Aesthetic Realism

Aesthetic Realism is a philosophy founded in 1941 by the American poet and critic Eli Siegel. He defined it as a three-part study: "hese three divisions can be described as: One, Liking the world; Two, The opposites; Three, The meaning of contempt."
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.

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.
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. 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.
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."

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. 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.
Siegel stated that until good will rather than contempt is at the center of our thoughts about people, "civilization has yet to begin." He defined good will 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".
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. 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

The not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation was established by Siegel's students in 1973. Located at 141 Greene Street in SoHo, New York, it is the primary location where the philosophy is now taught, in public seminars, dramatic and musical presentations, semester classes, and individual consultations. There is an interactive workshop for teachers, "The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method", and classes in poetry, anthropology, art, music, and "Understanding Marriage."
Ellen Reiss is the Aesthetic Realism Chair of Education, appointed by Eli Siegel in 1977. Since that time, she has conducted professional classes for the Foundation's faculty. Herself an Aesthetic Realism consultant since 1971, Reiss also taught in the English departments of Queens and Hunter Colleges, City University of New York. She is a poet, editor, and co-author of The Williams-Siegel Documentary.
Eli Siegel died on November 8, 1978. Reiss continues his work teaching Aesthetic Realism in professional classes for the Foundation's faculty and in the course "The Aesthetic Realism Explanation of Poetry". Her commentaries on how the philosophy views life, literature, national ethics, economics, and the human self appear regularly in ''The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.''

Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company, composed of actors, singers and musicians, has appeared throughout the country in both musical performances and dramatic productions. Presentations showing the significance of art and ethics throughout history and in our daily lives, include "Ethics Is a Force!"; "The Great Fight of Ego vs. Truth—Songs about Love, Justice & Everybody's Feelings"; "Humanity's Opposites—Beginning with Ireland" ; and "Sheridan's The School for Scandal; or, A Sneer Brightens Everything". They have also presented dramatic readings of Siegel's lectures on works by Shakespeare, Molière, Ibsen, Strindberg, Eugene O'Neill, George Kelly, Susan Glaspell, and others.

History

Lectures and classes by Eli Siegel

In 1946, Siegel began giving weekly lectures at Steinway Hall in New York City, in which he presented what he first called Aesthetic Analysis, "a philosophic way of seeing conflict in self and making this conflict clear to a person so that a person becomes more integrated and happier." From 1948 through 1977, Siegel continued teaching in his library at 67 Jane Street in Greenwich Village, where he also resided. Individuals studied Aesthetic Realism in classes such as the Ethical Study Conference, the Nevertheless, Poetry Class, and classes in which Aesthetic Realism was discussed in relation to the arts and sciences, history, philosophy, national ethics, and world literature.
Eli Siegel gave over 30,000 such lectures and lessons over the four decades he taught Aesthetic Realism. One series, "Aesthetic Realism As Beauty", considered how particular opposites are brought together in the drama, music, sculpture, dance, and painting, and demonstrated how each of these arts unites opposites that are often in conflict in life situations. He lectured on "Aesthetic Realism and Love", "Aesthetic Realism and Scientific Method", "Aesthetic Realism and H.G. Wells' The Outline of History" and "Aesthetic Realism Looks at Things: Understanding Children". He gave a series of lectures on Henry James that was later published as the book James and the Children: A Consideration of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw". He gave a series of lectures on Imagination, Religion, and the Arts and Sciences. Aesthetic Realism classes were scholarly and sought to demonstrate that art is related to the problems of everyday life. This contradicts the Freudian view of art as sublimation.