Jump to content

Aesthetic Realism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 66.114.86.135 (talk) at 19:12, 8 September 2005 (the word "claims" implies they weren't telling the truth. The editor has no right and no evidence to assert this. NPOV would be the word "histories". You may not like it but these men were truthful.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Aesthetic Realism is the philosophy founded in 1941 by the American poet and critic Eli Siegel (1902-1978). It is now taught by a faculty of consultants at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation in New York City. According to Aesthetic Realism, the purpose of this education is to "encourage people to see the world all through their lives in the best way they can" and this can be accomplished by learning how the world has an aesthetic structure of opposites in oneness, such as freedom and order, rest and motion, for and against. Meanwhile, contempt, "the addition to self through the lessening of something else," is seen by Aesthetic Realism as the root source of both self-dislike and injustice throughout society, including unjust wars. Aesthetic Realism is interested in what a person has most against himself or herself, and asks whether it arises from a disproportionate way of seeing the world and oneself.

While Aesthetic Realism describes the nature of the world, those who study it have credited it with many positive changes in their lives--including improved marriages, ending excessive drinking, better parenting, and resolving personal difficulties such as eating disorders and stuttering. In the 1970s and 1980s Aesthetic Realism was known for descriptions—written by men and women who studied it—of changing from homosexuality to heterosexuality. Some contend that the Aesthetic Realism Foundation is a "cult". Friends of Aesthetic Realism say that this is a lie: "as deep-dyed a falsehood as we have seen anywhere".

Aesthetic Realism and Poetry

Aesthetic Realism states that the world and all that is in it can be seen poetically. Whatever we may meet--whether fortunate or unfortunate--we can be proud of how we see it. Siegel explains why poetry is needed for this: “Poetry, like life, states that the very self of a thing is its relations, its having-to-do with other things. Whatever is in the world, whatever person, has meaning because it has to do with the whole universe: immeasurable and crowded reality.”

And so, Eli Siegel's 1924 poem "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana" begins,

Quiet and green was the grass of the field,
The sky was whole in brightness,
And O, a bird was flying, high, there in the sky,
So gently, so carelessly and fairly…

And from that bird in the sky on a hot afternoon we go to Aristotle in ancient Greece, to Singapore, to Native America....


Aesthetic Realism: The Philosophy

Aesthetic Realism is based on the idea that reality, or the world, has a structure that is beautiful—like the structure of a successful poem or painting. Since reality, which can be defined as “everything that begins where your fingertips end,” is made in a beautiful way it can be liked honestly.

For beauty, explains Siegel, “is the oneness of the permanent opposites in reality.” The permanent opposites include order and freedom, energy and repose, many and one. A good poem, for instance, is both logical and passionate at once. Logic is order, passion accentuates freedom. So a good poem represents the structure of the world: freedom and order made one. Freedom at one with order is what we see in an electron, the solar system, a tree whose leaves are shaking in a summer breeze.

The reasoning is similar for other opposites. Take many and one. Walt Whitman explained (his 1855 preface to Leaves of Grass) that a good poem arises the way an organic form arises: it is one thing with many details that serve one another. American philosophers like Emerson wrote of reality as one while it has many manifestations. Siegel pointed out that since a beautiful poem is one and many, and reality is one and many, isn't this evidence too that reality is beautiful and can be liked the way we like a good poem?

Aesthetic Realism explains it is every person's "greatest, deepest desire to like the world on an honest or accurate basis." But there is another desire opposing this--the hope to have contempt for the world and what is in it, for that makes one feel more important.

Since its beginnings in the 1920s Aesthetic Realism has said three things have to change for the world to be kind. First, wrote Siegel, is the contempt for “human beings placed differently from ourselves”—the contempt that causes racism and makes war attractive. Second, the ill will on which the ownership of land, industry, & commodities is based must change—enabling people “to think that they are dealt with justly.” And third, the thoughts known only to oneself—in which one feels “the world’s failure or the failure of a person enhances one’s own life”—need to go for good will rather than ill will (“Civilization Begins,” The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, no. 229, 17 August 1977).

One’s attitude to the world governs how we see things—the way we see a friend, a spouse, a lover, a book, food, people of another skin tone. When we seek self-esteem through contempt—"the addition to self through lessening something else"—we have to be unjust to people and things. Instead of building up our self-approval we dislike ourselves. And we lessen the capacity of our own minds to perceive and feel in the fullest manner. In the extreme, contempt makes for insanity. That is why in everything one does, Aesthetic Realism says, he or she has the ethical obligation to give full value to things and people as the one means of liking oneself. To honor that obligation is the same as accuracy, mental well-being, and joy.

Aesthetic Realism and preferences

Numerous articles have described the Aesthetic Realism education as enabling persons to make choices that enhance their lives. They state that persons learn how to make ethical decisions, consciously, which result in more self-respect. Men have come to respect women more [1]; women have come to respect men more [2]; children respect parents more [3]; people of diverse ethnicities come to respect those who are different [4]; and individuals who study Aesthetic Realism have also, for example, resolved eating disorders [5]. This is because emotion itself, Aesthetic Realism says, is a "for and against of self shown through the body"—that is, emotion is preference, and preference can be accurate or inaccurate. We can learn to have our preferences more deeply and truly exact. Likes and dislikes may be based on adequate knowledge or insufficient knowledge. Aesthetic Realism through study of history, science, humanity—including knowledge of one’s own disposition to have contempt for what is different from oneself—inevitably increases one’s ability to be for and against accurately.

History

See also: Timeline of Aesthetic Realism

Predecessors to Aesthetic Realism

The beginning of Aesthetic Realism can be seen in Siegel's 1922-1923 essays, "The Equality of Man" and "The Scientific Criticism", and his poetry, especially the poem "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana."

In the Baltimore Sun (2 February 1925) Siegel explained: "In "Hot Afternoons" I tried to to take many things that are thought of usually as being far apart and foreign and to show, in a beautiful way, that they aren't so separate and that they do have a great deal to do with one another." The key concept of Aesthetic Realism—The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites—arises directly from this.

Beginning in 1938 Siegel taught poetry classes with the concepts of Aesthetic Realism as their basis. Students of Siegel asked him to give individual lessons in which they could learn to see their own lives in relation to poetry. These were the first Aesthetic Realism lessons (1941). "The method does things to people of a most discernible kind,"; wrote Siegel. "It has helped to organize lives." [Preface, The Aesthetic Method in Self-Confict]

Early years

In 1942-3 Eli Siegel wrote Self and World explaining the philosophic basis of Aesthetic Realism. In 1944 his first series of philosophic lectures on the basis of Aesthetic Realism was given. In 1945 he completed Definitions, and Comment defining 134 terms needed for a philosophic outline of reality, including Existence, Change, Fixity, Freedom, Thought, Will, Wonder, Fear, Hope, Negation, Reality, and Relation.

In 1955 the Terrain Gallery was founded, and the Siegel Theory of Opposites--so termed by Siegel's students--was presented in the publication Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites? by the Terrain.

By 1969 artists and students of music had formally extended the Siegel Theory of Opposites to include discussions of photography, acting, painting, printmaking, and music. Aesthetic Realism: We Have Been There by six working artists who write on their own craft was published. Wrote the Library Journal: "Heraclitus, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, and even Martin Buber have posited contraries and polarities in their philosophies. Siegel, however, seems to be the first to demonstrate that 'all beauty is the making one of the permanent opposites in reality'." (1 September 1969) [3] (http://www.definitionpress.org/WHBT-Review-LJ.htm)

Aesthetic Realism approach to racism

Aesthetic Realism has been concerned with the subject of racism and how to end it from its very beginnings. As early as 1923, when Eli Siegel was twenty-one, he wrote in his essay "The Equality of Man," published in the Modern Quarterly: "I wish very much to show the Equality of Man to be true. It is my business to go on showing it to be so."

Aesthetic Realism states that the opposition to racism lies in seeing the sameness and difference of people aesthetically. Historically, it says, race and ethnic differences have been used by people to have contempt for one another, and much pain has arisen from this. But Aesthetic Realism teaches a person to see the diversity of humanity in much the same way as notes in music--different from each other while also needing each other in their difference, and also as deeply the same because they have sound in common. In a lecture of 1951 on H.G. Wells "Outline of History", Eli Siegel stated: "While there is a force making things different, there is also a force making them the same. This is so everywhere, and it is part of aesthetic profound gratification to see it working."

During the past decade Aesthetic Realism has reached the public most widely perhaps in relation to how it sees the subject of race. The 1995 Emmy-awarding winning public service film, "The Heart Knows Better," [6]produced by Aesthetic Realism consultant and film maker Ken Kimmelman and based on a statement by Eli Siegel, was aired frequently on broadcast networks such as CNN Headline News, the US Armed Forces Radio/Television Service and ESPN, and in 1996 and 1997 at both Yankee and Shea stadiums before every home game. It continues to be played before every New York Yankee home game during the 2005 season. Two recently published books by Aesthetic Realism students Alice Bernstein and Dr. Arnold Perey also treat the subject extensively.

Aesthetic Realism and homosexuality

Aesthetic Realism sees all situations, including homosexuality, as philosophic. "The large difference between Aesthetic Realism and other ways of seeing an individual," wrote Eli Siegel, "is that Aesthetic Realism makes the attitude of an individual to the whole world the most critical thing in his life" (Self and World, p. 1). As early as 1948, writer Sheldon Kranz stated that studying Aesthetic Realism changed his preference from homosexual to heterosexual by encouraging him to see women, the world, and himself "more deeply and accurately" (The H Persuasion, p. 33 & passim). After his first Aesthetic Realism lesson, he said, he never had sex with men again. In the 1950s and 60s several other students also said their preference had changed. In 1971 four were interviewed on their "change from homosexuality through the study of Aesthetic Realism" on the David Susskind Show and published a book, The H Persuasion, containing the transcript of an earlier WNDT (Channel 13, New York City) Jonathan Black interview and personal narratives by each author.

Aesthetic Realism consultations using Eli Siegel's Aesthetic Realism method began in 1971. At this time there were twelve teachers of Aesthetic Realism; three of whom—the Consultation with Three—concerned themselves primarily with gay men who wished to "change from homosexuality" (see Timeline, 1971); one of them, van Griethuysen, noted that Siegel "does not approve of homosexuality, but this does not stop him from respecting a person who has the question" (p. 48). In 1975 Tom Snyder interviewed another four men who said they had changed, and described their histories in detail. An ad titled "Yes, We Have Changed," with the names of fifty men and women ran in the New York Times. Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. The ads criticized the press for keeping "this beautiful knowledge from you."

The emphasis on gay men and women becoming heterosexual ran counter to the growing consensus that considered homosexuality neither pathological, nor amenable to change. While agreeing with the emerging consensus that homosexuality was not pathological, the Aesthetic Realism Foundation claimed that homosexuality was, in fact, amenable to change and provided numerous testimonies of men and women who said they had become heterosexual. The Aesthetic Realism Foundation views homosexuality not as a "sin" or a "disease" but rather as one way among many that people have of being incomplete because, in its view, homosexuality is not comprehensive enough. Siegel wrote: "All homosexuality arises from contempt of the world, not liking it sufficiently. This changes into a contempt for women," adding "has there ever been a person who did not care for women and thought well of himself for the absence of care?" Aesthetic Realism's teachers acknowledged that "homosexuals will probably find quite a lot that is offensive" in that belief. Indeed, Aesthetic Realism offended many and engendered a good deal of adverse publicity by espousing its viewpoint. As a result, the Aesthetic Realism Foundation decided in 1990 to discontinue its teaching on the subject of homosexuality.

The Foundation's current public statement on the matter contends it no longer presents their teaching on "change from homosexuality" publicly, and presents its teachings as follows :

“It is a fact that men and women have changed from homosexuality through study of Aesthetic Realism. Meanwhile, as is well known, there is now intense anger in America on the subject of homosexuality and how it is seen. Since this subject is by no means central to Aesthetic Realism, and since the Aesthetic Realism Foundation has not wanted to be involved in that atmosphere of anger, in 1990 the Foundation discontinued its public presentation of the fact that through Aesthetic Realism people have changed from homosexuality, and consultations to change from homosexuality are not being given. That is because we do not want this matter, which is certainly not fundamental to Aesthetic Realism, to be used to obscure what Aesthetic Realism truly is: education of the largest, most cultural kind.
“Aesthetic Realism is for full, equal civil rights for everyone.”

Victim of the Press

A critic of Aesthetic Realism, Michael Bluejay, lists as one factor for his objection to it that its proponents consider it "the most important teaching, ever." He also discusses the fact that for many years the students and teachers of Aesthetic Realism wore buttons saying "Victim of the Press", because they objected that newspapers had not reported on the principles or findings of Aesthetic Realism, despite, they said, the considerable importance of these principles to aesthetics, the social sciences, and people's lives. Critics (or "belittlers," as James H. Bready calls them in the Baltimore Evening Sun) contend that Aesthetic Realism's claim of a press boycott was a paranoid feeling of persecution. In any event, supporters of Aesthetic Realism stopped wearing the buttons in the mid-1990s. The reason was given as follows: "The press boycott of Aesthetic Realism," wrote the Aesthetic Realism Foundation "is in process of change. In recent years, thousands of articles and letters about Aesthetic Realism and what it explains, many written by people who study and who teach it, have been published by newspapers nationwide and internationally."

Allegations of cult behavior

Some former students allege that "Aesthetic Realism is a cult." [7]. They list what they call "cultish" aspects such as:

  • "Fanatical devotion to the founder/leader"
  • "Belief that they have the one true answer to universal happiness if only people would listen"
  • "Paranoid feelings of persecution"
  • "Limited communication with family members who aren't also believers"

Both former and current students of Aesthetic Realism as well as their family members who never studied it, have responded to these allegations in detail on the web site "Friends of Aesthetic Realism: Countering the Lies." [8] They state that the technique of the people attempting to discredit Aesthetic Realism is “1) [to] find out what characteristics a cult is supposed to have, 2) then [to] say Aesthetic Realism has them (though of course it doesn’t).”

Aesthetic Realism Foundation

The Aesthetic Realism Foundation is the school in New York City that teaches the Aesthetic Realism philosophy. It was founded by students of Eli Siegel in 1973. He visited the Aesthetic Realism Foundation only once--in 1978 shortly before his death, when he attended a public presentation there--preferring to continue teaching classes for its faculty from his home on Jane Street. Since Eli Siegel's death in 1978, Ellen Reiss has been its academic head and teaches these professional classes for consultants and those who wish to become consultants at the Foundation. Ellen Mali, a former executive director, has since left the school and become a critic. The executive director today, Margot Carpenter, is a poet and teacher of Aesthetic Realism.

A faculty of 46 approved consultants now teach Aesthetic Realism to the general public through conducting classes, public programs and seminars, private consultations, and through the recorded lectures of Eli Siegel. Many of its faculty have blogs. It publishes books through Definition Press (other books about Aesthetic Realism have been published by Orange Angle Press and Waverly Place Press) and the biweekly journal The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, which has published over 1600 issues since its beginnings in 1973. Classes in a variety of subjects are offered throughout the week and students may enroll for as many or few as they desire. There are also seminars and public presentations of Aesthetic Realism offered to the public on a regular basis as well as privately scheduled consultations for those who wish to study how Aesthetic Realism principles relate to their own individual lives. The faculty and those studying to teach on the faculty attend the professional classes conducted by Ellen Reiss twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday evenings.

The Foundation's Terrain Gallery was founded in 1955 by director Dorothy Koppelman to show contemporary art and to develop the understanding of beauty in the arts provided by the Siegel Theory of Opposites: "In reality opposites are one; art shows this." For its opening, the Terrain published Siegel's "Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?", subsequently reprinted in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and other sources both academic and otherwise. Artists from the 1950s on who exhibited at the Terrain included Larry Rivers, George Tooker, Rolph Scarlett, John von Wicht, Elaine de Kooning, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Chaim Koppelman, Robert Blackburn, Astrid Fitzgerald. [9] In public talks artists explored the validity of the Siegel Theory in diverse styles, periods, and media. Artists and critics began utilizing the theory in their work, including Ralph Hattersley, editor of the photography journal Infinity; Nat Herz, author of articles in Modern Photography and of the Konica Pocket Handbook: An Introduction to Better Photography (Universal Photo Books series. New York: Verlan Books, 1960); Chaim Koppelman, founder of the printmaking department at the School of Visual Arts, New York City; Anne Fielding, Obie Award winning actor; and Lou Bernstein, columnist for Camera 35. Aesthetic Realism We Have Been There was published (1969) with essays in acting, photography, painting, and printmaking. For more recent developments see “Aesthetic Realism Scholarship” below.

Aesthetic Realism scholarship

While Aesthetic Realism has a resemblance to structuralism and other philosophic thought, and arises from the Western philosophic tradition, it also differs in this fundamental way: Eli Siegel stated that art, the self, and the sciences have in common a structure of fundamental opposites--opposites which make for beauty. This had not been stated elsewhere.

Aesthetic Realism has been the basis for scholarly work in both the arts and sciences, including the work by anthropologist Arnold Perey, Oksapmin Society and World View; and by musicologist Edward Green whose paper, written with Perey, was published by the University of Graz in Austria's conference Proceedings "Aesthetic Realism: A New Foundation for Interdisciplinary Musicology". Papers were recently given at the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA) sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) describing the Siegel Theory of Opposites in relation to painting, world art, and art education. One paper focused on the way the study of art can be a more effective means of opposing prejudice than ever. This was published in the Proceedings of InSEA, titled "Aesthetic Realism, Art, and Anthropology: Or, Justice to People" by Marcia Rackow and Perey.

The new anthology, "Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism", edited by Alice Bernstein, written by teachers and students from a multicultural point of view explores how effective the Aesthetic Realism way of seeing people is in understanding and defeating racism. Marguerita Washington, publisher of the Omaha Star, said of the book, "We can't have too much awareness of the inequality of the races. The approach of Aesthetic Realism is valid, exciting, and a benefit to the community."

References

  • Baird, Martha and Reiss, Ellen, eds. The Williams-Siegel Documentary. Including Williams' Poetry Talked about by Eli Siegel, and William Carlos Williams Present and Talking: 1952. New York: Definition Press, 1970. ISBN 0-910492-12-3.
  • Corsini, Raymond J. "Aesthetic Realism" in Handbook of Innovative Psychotherapies. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1981. ISBN 0-471-06229-4.
  • Hartzok, Alanna. "Earth Rights Democracy: Land, Ethics, and Public Finance Policy," paper presented at the Richard Alsina Fulton Conference on Sustainability and the Environment, 26-7 March 2004, Wilson College, Pennsylvania.
  • Herz, Nat. Konica Pocket Handbook: An Introduction to Better Photography Universal Photo Books series. New York: Verlan Books, 1960.
  • Kranz, Sheldon, ed. The H Persuasion; How Persons Have Permanently Changed From Homosexuality Through the Study of Aesthetic Realism With Eli Siegel. New York: Definition Press, 1971. ISBN 03624331
  • Matson, Katinka. "Aesthetic Realism" in The Psychology Today Omnibook of Personal Development. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1977. ISBN 0-688-03225-7.
  • "Foes Accuse Teachers of Cult", "I threw out 15 years of my life,' says ex-follower", "Foundation Refutes 'Smear' Tactics", The New York Post, 8 February 1998.
  • Nishikawa, Mary. "Organizing Information in a Corporate Intranet" in Aggregated Proceedings for the Extreme Markup Languages® Conferences (2001-2005) (http://www.mulberrytech.com/Extreme/Proceedings/html/2002/Nishikawa01/EML2002Nishikawa01.html#tod3e6).
  • Parker, Carol. "Filmmaker Tackles Homelessness Issues," Northport Journal, Huntington New York, 16 December 1999.
  • Siegel, Eli. Self and World: An Explanation of Aesthetic Realism. New York: Definition Press, 1981. ISBN 0-910492-28-x.
  • Siegel, Eli. “Civilization Begins,” in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, no. 229, 17 August 1977
  • Siegel, Eli. "Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?" New York: Terrain Gallery, 1955; reprinted in the following periodicals: Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, December 1955; Ante, 1964; Hibbert Journal (London), 1964.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aesthetic_Realism&oldid=22858356"