Philosophical Writings

Author(s): Hemant Shah
Publisher: Academy of Philosophy

Page 81

62
256n saspr\
Donal
"The religious consciousness of our time, which consists in recognizing the union of people as both the general and the individual aim of life, has already become sufficiently clear, and the people of our time now have only to reject the false theory of beauty according to which pleasure is recognized as the aim of art, and then religious consciousness will naturally become the guide of art in our time.
And as soon as religious consciousness, which unconsciously already guides the life of people in our time, is consciously recognized by people, the division of art into art of the lower and art of the upper classes will of itself immediately be annulled, Once there is a common, brotherly art, then of itself there will be rejected, first, that art which conveys feelings discordant with the religious consciousness of our time feelings which do not unite but disunite people and, secondly, that worthless, exclusive art which now occupies a significance for which it is unsuited.
Philosophical Writings
And as soon as this happens, art will immediately cease to be what it has been in recent times a means of brutalizing and corrupting people -- and will become what it always has been and should be a means of mankind's 's movement towards unity and wellbeing".
-
From: 'What is Art? By: Leo Tolstoy
~*********?
NUK Un