Aesthetic Realism is a philosophy founded in 1941 by the American poet and critic Eli Siegel (1902–1978). He defined it as a three-part study: "[T]hese three divisions can be described as: One, Liking the world; Two, The opposites; Three, The meaning of contempt."Eli Siegel, "Aesthetic Realism: a Tripartite Study," The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, #247 (21 December 1977) URL: http://www.aestheticrealism.net/tro/tro247.html.
Aesthetic Realism differs from other approaches to mind in identifying a person's attitude to the whole world as the most crucial thing in their life, affecting how one sees everything, including love, work, and other people. For example, it identifies the cause of boredom as the desire to have contempt for the world. The philosophy is principally taught at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, an educational institution based in SoHo, New York City.
In the 1980s the Foundation faced controversy for its assertion that men changed from homosexuality to heterosexuality through study of Aesthetic Realism. In 1990, it stopped presentations and consultations on this subject."...Aesthetic Realism is, and always has been, for full, completely equal civil rights for everyone. And that includes the right to marry a person of whatever gender one chooses. As is well known, there is intense anger in America on the subject of homosexuality and how it is seen. Since this subject is definitely not central to Aesthetic Realism, and since the Aesthetic Realism Foundation has not wanted to be involved in that atmosphere of anger, in 1990 (nearly 30 years ago) the Foundation discontinued its presentation of the fact that through study of Aesthetic Realism people have changed from homosexuality, and consultations to do so stopped being given. That is because we do not want this matter, which is certainly not fundamental to Aesthetic Realism, to be used to obscure what Aesthetic Realism truly is: education of the largest, most cultural kind. https://aestheticrealism.org/a-note-on-aesthetic-realism-and-homosexuality/
Philosophy
Eli Siegel described the philosophy of Aesthetic Realism as a study in three parts: "One, Man's greatest, deepest desire is to like the world honestly. Two, The one way to like the world honestly, not as a conquest of one's own, is to see the world as the aesthetic oneness of opposites. Three, The greatest danger or temptation of man is to get a false importance or glory from the lessening of things not himself; which lessening is Contempt. Even more briefly, these three divisions can be described as: One, Liking the world; Two, The opposites; Three, The meaning of contempt."
Liking the World A central principle of Aesthetic Realism is that the deepest desire of every person is to like the world. It states that the purpose of art education—and all education—is to like the world.Martha Shepp: "Aesthetic Realism teaches that the deepest desire of every person is to like the world, honestly. This is the purpose of art education, and actually, ALL education." (Cataloguing Critiques: Submission to C. Staples & H. Williams, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.) URL: http://www.marthashepp.com/cv_syll_phil/CritPresent4Website.pdf.
Siegel asked, "Is this true: No matter how much of a case one has against the world—its unkindness, its disorder, its ugliness, its meaninglessness—one has to do all one can to like it, or one will weaken oneself?
The Opposites Aesthetic Realism is based on the idea that the way to like the world honestly is by seeing that it has an aesthetic structure of opposites. Siegel stated that all the sciences and arts provide evidence of reality's aesthetic structure and can be used to understand and like the world."According to Siegel all the arts and sciences are really attempts at liking and understanding the world." For example, motion and rest, freedom and order can be seen as one in an electron, the ocean, the Solar System. These opposing forces of reality are within every person, and we are always trying to put them together.James H. Bready, "Eli Siegel's system lives" in the Baltimore Evening Sun, 28 July 1982: "In brief, the Siegelian lifeview holds 'all reality, including the reality that is oneself [to be] the aesthetic oneness of opposites.' Motion and rest, surface and depth, love and anger, and so on, once identified, can and must be reconciled..." In Siegel's critical theory, "The resolution of conflict in self is like the making one of opposites in art." A good novel or musical composition, for example, composes opposites that are often in conflict in a person's mind or daily life: intensity and calm, freedom and order, unity and diversity. A successful poem or photograph or work of art in any medium, is therefore, a guide to a good life, because it shows the aesthetic structure of reality and ourselves. "All beauty," he stated, "is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."Deborah A. Straub in Contemporary Authors: "This philosophy sprang from Siegel's belief that 'what makes a good poem is like what can make a good life…, for poetry is a mingling of intensity and calm, emotion and logic.'" "The solution to our problem with opposites and the use we can make of photography in finding it is pointed to succinctly in the Eli Siegel dictum, 'In reality opposites are one; art shows this."
The Meaning of Contempt Siegel recognized that the desire to like the world is in a constant fight with another competing desire: the desire for contempt, or the hope to lessen what is different from oneself as a means of self-increase as one sees it. "There are two elements: oneself and everything that is not oneself, which he calls 'the world.' These two opposites must be brought into harmony: By liking the world, one can come to like oneself. If, on the other hand, one feels disdain, or what he calls contempt, for the world, unhappiness results. 'Contempt can be defined as the lessening of what is different from oneself as a means of self-increase as one sees it,' he says. Contempt can lead to insanity according to Siegel." He writes in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, number 247:
An Ethical Obligation and the Means of Liking Oneself A key study in Aesthetic Realism is how an attitude to the world as a whole shapes every aspect of life, from relationships with friends and spouses to the enjoyment of books, food, and interactions with people both near and far. Accordingly, the philosophy argues that individuals have an ethical obligation to "see the world as well as we can" and where we don't hope to see things and people fairly "contempt ...is winning." Aesthetic Realism states that the conscious intention to be fair to the world and people is not only an ethical obligation, but the means of liking oneself."Eli Siegel, the great American poet and historian, defined hatred and contempt of people different from ourselves as the false importance or glory people received from the lessening of people not like themselves."
Siegel stated that until good will rather than contempt is at the center of our thoughts about people, "civilization has yet to begin."Eli Siegel, "Civilization Begins" in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, #228 (10 August 1977).When the Raj Faltered By Christopher Balchin, The Tribune Sunday Reading, 09/05/1999|The Tribune, the largest selling daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the paper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.|URL:https://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99may09/sunday/head4.htm He defined good will as "the desire to have something else stronger and more beautiful, for this desire makes oneself stronger and more beautiful."Eli Siegel, "Good Will Is Aesthetics" in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, #121 (23 July 1975) (vol.3 no.17): "Good will can be described as the desire to have something else stronger and more beautiful, for this desire makes oneself stronger and more beautiful."
Major texts The philosophic basis of Aesthetic Realism was set forth systematically by Siegel in two major texts. The first, Self and World: An Explanation of Aesthetic Realism, was written from 1941 to 1943. Individual chapters, including "Psychiatry, Economics, Aesthetics" and "The Aesthetic Method in Self-Conflict", were printed in 1946. The full text was published in 1981. It presents the philosophy in terms of how it applies to everyday life and understanding mind. Chapters include "The Aesthetic Meaning of Psychiatry", "Love and Reality", "The Child", and "The Organization of Self" (NY: Definition Press).D.E., Booklist, (American Library Association, 15 January 1982): "A distinguished poet and teacher, Siegel died in 1978. This posthumous publication combines his essays and articles to give a final overview of his philosophy, called Aesthetic Realism....Siegel's passionate, affirmative intelligence is deeply stirring, frequently convincing. This is one of the few 'human improvement' doctrines to merit philosophic respect."
A second text, Definitions, and Comment: Being a Description of the World, completed in 1945, defines 134 terms, including Existence, Happiness, Power, Success, Reality, and Relation. Definitions of one sentence are given for every term, followed by a lengthier explanation. The work was published in 1978-9 as a series in the journal The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.
A third philosophic text, The Aesthetic Nature of the World, is largely unpublished, although selections appear in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.
Poetry
Aesthetic Realism arose from Eli Siegel's teaching of poetry. He stated that ideas central to the philosophy were present in his poem "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana", which won The Nation'''s annual poetry prize in 1925. The philosophic principle that individuality is relation, "that the very self of a thing is its relations, its having-to-do-with other things", is in this poem.Vincent Starrett in the Chicago Sunday Tribune (28 July 1957, part 4, p.4): "It is a longish poem, at once serious and jocose; an essay, according to Siegel, in Aesthetic Realism; and Aesthetic Realism, he says, is 'about [how] the having-to-do-withness or relation of people, is they, is themselves.'Corbett & Boldt: Modern American Poetry, p. 144 (Macmillan Company, 1965): "Siegel's poetry reveals a view of reality in which 'the very self of a thing is its relation, its having-to-do-with other things.'" It begins with a hot, quiet afternoon in Montana, and travels through time and space, showing that the diversity of reality is surprisingly connected, and things, people and places usually regarded as separate "have a great deal to do with each other."
Aesthetic Realism Foundation