Aestheticism and aesthetic theory

Abstract

Oscar Wilde believed that the self is multiple. One testament to the multiplicity of Oscar Wildes can be found in critical opinion of his aesthetics. To some he is an idealist who saw the mind as the focal point of all aesthetic interactions. To others he is a materialist concerned with “extreme sensuousness.”1 Evidence and combined critical opinion suggest that Wilde’s aesthetics are both idealist and materialist. Wilde, an eager student of Hegel at Oxford, paraphrased the philosopher’s ideas in his Commonplace Book, writing that “Every philosophy must be both idealist and realist: for without realism a philosophy would be void of substance, and matter without idealism would be void of form and truth … In the rhythm of both the line of dialectic finds its true course of progress.”2 Wilde, always a straddler of two worlds at once, is no different in his aesthetics.KeywordsAesthetic ExperienceAesthetic TheoryAesthetic ResponseAesthetic IdeaCommonplace BookThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.