The function of art is to acquaint the beholder with something he has not known before. Susanne Katherina Langer More Quotes by Susanne Katherina Langer More Quotes From Susanne Katherina Langer The first impression of a work of art is its otherness from reality. Susanne Katherina Langer first-impression reality art Every artistic form reflects the dynamism that is constantly building up the life of feeling. Susanne Katherina Langer building-up emotion feelings It is the historical mind, rather than the scientific (in the physicist's sense), that destroyed the mythical orientation of European culture; the historian, not the mathematician, introduced the "higher criticism," the standard of actual fact. It is he who is the real apostle of the realistic age. Susanne Katherina Langer historical real mind The development of beings with minds is probably the highest individuation the world has ever known, and its prehistory is the history of life on earth. Susanne Katherina Langer history-of-life development mind Only a creature that can think symbolically about life can conceive of its own death. Our knowledge of death is part of our knowledge of life. Susanne Katherina Langer creatures thinking As comedy presents the vital rhythm of self-preservation, tragedy exhibits that of self-consummation. Susanne Katherina Langer comedy tragedy self common sense is a very tricky instrument; it is as deceptive as it is indispensable. Susanne Katherina Langer common-sense tricky instruments Fire is a natural symbol of life and passion, though it is the one element in which nothing can actually live. Susanne Katherina Langer elements passion fire Tragedy dramatizes human life as potentiality and fulfillment. Its virtual future, or Destiny, is therefore quite different from that created in comedy. Comic Destiny is Fortune - what the world will bring, and the man will take or miss, encounter or escape; tragic Destiny is what the man brings, and the world will demand of him. That is his Fate. Susanne Katherina Langer destiny different tragedy Art is just as comprehensible as science, but in its own terms. Susanne Katherina Langer art-is term art The way a question is asked limits and disposes the ways in which any answer to it-right or wrong-may be given. Susanne Katherina Langer assessment answers may A mind that is very selective to forms... is apt to use its images metaphorically, to exploit their possible significance for the conception of remote or intangible ideas. Susanne Katherina Langer use mind ideas Common-sense knowledge is prompt, categorical, and inexact. Susanne Katherina Langer prompts common-sense common Music is the tonal analogue of emotive life. Susanne Katherina Langer analogue music-is A philosophy is characterized more by the formulation of its problem than by its solution of them. Susanne Katherina Langer philosopher problem philosophy Real thinking is possible only in the light of genuine language, no matter how limited, how primitive. Susanne Katherina Langer light real thinking The world of physics is essentially the real world construed by mathematical abstractions, and the world of sense is the real world construed by the abstractions which the sense-organs immediately furnish. To suppose that the "material mode" is a primitive and groping attempt at physical conception is a fatal error in epistemology. Susanne Katherina Langer errors real world All persistent practices in art have a creative function. They may serve several ends, but the chief one is the shaping of the work. Susanne Katherina Langer creative practice art Speech is the mark of humanity. It is the normal terminus of thought. Susanne Katherina Langer normal speech humanity The intellectual treatment of any datum, any experience, any subject, is determined by the nature of our questions, and only carried out in the answers. Susanne Katherina Langer inquiry data intellectual
