Art and Morality
Essays in the Spirit of George Santayana
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The guiding theme of these essays by aesthetician, musician, and Santayana scholar Morris Grossman is the importance of preserving the tension between what can be unified and what is disorganized, random, and miscellaneous. Grossman described this as the tension between art and morality: Art arrests a sense of change and yields moments of unguarded enjoyment and peace; but soon, shifting circumstances compel evaluation, decision, and action. According to Grossman, the best art preserves the tension between the aesthetic consummation of experience and the press of morality understood as the business of navigating conflicts, making choices, and meeting needs.
This concern was intimately related to his reading of George Santayana. The best philosophy, like the best art, preserves the tension between what can be ordered and what resists assimilation, and Grossman read Santayana as exemplifying this virtue in his embrace of multiple perspectives. Other scholars have noted the multiplicity or irony in Santayana’s work, but Grossman was unique in taking such a style to be a substantive part of Santayana’s philosophizing.
Grossman is a contrarian, flying in the face of established opinions. He delights in surprising juxtapositions that stimulate the imagination. His insights into music and the dramatic nature of philosophy make this volume an instructive pleasure to read.
“This is an outstanding collection of fine essays, linked by a common theme. All too often essay collections from a full career are overly repetitive and fairly arbitrary in their assemblage. This collection is neither.”
Morris Grossman (Author)
Morris Grossman (1922–2012) was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy, Fairfield University (Connecticut). He was a founding member of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy and a committed supporter of the Santayana Edition.
Martin A. Coleman (Author)
Martin A. Coleman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University–Purdue
University Indianapolis and director and editor of the Santayana Edition.