all of humanity.
Written with the characteristic passion, moral clarity, and rhetorical power of a master literary figure.
Provides a timeless framework for evaluating the social responsibility of artists and writers.
⚠️ Cons
Tolstoy's criteria for evaluating great art can feel overly rigid, puritanical, and dismissive of complexity.
The extensive length and dense philosophical arguments require significant patience and concentration from the reader.
❓ FAQ
What is the main premise of What Is Art? +
Tolstoy argues that art is a medium for transmitting human emotion and that its true value lies in its moral capacity to unite humanity through shared universal feelings.
How does Tolstoy define good art? +
He defines good art as that which is sincere, accessible to the common people, and conveys feelings of religious perception, love, and brotherhood.
Why does Tolstoy reject the concept of beauty in art? +
He believes beauty is a subjective and ambiguous concept that has been used by the wealthy elite to justify producing art that lacks moral purpose.
Did Tolstoy criticize his own literary works? +
Yes, in line with his later philosophical awakening, Tolstoy famously dismissed much of his earlier fiction as elite and morally unnecessary.
Who is the intended audience for this book? +
The book is intended for philosophers, artists, writers, and anyone interested in the ethical and social dimensions of aesthetic creation.
