*****
Stephen C. Pepper and
Chinese
Philosophy of Art*
Suncrates
Respectfully dedicated
to
Lewis E. Hahn,
The greatest Contextualist as
Com-fusionist
of
Since John Dewey and Stephen C. Pepper,
An archetype of devoted educator,
teacher, and scholar
A great bridge-builder for
cultural interflow between East
and West
And truly a consummate artist
of living wisely!
Foreword
The basic principles are the same the world
over. In fact, for me it was a special joy to
recognize as if in a Chinese
character some
principles I had often taught in English.1
---- Stephen C. Pepper
As this Congress is held as part of the activities
for celebrating the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in America, I
propose to discuss “Stephen C. Pepper and Chinese Philosophy of Art” — a topic
which I hope would be found both appropriate and relevant to our central themes
“America and Its Philosophical Expression.”
Paradoxically, intent on finding a
“short-cut” to the Orient, Columbus discovered America — a New World that was
destined to play the historical role as the meeting place of cultures East and
West, North and South. No less
paradoxically, intending to develop what is a typically American theory of art
and beauty, Pepper has hit upon a real “short-cut” to the Orient — an Old World
that is full of aesthetic experiences, beauty
and insights. We refer particularly to his monumental work Aesthetic
Quality: A Contextualistic Theory of Art and Beauty
(1937). In this sense Stephen C. Pepper
is the
As the common saying goes, he who
confesses is blessed. Allow me to begin
with a confession.
While first studying Aesthetic Quality back in the late sixties, my initial impression
was that Pepper sounded very much like a Chinese philosopher of art, even
speaking with a Chinese accent, if one read between the lines. So exhilarated, I told my mentor Professor
Lewis E. Hahn — too prematurely perhaps — of my youthful joy of
“discovery.” As usual, Hahn asked me for
sufficient concrete, hard evidence. I had none at the time until months
afterwards when, as luck would have it, I happened to find the final
confirmation in Pepper’s own words:
When Nietzsche called Kant “the great
Chinese in Königsberg” it is, I believe, because he
had never heard of Pepper, who urged:
“We could do with a lot of qi in
Two scores have nearly passed since I
first tasted the sheer joy of discovery. In this short comparative study,
however, my focal interest has shifted from the 5th century Chinese art critic Xie He (fl. 490) to Shi Tao (1630-1717), one of the
greatest creative artists and the most penetrating and profound, the most
original and systematic philosopher on the Chinese art of painting that
Lastly, availing myself of this
opportunity, I wish to dedicate to Lewis E. Hahn this short piece of
comparative studies in philosophy of art to arouse congenial interests and
responses from the younger generation of creative minds the world over, whether
East or West.
Suncrates
April,
2009
*****
One of the best writers on aesthetics
this country has produced.
….
Nothing he wrote has so much truth
and penetrating originality
as his
Aesthetic Quality, a masterpiece
of analysis of aesthetic
categories.3
---- Charles Hartshorne
on Pepper
1. The Challenge from
Kant: What Imparts Life to Works of Art?
It is to Immanuel Kant, father of our modern
aesthetics, that I owe the most challenging formulation of the problem to be
dealt with by any philosophers of art:
“A
poem may be very pretty and elegant, but is soul-less. A narrative has precision and method, but is
soul-less. A speech may be good in
substance and ornate withal, but is soul-less. Even of women we may say she is
pretty, affable, and refined, but is soul-less.
Now what is meant by ‘soul’ (Geist)?”4
Indeed, this question, posed by Kant, gets
to the very soul and core of all aesthetic reflections East and West. Yet
nevertheless the German term Geist (for ‘soul’ or
‘spirit’) is hopelessly vague, though highly suggestive. “What is characteristical of the word,” comments Henry W. Cassirer
(son of Ernest Cassirer), “is its indefiniteness. Geist
is a quality that is felt rather than thought.
It is strictly indescribable.”5 Kant speaks of it as “the animating
principle in the mind” and treats it in connection with the concept of ‘genius’
as “the creative faculty of presenting aesthetic ideas,” adding “I shall have
an opportunity hereafter of dealing more fully with ideas of this kind.”6 Unfortunately never did he have such an
opportunity.
So far we seem to be left in a Kantian
labyrinth in the company of “aesthetic ideas” as counterpart to “rational
ideas” (the former being inexponsible and the latter,
indemonstrable). A Sino-American
conjoint solution to this German puzzle is called for. At any rate, however, the Kantian question
provides us with an excellent point of departure—even an Archimedian
point, so to speak—for comparative studies in aesthetics. Moreover, the Kantian heritage, as we see,
proves to be a rich patrimony for Pepper who knows how to stand upon the
shoulders of his predecessors, ancient or modern.
To begin with, I suggest: Replace the phrase ‘soul-less’ with
‘quality-less” and then you see a world of difference! It sounds better, more
agreeable, and makes more sense. It gets to the whole point of our concern today. I am convinced that ‘quality’ is the
core-concept not only for art theories alone, but to all practitioners of the
art of living wisely (to quote E. A. Burtt).7
2. Pepper in Contemporary American Philosophy and Aesthetics
In The New American Philosophers (1968)
Professor Andrew Reck of
“Pepper
occupies a prominent position in contemporary American philosophy. While C. I. Lewis has taught that the
immediate quality of all experience is aesthetic, it was Pepper who, more than
any thinker of his generation, made aesthetics and philosophy of art the technical
fields of study they are now. Other thinkers…. were later to make significant
contributions to the area, particularly I. K. Feibleman
and Paul Weiss, but none matches Pepper as aesthetician and philosopher of
art.”8
Undoubtedly it is no exaggeration to say
that Pepper remains the greatest of
3. A Marshalling Hand
at Work
“When we come to contextualism,
we pass from an analytic into a synthetic type of theory,”9 Pepper declares in
World Hypotheses. Though it makes few references to other aesthetic writers,
any perceptive mind who reads between the lines cannot but feel a marshalling
hand that is constantly at work: it moves, moulds, and melds. Many of the important discoveries in the
field, ancient or modern, are fused, as it were, in a seamless manner into a
coherent whole, a newer and higher synthesis.
Synthesis—that is the key-note, the tenor of all contextualists.
Like a work of art itself, Aesthetic Quality exemplifies the
principle of fusion par excellence. Worthy insights of alien (exotic?)
theories, as well as conflicting views and issues of a perennial nature, are
skillfully and successfully incorporated into his own system, wherein each of
them has been assigned its due place and proper order. Pepper has an unusual flaire
for things of beauty and value, capable of appreciating a variety of insights
of all major figures from Plato down to John Dewey and Merleau-Ponty,
while differing from them all in one way or another. He has a discriminating taste in the
superlative. For example, he has refined
Dewey, criticized Whitehead, rejected Croce, expanded Bergson and made wise use
of Kant and Hegel. Unlike Dewey, he has
the lingering influences of Hegel and even the neo-Hegelians expurgated from
the contextualistic positions. Unlike Whitehead, he
is free from “the logician’s and the mathematician’s bias”; unlike Croce, he
has no fear of Conflict, Analysis, and Regularity! Unlike Bergson, he has
transcended the “intuition vs. intellect” dualism! Unlike Kant, he is no
formalist; unlike Hegel, he has cut off the Absolute! With all these, he is
able to advance contextualism as twin-sister of
Dewey’s pragmatism, but younger and prettier. As a philosophic writer, he is
profound without being “muddle-headed,” and clear
without being “simple-minded.”
4. Dewey and Kant: Two Rich Sources of Inspiration
The character shared by Pepper and Dewey
is such that what one finds in the younger sister one finds also in the elder,
but not vice versa:
“There
is very little stated in Aesthetic
Quality that is not also better stated in Art as Experience, but the point
is merely that many things are not stated in Aesthetic Quality which are said in Art as Experience, and which I
believe should not be said by a
pragmatist.”10
This, as any one can perceive, is quite a
charge against Dewey’s position in pragmatism as impure, or hybrid. Pepper’s humorous and witty remarks of criticism
aroused Dewey’s rather strong reaction.
His is an anti-monopolistic defense, in the form of a mild but firm and
strong protest. In his own words:
“Mr.
Pepper … makes words like whole, coherence, integration, etc., the ground of
his charge, rather than situation. His charge of an organicism
has something in common with Russell’s charge of ‘holism.’ … He assumes that I
have combined an anti-pragmatistic position with a
genuinely pragmatistic one…
Thus,
Dewey goes on to cite as witnesses ancient Greek thinkers, modern organicistic philosophers, organismic
biologists who are all allowed to use with great freedom the same words without
being subject to the same kind of charges as he is. In fact, these words, from the ancient Greeks
down to the modern (Hegelian) school of objective idealism, are originally
“borrowed from esthetic experience” and “then illegitimately extended until
they become categories of the universe at large, endowed with cosmic imports.”
“I
close by saying that I don’t believe that any school of philosophy has a
monopolistic hold upon the interpretation of such words as whole, complete, coherence, integration, etc. … I am not prepared
to deny to writers of this school genuine esthetic insights; and in so far as
these insights are genuine, it is the task of empirical pragmatistic
esthetics to do justice to them without taking over the metaphysical
accretions.”11
Dewey might have said, “Mr. Pepper, our
positions are far closer than you imagine or put. You lend me great support
when you reverse your previous dictum by saying instead”:
‘For
organicism the coherence of feelings is central,
while for pragmatism it is secondary and instrumental, … While for pragmatism
quality is central and for organicism [it is] only a
sort of corollary.’[12
(When
I say the same) Pepper accuses me of deserting pragmatism for organicism!”
Thus,
Dewey sums up his defense with a skillful counterattack. As a matter of fact, these two positions are
essentially distinct but related; there is no such thing as a neat bifurcation
between them.
Though one has every legitimate
right and reason to endorse Andrew J. Reck’s
assessment that Pepper’s Aesthetic
Quality surpasses Dewey’s Art as Experience in precision and purity, yet
let us not be blinded to the fact that Pepper’s strength primarily lies in the
clarity of exposition, whereas Dewey’s lies in the boldness and massiveness of
invention and conception.
Methodologically speaking, Pepper is found to be not completely
flawless, in that he should have made better choices of root metaphors for organicism and pragmatism.
For how can he justify his claim for maintaining the autonomy of each
world hypothesis -- formism, mechanism, organicism, and contexutalism--
while still keeping one and the same root metaphor, “historic event,” for the
latter two? (Though at times he attempts
to distinguish the two as integrative vs. dispersive, treating them as two
species of the same theory.)
Specifically he even calls contextualism a
“dispersive” organicisim.
Admittedly we accept the common
ground for these two; their key difference nevertheless is a matter of focal
emphasis. One starts with historic event
as its root metaphor; the other, situation.
One takes quality as central, the other, coherence. Thus, in order to prevent unnecessary
confusions I suggest keeping situation as the root metaphor for contextualism and historic event (or organism) for organicism, respectively.
What Samuel Johnson has said about the early poets and their followers
in later times applies perfectly well to our present case: “The first excel in
strength and invention, and the latter in elegance and refinement.”13 One characteristic
feature of Pepper as a philosophical writer is his remarkable clarity in
exposition and cogency in logical construction.
On the other hand, we may offer our tribute to the reverse virtues of
Dewey using a Chan-like Chinese proverb: “No big fish in too clear waters!”
The remarkable thing, however, is that
despite his sharp criticism of and explicit deviation from Dewey in certain
technical aspects methodologically considered, Pepper has high admiration for
him. As he told me in
person at SIUC (1970), “If only five classic works in the field of aesthetics
could be mentioned, Dewey’s Art as Experience should be among the list.” This is quite a tribute from a philosopher of
art in the strictest sense of the term.
While Dewey speaks of Art as
Experience in general, Pepper would rather have the aesthetic field located
in terms of ‘quality’, thus distinguishing the quantitative from the
qualitative (standard) definition of beauty.
On the basis of Dewey’s integrationist insight into Art as Experience, Pepper further differentiates ‘quality’ into
three dimensions: (1) intensity (vividness); (2) extensity (spread); and
(3) depth (social significance),
distinctively paralleling Irwin Edman’s
four-dimensional view of art as (l) the intensification, (2) the clarification,
(3) the interpretation, and (4) the unification of experience, as advanced in
Arts and the Man. The whole text of Aesthetic
Quality is devoted to a systematical elaboration of such a
three-dimensional criterion of beauty as enhanced quality. A work of art ought
to pass this strict criterion before it can be called truly great; highest
beauty has to meet all these three standards.
So advocates Pepper. (For
details, see Aesthetic Quality.)
Evidently, Dewey remains for Pepper one
rich source of inspiration, the other being Kant.
For Pepper, no less suggestive than Dewey
is Kant. He has made full use of the
Kantian heritage. To mention a few
points: (l) the Kantian notions of perception, apperception and idea of
constituting the three steps of relevant (imaginative) construction; (2) the
Kantian theme of the “happy relation” (harmony) of Imagination and
Understanding as productive of aesthetic ideas; (3) the Kantian contention that
in aesthetic activities Understanding is at the service of Imagination while in
intellectual activities the relation is reversed; and (4) the Kantian contrast
of the Conceptual to the Non-Conceptual Columns, taken emphatically, but not
exclusively.
Such important insights in the Kantian
tradition, unfortunately, are deplorably ignored by Croce and Bergson alike,
yet they lead Pepper to exclaim “
|
Feeling, or Non-Conceptual |
Concept
or Conceptual |
|
(a) inexponsible
unexpoundable (b) indemonstrable (a) symbolic |
(a) exponsible (b) demonstrable (3c schematic (or signal) |
By ‘inexponsible’
is meant ‘incapable of being reduced to concepts’ and by ‘indemonstrable’ is
meant ‘incapable of being proved by concept.”
The Non-Conceptual Column corresponds to three types of knowledge (each being
a form of a synthetic a priori Judgments): (l) aesethetic
(aesthetic ideas); (2) moral (rational ideas); and (3) religious (symbolic
knowledge). The scope of knowledge taken
in its inclusive sense is co-extensive with the entire realm of human experience. On the other hand, the Conceptual Column
represents only one type of knowledge, namely, the theoretical arrived
conceptually (or relationally, intellectually, etc.).
What is of crucial importance in the above
schematic representation is the relationship between these two Columns as
emphatic?, not exclusive. Croceans and Bergsonians have missed this whole point, hence, one
opposes intuition to concept; the other insists on brushing the concept
aside! To say that the aesthetic
judgment is non-conceptual does not imply that it is completely free from
concepts; it simply signifies that the distinctive character of such a judgment
is not conceptual; for in aesthetic experience no primacy is allowed to concept
(Understanding); but to feeling (Imagination).
We remain thus immune from any sort of bifurcations. Such an interpretation is warranted by hints
derived from the Kantian contention stated above in (3); its consequents are so
enlightening that many of the Kantian oppositions such as knowledge vs. faith;
phenomena vs. noumena; the sensible vs. the
supersensible; in short, concept vs. feeling, must be seen in a new light as
contrast which, for Whitehead, is a mode of synthesis and, for Pepper, a mode
of fusion. The original Kantian epoch-making statement “Deny knowledge in order
to make room for faith” must make room for the revised version: “Deny knowledge
in order to make room for feeling”! For
faith is but a specific form of feeling, religious, moral, or cognitive.
In line with the above elucidation we are
readily led not only to the realization of the epistemological imports of
aesthetics, that what can be known can also be felt, but that what can be felt
cannot be merely known, i.e., conceptually.
But, more importantly, we are led to the realization of the primacy of
the experiential — a grand theme shared in common almost by all major
philosophers of the contemporary age: Whitehead, Dewey, Heidegger, Michael
Polanyi, Pepper, ... etc. The main contention
of Popper’s Concept and Quality is based on the same insight. It sheds much light on the moot issues in
value-theories in general. What is value?—but a quality felt, a quality that
arouses our admiration and appreciation.
For Pepper, quality emerges from the dialectical interplay of the
intuitive and the intellectual through fusion. It is treated in connection with
its co-relational concept of texture. To Pepper, as to posterity, Kant means
far more than he himself could ever dream!
5. Presuppositions of
the Contextualistic Theory of Art
For a fuller justification of Popper’s
aesthetic theory we are referred to his metaphysics as outlined in World
Hypotheses. Fundamentally considered,
the affinity between Pepper and Chinese aesthetic views is deeply seated in the
congeniality of their metaphysics and, moreover, in the kinship of their temper
of mind. Obviously, it is out of place
in this short study to get into any in-depth discussion of the metaphysics of
either. It suffices to mention, en passant, chiefly for comparative purposes:
(I) The root metaphor for contextualism is ‘event’ or
‘historical event’ — an event alive with its present or, as with Dewey,
‘situation’; (2) The four fundamental categories in contextualism
are change and novelty, quality and texture (two pairs of co-relatives); (3)
one of the basic presuppositions of contextualism is
the belief that no event, if put into its proper context, is lacking in
quality; (4) ‘quality’ as a categoreal concept cannot be defined, nor treated apart
from its co-relative concept ‘texture.’ However, (5) it can be interpreted and
shown thus: “The quality of a given event is its intuited wholeness or total
character; the texture is the details and relations which make up that
character or quality.”14
For example, the quality of any piece of music is something that
emerges as a result of the fusion of all strains and notes as a whole.
6. The Chinese and Contextualistic Temper of Mind
If aesthetics presupposes metaphysics, we
must add, metaphysics presupposes a certain temper of mind. In fact, these three form a sort of trinity.
Professor Bahm’s grand theme that aesthetics implies
and is implied by metaphysics is best exemplified in the case of contextualism and the entire Chinese philosophical
tradition, though the same can be said of many other systems such as those of
Plato, Plotinus, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Whitehead, Dewey, Heidegger,
Bergson, etc. In all such cases a given metaphysical system is inspired by
aesthetic visions and insights. Nay, it is, in the final analysis, but an aesthetics in disguise!
It is interesting to note that in spite of all his “passionate
skepticism” Bertrand Russell “frankly confesses” that his “motives for several
faiths are of an aesthetic, not of logic, sort.”15
Nowhere else is Pepper found more
congenial with the Chinese way than in his contextualistic
temper of mind. And nowhere else has he more tellingly
betrayed (revealed) such a temper of mind than in Principles of Art Appreciation, where it is stated:
“.
. . to be dogmatic in our perceptions is to shut ourselves off from an enormous
amount of enjoyment in the perceptions of other men and other cultures, and
from an enormous amount of true understanding of the world in which we live.
...
And
in painting we gain in the understanding of nature by relaxing our dogmatism
and our provincial certainties, and considering the insights of all these
sensitive perceivers of nature, so also in philosophy.16
In Aesthetic
Quality he warns bad critics: “To
judge a work bad, a critic must be big enough to see all around it and all
through it.” The attitude herein recommended for art critics and philosophers
in general is an aesthetic attitude, the habit we are
encouraged to cultivate is an art habit which, for Whitehead, is the habit of
enjoying vivid values. The purpose of
all education, artistic or philosophic, is the enlargement of the scope of
value-appreciations. The principles of art appreciation turn out to be the
principles of wise ways of living or, as with E. A. Burtt,
“the art of living wisely.” The above
words from Pepper should be held up as motto for any student of comparative
studies in any areas of choice. Such a
wholesome attitude and temper of mind, basically aesthetical in character,
appreciative, undogmatic, sensitive, receptive,
open-minded, large-hearted, comprehensive, is wholeheartedly endorsed by
Abraham Maslow, the distinguished American humanistic psychologist, who terms
the “receptive” “Daoistic” in the sense of “Holistic”
or “Wholistic.”
But it is echoed by all great minds in the Chinese cultural traditions.
For example, Kongzi (Confucius) is admired above all
for being free from four human weaknesses: “arbitrariness, cocksure certainty,
dogmatism, and ego-centricity”; Laozi enlightens the
world with his insightful remarks: “Receptivity, hence impartiality;
impartiality, hence eminence; eminence, hence the way of Heaven; the Way of
Heaven, hence Dao; Dao, hence everlastingness.” The Confucian classics as a
whole are replete with similar insights on “the art of living wisely” by first
developing a mature, enlightened personality with a wholistic
perspective and attitude: one who is
able to “Be conciliatory yet without identifying with others”17 so as to
“Respect difference while enjoying agreement.” The latter has become the
guideline for the conduct of human life moving towards a far more viable world
order characterized by harmony and creativeness. For all these, we must say, a certain contextualistic awareness of the importance of the
pluralistic approach to matters of value is intrinsically indispensable, no
matter where or when.
The whole secret of the Chinese way of
doing philosophy is best revealed by Professor Thomé
H. Fang, when he declalres: “The Chinese are artists
before they become philosophers.”18 It is a bold statement that epitomizes
Zhuangzi’s vision: “A sage is one who, on the basis
of the cosmic beauty, is enabled to perceive and comprehend the Reason inherent
in all things” (and the meanings thereof).
Both confirm the insightful observation of George Rowley “The Chinese
way of looking at life was not primarily through religion, or philosophy, or
science, but through art.”19
In other words, it adopts an aesthetically-oriented approach and
attitude towards life and all life-activities.
Such an attitude proves to be most congenial to the contextualistic
temper of mind on the ground of trans- or meta-philosophical
considerations. Their kinship in mentality, in temper of mind, nourished in
what Professor Northrop calls “the immediately apprehended aesthetic
continuum,” is best reflected in their metaphysics — their world views or, as
with Pepper, their world hypotheses. The
contextualistic formulation of change and novelty,
quality and texture as fundamentals sounds like a pocket edition of the
fundamental principles of Chinese philosophy of creativity (Yi-Jing or The Book of Creativity). It is a de luxe pocket edition of the Yi-Jing.
In both cases we can meaningfully talk about the metaphysical foundation
of aesthetics as well as the aesthetical foundation of metaphysics. In fact, we have good reason to claim that at
bottom for the Chinese, as for the contextualists,
aesthetics is meta-metaphysics!
7. Fundamentals of
Chinese Metaphysics
As said before, both the contextualist and the Chinese world hypotheses stand as
colossal exemplars of the grand theme of the mutual implication of aesthetics
and metaphysics. Turning now to the metaphysical consideration, we may
highlight certain essential features of the Chinese view such that one can
easily spot the affinity as well as difference between the two systems. In the light of Pepper’s root-metaphor
method, the Chinese world hypothesis can be shown to be a root-metaphor
philosophy, par excellence. It is called
“creative humanism” grounded in and generated by the root-metaphor of “creative
act” or “co-creative act.” It is a
humanism grounded on Creativity as the ultimate ultimacy,
which accounts for the unity of heaven, man, and earth (nature) in the process
of the cosmic transformation and change.
The spirit of the Chinese tradition of
creative humanism or, what amounts to the same, creativism,
can be summed up in a ninefold characterization : (l)
process view in cosmology; (2) value-centric view in ontology, implying a functional
view of substance; (3) trans-dualism in methodology; (4) experientialism in
epistemology: (5) pragmatism in philosophy of action, emphasizing on unity of
theory and practice; (6) existentialism in philosophy as elucidation of Existenz or human reality; (7) pan-pene-theism
in religion; (8) vivid qualityism in aesthetics; and
(9) empathy and-sympathy theory in ethics.
Contextualism and the Chinese position have at least (1),
(3), (4), (5) and (8) in common.
As to the formulation of metaphysical
principles or categoreal concepts, the Chinese
thinkers inspired by Zhuangzi tend more towards
Pepper than Whitehead, without the latter’s logician and mathematician bias.
The above quoted statement by Zhuangzi can be
hermeneutically interpreted in our modern terminology: “A philosopher is one
who, on the basis of the pervasive Aesthetic
Quality in nature, is enabled to construct a world hypothesis in terms of
which every item of our life experience can be interpreted.” Basically, metaphysics,
as Pepper sees it, is an art of interpretation. We have no use for the Whiteheadian
criteria of the ‘logical’ and ‘neccessary.’ Thus by revising the Whiteheadian
view of speculative philosophy, we may justly affirm that metaphysics consists
in the endeavor to form an incomplete (open), interdependent, and coherent
scheme of general ideas, i.e., notions of the utmost generalities, in terms of
which every item of our life experience can be interpreted.
Professor Fang’s formulation of the
Chinese metaphysical principles in two versions fits in with the requirement of
adequacy very well. His earlier, fuller
account lists six principles: (l) Life, (2) Love, (3) Creative Advance, (4)
Primordial Unity, (5) Equilibrium and harmony, and (6) Extensive Connection. These
six principles are later condensed into four: (1) Life, (2) Extensive
connection, (3) Creative Creativity, and (4) Creative Life as Process of
Value-Actualization. Each of these
categories is further differentiated into certain sub-categories, such as
Emergence of Novelty under the Principle of Life, Communion through Contrast
under the Principle of Love, etc. (not to be elaborated here.)
Comparing the above formulation with
Pepper’s four principles of change and novelty, quality and texture, we will
notice some important parallel insights, such as change and novelty for Life,
Creative Advance, Emergence of Novelty; and texture for Process of
Value-Actualization, Extensive Connection, etc. The concept
of fusion and its Chinese counterparts, equilibrium and harmony, are basic and
central in both systems. It is the core-principle, an aesthetic
principle applied to metaphysics, that works wonders
in human as well as cosmic creative activities.
8. The Chinese View of Art: A 3-Dimensional Characterization
In as much as the Chinese aesthetical
principles are expanded into a system of metaphysical thought centering on the
unity of the personal life and the cosmos, we are led to the realization of the
intimate relationship between art and man.
What is art? As formulated by
Professor Fang in Creativity in Man and
Nature, “However varied and colorful has been the conception of art in
art-history, the business of art which is fine in nature, as of all creative
activities, is to broaden, to deepen, and to elevate the horizons of all human
experience in infinite dimensions.”20 Such a definition of art, based on
insights derived from rich sources in the Chinese tradition, such as
Confucianism, Daoism, and even the Chinese Mahayana Buddhism (including the
Chan Sect), is intended for the meeting of East and West on the ground of
art. The emphasis on ‘elevation’ is owed
to the Chinese philosophical anthropology and psychology, the
height-psychology, so to speak, in the Confucian, Daoist,
and Buddhist traditions. Notice its
affinity with Dewey and Pepper — Professor Fang, having been taught by Dewey
only for one year as an undergraduate, proves to be the greatest spokesman for
Chinese philosophy in the 20th century.
Not only is there a Deweyian tincture in his
choice of words like ‘experience’; but also a Pepperian
tendency in his preference of a three-dimensional criterion of beauty. We find at least that Pepper’s 3-D
characterization of great beauty in terms of the intensity, extensity, and
depth of quality parallels so closely to Fang’s version in terms of the
broadening, deepening, and elevating of the horizons of human experience (n
infinite dimensions), that one cannot fail to perceive the amazing similarity
between them. At any rate, however, we
may well take Fang’s definition as representing the Chinese creative humanistic
view of art. It cannot be put better.
9. Pepper’s
Appreciation of Chinese Art and Aesthetics
Kongzi and Zhuangzi are said to be the two greatest philosophers of
art in ancient
However we learn very little from Kongzi on painting; he lived at a time when the art of
painting had not fully developed in
“Her fascinating smiles, how
dimpling they are!
Her beautiful eyes, how beaming they
are!
….
All shining forth
from the original state of her person.”
Zixia
(intimate name: Shang), one of Kongzi’s most studius and scholarly disciples, who afterwards became a
distinguished teacher-scholar of the Master’s thought for his age, asked,
“What does it signify?”
“Just as in the case of embroidery, quality
depends on the silk groundwork as context.”
“Does this apply in the case of Rites and
Propriety as cultural refinement?”
“Shang,
you just get me stimulated (with your feedback)! Only with persons like you am I able to
discuss odes and poetry!”22
It
is no exaggeration to say that for Kongzi, as for
Pepper, their common root metaphor “texture” is derived from the same kind of
aesthetic experience as an inexhaustible source of inspiration.
Yet, it is mainly the Daoist
spirit that has inspired the entire tradition of Chinese art, especially in
landscape painting. Many of the Chinese
aesthetic insights and thoughts are embodied in discourses on painting which,
as a rule, are put in epigrammatic and even fragmentary forms, seldom
systematized until Shi Tao, the most original creative artist and the most
trenchant, profound thinker on art experiences.
Shi Tao – a royal offspring of the
overthrown Ming Dynasty in 17th century
In this connection, we are further
delighted to find that Pepper has demonstrated superior understanding and
appreciation of Chinese art and aesthetics, by grasping the secrets in the use
of brush-work and the application of the principle of “fusion of the opposites”
as the open sesame. Indeed, the concept
of qi-yun cannot be fully appreciated apart from
acquaintance with the Chinese mastery of the brush work. Inspired and encouraged by his father, a
“noted portrait painter” in
“The
Orientals are particularly deft with ... narrative movement of lines. The flexible brush they habitually use is the
most sensitive of all drawing instruments to the movements and emotions of the
hand. It spreads in thickness with the
pressure of excitement, it thins to a thread at the
thought of tenderness... The Chinese and the Japanese have much to teach the
West on the use of lines.23
Later, at the 1969 East-West Philosophers’
Conference on “The Nature and Function of Symbolism of Art in East and West”
(dedicated to Pepper exclusively), addressing the question of how far Oriental
culture and art can be understood and appreciated by an outsider, he replied
readily: “Quite far. Only
with a little sympathetic willingness to understand.”24 His grasp of Chinese art and
aesthetics testifies to what he recommended as the sound approach. A perceptive
mind such as his, grasped the spirit of Chinese art better than most of the
Western scholars who understand the language. For example, the concept of qi-yun sheng-dong has given rise
to more than eighteen translations, none of which is truly correct. Some are widely
off the mark, such as the French translation by Ralphel
Petrucci, “La consonance de le esprit engenre le mouvement de la vie.” Even Lin Yutang’s rendering of it as “lifelike tone and atmosphere”
still falls short of the original. It is none other that the counterpart notion
to Pepper’s “vividness of quality” as applied to the art of painting. In the original Chinese it signifies
“vividness of quality” as a result -- through fusion -- of “force” (qi) and “harmony” (yun), that is,
(creative) impulse and restraint; or, for Goethe, “life and form”; for
Cassirer, “feedom and form.”
10. Summary and
Reflections
Pepper grasped qi-yun
in terms of “quality” and he fully realized that quality is a matter of fusion
out of which emerges the total character. “The quality of a given event is its
intuited whole or total character; the texture is the details and relations
which make up that character or quality.” In the light of “union of the
opposites” as the guiding principle in art, he interpreted qi
(abbreviated from qi-yun) as “emotional and
intellectual balance” and exclaimed, “If this is qi,
we could do with a lot of qi in
Of the Six Essentials formulated by Xie He, only the first principle of “vividness of qi-yun” is the criterion on the basis of the intuited whole
or total character. The rest are details with the technical aspects that will
bring about such a total effect. They
are: (1) creating vividness of tone and atmosphere; (2) building structure
through brush work; (3) depicting the form of things as they are; (4)
appropriate coloring; (5) composition; (6) transcribing and copying (model
works). (2) suggests the idea of “the bone-like
structural use of brush-work.” Pepper’s
grasp of qi or qi-yun in
terms of “emotional and intellectual balance” (taking “balance” in the sense of
the axiological mean) sums up the principles of conflict and organization as
contributing to the enhancement of quality both in intensity and
extensity. The concept of “vividness”
conveys more than mere “intensity” as we see.
The Six Essentials formulated by Jing Hao of the tenth century include (1) qi
and (2) yun (literally, force and harmony treated
separately); (3) thought or idea; (4) the scence
sense? or context; (5) brush-work, and (6) ink-work. All for the sake of qi-yun. George Rowley’s Principles of Chinese
Painting is primarily based on these six essentials in the tradition of Xie He and Jing Hao. Pepper’s “Review” shows that he is quite
impressed with the Chinese insight into the importance of union of
opposites. It is an application of the
general principle of fusion, a principle that is so
dear to his heart as a contextualist. With such a fusion-oriented temper of mind,
there is little wonder that Pepper can achieve an unusually sympathetic
appreciation of Chinese art and art-theories, which are both inspired by what
Joseph Needham calls the typically Chinese organismic
vision of the whole explicable in terms of trans-dualism or interpenetration as
the guiding principle of the mode of thought.
Pepper speaks proudly of the concept of fusion thus: ‘Contextualism is the only theory that takes the concept of
fusion seriously. In other theories it
is interpreted away as confusion, failure to discriminate,
muddle-headedness. Here it has cosmic
dignity.26
Here Pepper is speaking no less proudly of
contextualism as a whole. With a contextualist
eye he catches immediately the spirit of Chinese art. The main thrusts of his insightful “Review”
can be summed up succinctly as follows:
(l) for lack of a
one-to-one-correspondence between Chinese and Western terms, he recommends
sympathetic insight, adjustment, and patience for the sake of proper
appreciation;
(2) since qi-yun is the principle which is the source of all other principles
of art, it deserves particular attentions;
(3) it combines
“Confucian conformity, moderation, and lucidity with Daoist
freedom, naturalness (spontaneity), and mystery.” There is clearly nothing
quite like it in our (Western) culture. It is neither mysticism purely, nor
naturalism, but their unions;
(4) this artistic
purity consists in a union of ecstasy and convention, the personal and the
impersonal, idealism and naturalism, man and nature;
(5) the statement
on the union of individuality and rule is a maxim so simple and complete that
it could hardly be better said;
(6) this
principle goes deep into Chinese life;
(7) in
(8) this is not
mysticism, nor art-for-art’s-sake-ism, nor even organicism. It is emotional and intellectual balance (qualityism). If this
is qi, we could do with a lot of qi
in
(9) the Chinese
use of the void (wu, unpainted painting) is generally
misunderstood by the West as “negative space”— a misnomer. Nothing could be more positive;
(10) finally, the
virtue and value of comparative studies in art (as in other areas): Western
painting is itself enriched through determining the difference from Chinese
painting. Either by learning something
from it in which the Chinese have gone beyond the West, such as the love of
unbalance, irregularity, working out rhythm in visual arts; incorporating time
into painting, etc., or becoming aware of things in Western art which we may
have missed or taken too much for granted and which stand out as a result of
contrast, such as the “moving-focus” principle, so typical in the Chinese
painting, that is not much developed by Western art.
Pepper’s words equally apply to Chinese
artists and philosophers of art. For
instance, the concept of the mean, or equilibrium and harmony, is a notion that
has been taken too much for granted by the Chinese so that they seem to speak
of it as commonplace. By contrast to
Pepper’s thoroughgoing treatment of “restraint” as the marshalling principle
for controlling contrast, gradation, and thematic variation, they will re-consider
its value. This principle of restraint, as Professor Hahn chooses to call it,
is the principle of optimal effect free from any negative connotation involved
in the term ‘restraint.’ Nothing could be more positive, to quote Pepper. For
it indicates the axiological mean (Nicolai Hartmann), the omega-point in any
given event or situation. It is simply
perfection perfected, consummation consummated.
Another important lesson the Chinese can learn from Western aestheticians
is the importance of theorization and systematization of great visions and
insights in which the Chinese creative mind abounds and excels. Pepper can be held up as a model for
synthesizer and systematizer in this and other
related areas, too. It took
*****
* Originally presented to Section
of Aesthetics, the 11th Inter-American Congress of Philosophy celebrating the
500th Anniversary of Columbus’ Arrival in America, held at University of
Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico, November 10-15, 1985, chaired by the late
Professor Lewis E. Hahn; herein published for the first time in a revised and
expanded form celebrating Hahn’s Centennial Anniversary (2008).
Notes
1 Stephen C. Pepper, “Review of Principles of Chinese Painting by George
Rowley,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 9 (December, 1948),
329-331.
2 Cf. Jian
Yihan, A Study
of the Sayings on Painting by Shi Tao (Taipei: The Chines Culture
University Press, 1982, First Edition;
1987, Second Edition), p. 164.
3 Charles Hartshorne, “Pepper’s
Approach to Metaphysics,” (a criticism of World
Hypotheses), a written communication received in August 1979; title
supplied by editors for https://people.sunyit.edu/~harrell/Pepper/Index.htm.
4 Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgement,
tr. James Meredith (Oxford: The Calrendon Press,
1928, reprinted 1964), p. 175.
5 Henry W.
Cassirer, A Commentary on Kant’s Critique
of Judgment (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1938), p. 278.
6 Kant, op., cit., p. 212.
7 Professor Burtt’s
correspondence with Suncrates in 1989, a few days
before his passing, in which he expressed his deep regret that throughout his
career as scholar and professor in the academic field he had missed taking the
course in “the art of living wisely” – a course he strongly recommended for his
younger professional colleagues.
8 Andrew J. Reck,
The New American Philosophers (New
York: A Delta Book, 1971), p. 46.
9 Stephen C. Pepper, World Hypotheses (Berkeley, Los Angeles,
and London: University of California
Press, 1971), p. 232.
10 Stephen C. Pepper, “Some Questions on
Dewey’s Esthetics,” Paul A. Schilpp (ed.), The Philosophy of John Dewey (New York
The Tudor Publishing Co., 1951), p. 372.
11 Pepper, Ibid.;
Schillp, op. cit., pp. 553-554.
12 Ibid., p.
553.
13 Cf. Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas,
Prince of Abyssinia, Chapter 10, selected in L. I. Bredvold,
A. D. McKillop and L. Whitney (eds.), Eighteenth
Century of Poetry and Prose (New York:
The Ronald Press, 1939), p. 706.
14 Pepper, World Hypotheses, p. 238
15 Bertrand Russell, “Philosophy in
the twentieth Century,” Skeptic Essays, selected in R. E. Egner and L. E. Denonn (eds.), Basic Writings of Bertand
Russell (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961 , 261.
16 Stephen C. Pepper, Principles of Art Appreciation (New
York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1949),
pp. 249-240.
17 Cf. The Analects, Book XIII, S. 23; Doctrine
of Equilibrium and Harmony, S. 15, etc.
18 Thomé H.
Fang, The Chinese View of Life: The
Philosophy of Comprehensive Harmony (Taipei: The Linking Publishing Co.,
1980), p. 42.. Fang, The
Chinese View of Life ss
19 George Rowley, Principles of Chinese Painting
(Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1959), p. 3.
20 Thomé H.
Fang, “West and East Meet on the Ground of Art,” included in Creativity in Man and Nature (Taipei:
Linking Publishing Co.,
1981), p. 154.
21 The Analectss, Book VII, §. 6.
22 Cf. Ibid.,
Book III, §. 8; Ku Hung-ming’s translation modified
to suit the original intention in the text .
23 Pepper, Principles of Art Appreciation, p. 187.
24Stephen C. Pepper, “On the Use of Symbolism in Sculpture
and Painting, Philosophy of East and West,
Vol. 19 , No. 3 (September, 1949), 277.
25 Pepper,
“Review of Principles of Chinese Painting
by George Rowley,” in op. cit., 329-331.
26 Pepper, World Hypotheses, p. 232.