SERGEI SKRIABIN

RESEARCHING ESTHETIC PERCEPTION: PROBLEMS AND METHODS (THESES)6

I) Esthetics is a part of psychology. (Theoretical esthetics is a part of Theoretical Psychology).

1st Grou of Arguments (Method of Esthetic i) The esthetic is unthinkable outside of experience. (Study of the es- thetic experience is INDISPENSABLE for constructing an esthetics). ii) All modifications of the esthetic (as such) are determined by modifi- cations of experience (SUFFICE it to study the esthetic experience to construct an esthetics). iii) In particular, the modifications of experience determine the classifi- cation of art (SUFFICE it to study the esthetic experience to make a THEORY of ART). iv) The subject of esthetics can be understood only by way of cogni- tion and experience (the ONLY way to construct an esthetics is to study the esthetic exprience).

2nd Group of Arguments fThe Subiect of Esthetics) i) Esthetic form is experience; ii) The esthetic "SUBJECT" is experience - with one exception (the ob- ject); iii) Whenever the esthetic subject is not experience, it becomes es- thetic only by way of experience. Only the corresponding experience has to be studied esthetically.

ever, in response, '"Akademiia otvechaet,' ibid., March 1, No. 50, p. 2, Kogan maintained that Skriabin had not been committed to trial and that he had been excused military service on religious grounds since he was a Tolstoyan. See RGALI, f. 237 (P. Kogan), op. 2, ed. khr. 17, II. 35-43. 6. Skriabin seems to have formulated this text entitled "Problema i metody issledovanüa esteticheskogo vosprüatüa" in 1925, although Alexei Sidorov's Gosudarstvennaia Akademiia khudozhestvennykh nauk. Otchet 1921-1925 (M: GAKhN, 1926), which lists activiities through September 1925, carries no reference to this particular paper. This translation is made from the typescript in RGALI, f. 941 (GAKhN), op. 10, ed. khr. 571, II. 41-42. Hence, esthetics is the science of the esthetic experience and it oper- ates with psychological methods (other methods are supplementary and, strictly speaking, go beyond the limits of esthetics). 2) In general, esthetic experience can be defined as "empathy" in the sense of emotional concentration on the individual (but NOT in [Theodor] Lipps' sense). Esthetic experience is a) "creativity," b) evaluation (or judgment in general), c) perception in the usual sense. 3) There are three basic kinds of esthetic exprience: 1 ) Formal (music, the visual arts), 2) intentional (literature), 3) dramatic or synthetic (theater, cinema, musical drama). Correspondingly, a classification of the arts can be established. 4) Formal empathy is inextricably linked to sensory content and HAS NO OBJECT. It can have only an emotional and not a logical meaning. 5) Integrational empathy is inextricably linked to the sign and is ORI- ENTED towards the signified OBJECT (moreover, the sensory content of the sign "recedes into the background"). Only in intentional (and synthetic) art is the element of KNOWLEDGE present. But "knowledge" of inten- tional (and synthetic) art is merely an empathetic means. In this literature differs from science (the "objectness" of literature and the "systematicity" of science). 6) A dramatic (synthetic) empathy is created through a SYNTHESIS of formal and intentional "perception." Dramatic art in the narrow sense (theater and cinema) "embodies" literature through figurative (visual-spa- tial) media by subjecting the formal to the literary element. An absolute (equal) dramatic synthesis is created through the MUSICAL DRAMA. Music can be synthesized only via a work of literature that has been al- ready dramatized (a drama), but cannot be synthesized just by literature itself. 7) Inevitably, psychological esthetics takes the form of a HEDONIS- TIC esthetics. Objections to hedonistic esthetics derive from misunder- standings. 8) The "artistic" is confined to the limits of the esthetic as a narrower area ("elite," "fine") and artistic elitism is the only substantial symptom that distinguishes it from the esthetic. Art as something elite is inconceivable if isolated from the esthetic or is outside its sphere [of influencel. 9) The esthetic is a value. Contrary to intellectual values (science), in- tellectualized values (theater, performance) or esthetic ones, the unes- thetic value is not only autonomous (as all values), but is also "immediate" ("intense"). Inevitably, in certain forms the esthetic value enters into con- flict with the ethical (and not only).