The problem was strictly aesthetic, and yet it turned out that the shortest way of tackling it started from a sociological fact: the unpopularity of the new music. † My purpose was to define as clearly as possible the difference of style between the new music and traditional music. The fruitfulness of a sociology of art was revealed to me unexpectedly when, a few years ago, I wrote a brief study on the new epoch in music which begins with Debussy. We may almost say that of his book Art from a Sociological Point of View only the title exists the rest is yet to be written. His short life and tragic rushing toward death prevented him from clarifying his insight and distinguishing the obvious aspects from the hidden but more relevant ones. Guyau doubtless failed to make the best of his ingenious idea. The social effects of art seem such an accidental thing, so remote from the aesthetic essence that it does not quite appear how, starting from them, we can ever hope to penetrate into the inner frame of styles. Approaching art from the side of its social effects looks very much like putting the cart before the horse, or studying a man by his shadow. * The subject may at first appear unprofitable. Guyau we must count his intention to study art from a sociological point of view. DIVINA COMMEDIA, PARADISO, XIII UNPOPULARITY OF THE NEW ARTĪmong the many excellent, though inadequately developed, ideas of the eminent French philosopher J.
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