Dietrich von Hildebrand - Aesthetics

Aesthetics

Dietrich von Hildebrand

Aesthetics

VOLUME I

Dietrich von Hildebrand

Translated by Fr. Brian McNeil

Edited by John F. Crosby

THE HILDEBRAND PROJECT

Originally published in German as sthetik. 1. Teil. Gesammelte Werke Band V.

Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. 1977. 492 S. 1989 bernommen vom Eos Verlag, St. Ottilien

English translation published 2016 by Hildebrand Project

1235 University Blvd, Steubenville, Ohio 43952

Copyright 2016 Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project

All rights reserved

Cataloguing-in-Publication Information

Von Hildebrand, Dietrich, 18891977, author.

[sthetik. English]

Aesthetics. Vol. I / translated by Brian McNeil;

edited by John F. Crosby; foreword by Dana Gioia;

preface by Robert E. Wood; introduction by John F. Crosby.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-939773-04-3

1. Aesthetics. I. Crosby, John F., 1944 editor.

II. McNeil, Brian, translator. III. Translation of: Von
Hildebrand, Dietrich, 18891977. sthetik. IV. Title.

B3359.v63a8813 2015 193

QBI15-600216

Library of Congress Preassigned Control Number: 20159208544

Book design by Mark McGarry, Texas Type & Book Works

Set in Adobe Caslon

Cover Design by Marylouise McGraw

Cover Image: La Primavera, by Sandro Botticelli, in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Front Cover Font: Circular Bold by Laurenz Brunner

www.hildebrandproject.org

SUAVISSIMAE DILECTISSIMAE UXORI

To my most sweet and beloved wife

Contents

Dietrich von Hildebrand

Dietrich von Hildebrand was born in Florence in 1889, and studied philosophy under Adolf Reinach, Max Scheler, and Edmund Husserl. He was received into the Catholic Church in 1914. He distinguished himself with many publications in moral philosophy, in social philosophy, in the philosophy of the interpersonal, and in aesthetics. He taught in Munich, Vienna, and New York. In the 1930s, he was one of the strongest voices in Europe against Nazism. He died in New Rochelle, New York in 1977.

Hildebrand Project

We advance the rich tradition of Christian personalism, especially as developed by Dietrich von Hildebrand and Karol Wojtyla (Pope St. John Paul II), in the service of intellectual and cultural renewal.

Our publications, academic programs, and public events introduce the great personalist thinkers and witnesses of the twentieth century. Animated by a heightened sense of the mystery and dignity of the human person, they developed a personalism that sheds new light on freedom and conscience, the religious transcendence of the person, the relationship between individual and community, the love between man and woman, and the life-giving power of beauty. We connect their vision of the human person with the great traditions of Western and Christian thought, and draw from their personalism in addressing the deepest needs and aspirations of our contemporaries. For more information, please visit: www.hildebrandproject.org

Editorial Board

General Editor: John F. Crosby*

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Dana Gioia

Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture

University of Southern California

Fritz Wenisch*

University of Rhode Island

Roger Scruton

Ethics and Public Policy Center

Josef Seifert*

Edith Stein Institute of Philosophy, Granada, Spain

Rocco Buttiglione

Pontifical Lateran University

John Paul II Chair for Philosophy and History of European Institutions

Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz

Technische Universitt Dresden, Emerita

Hochschule Heiligenkreuz

Antonio Calcagno

Kings University College at The University of Western Ontario

Joseph Koterski, SJ

Fordham University

Christoph Cardinal Schnborn

Archbishop of Vienna

Rmi Brague

University of Paris, Sorbonne, Emeritus

Romano Guardini Chair of Philosophy, Ludwig Maximilian

University of Munich, Emeritus

D. C. Schindler

Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family Washington, DC

John Haldane

University of St. Andrews

Baylor University

Alice von Hildebrand*

Widow of Dietrich von Hildebrand

Special Thanks

We gratefully acknowledge the vision and generosity of the many friends who have supported our publications and helped bring this particular volume to fruition:

EXTRAORDINARY SUPPORT

Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Dana Gioia Robert L. Luddy James N. Perry, Jr.

PATRONS

The Catholic Association Foundation Cushman Foundation Alice von Hildebrand Patricia C. Lynch Lee and Margaret Matherne and Family National Endowment for the Arts

BENEFACTORS

Budnik Family Foundation Rafael Madan and Lilian Casas Foundation Daniel and Teresa Cotter Madeline L. Cottrell Michael W. Doherty Rose-Marie Fox-Shanahan Mary G. Georgopulos Julia Harrison Nicholas and Jane Healy Barbara B. Henkels Robert Hurt Robert Kreppel Franco Madan Jeffrey and Mary Petrino Jules and Katie van Schaijik Charles Scribner III

FRIENDS

Hedy K. Boelte Douglas Brown John F. Cannon Allison Coates and Joshua Kneubuhl Edward and Alice Ann Grayson Patrick Hart Roy and Elizabeth Heyne Maestro Manfred Honeck Thomas Howard Michael C. Jordan Alasdair MacIntyre Gerard and Germana Mitchell Colin Moran Kevin and Dawn OScannlain Timothy and Judy Rudderow Duncan C. Sahner Daniel and Annie Schreck Stephen D. Schwarz Madeleine F. Stebbins

Foreword
By Dana Gioia

OVER THE PAST half century the concept of beauty became disreputable in artistic and intellectual circles. When the word was used at all, it was treated with condescension or irony as the quaint vestige of a simpler age with little relevance to contemporary society. Eventually in postmodern theory, the study of aesthetics came to imply the complete rejection of beauty in any positive sense. Beauty was declared a social fiction or political strategy with no objective connection to nature or reality. The vast damage this glib and hollow conceit did to the arts, education, and intellectual life is now unmistakable to any unbiased observer.

Dietrich von Hildebrand was among the first to recognize the magnitude of the intellectual crisis. He understood the centrality of beauty not merely to art but to philosophy, theology, and ethics. In his ambitious and comprehensive