Aesthetic Ideas

Abstract

We come finally to the examination of aesthetic theory during the second half of the 17th century. In many ways aesthetics and morals occupy the same position in relation to metaphysics: their common principles may be deduced in part from a body of systematic speculation; but on the other hand they may be considered as both the product and the reflection of a particular age and society. They share a common tension between the ideal and absolute and the empirical and relative. Indeed from the point of view of the sociologist or historian, they reflect to an equal degree the character and consciousness of the national or social group.