Art: A Form Of Life

Susanne Katherina Langer (1895-1985) was a famous American philosopher and art theorist, as well as a successful female esthetician. She developed Ernst Cassirer’s Theory of human cultural symbols and regarded art as the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling from the aspect of new symbolic theory. These principles were applied to various art fields and finally formed a system of symbol aesthetics. Thus, she became the epitomizer and terminator of symbol aesthetics."Living form", which was proposed in Feeling and Form for the first time and interpreted in chapters in Art Problem and Mind:An Essay on Human Feeling, is a key conception in her theory. According to her conception of living form, we find that she defines the essence of art as "logic form similar to basic life form", instead of "symbol","feeling form" and "life projection". Though she was identified as the founder of symbol aesthetics, she uses "living form" as the key conception in her art philosophy. It is applied to each part of her art philosophy and answers questions of each part of her art philosophy. Thus, she proves that "art is a form of life". As a bond that join human life and art form, on the one hand, her theory defines the nature of "art express life" by stressing that art express and project human feelings and inner life. But on the other hand, it sees art as an organic "living form" and concentrates on the special aesthetic value of art form. Through this bond, human feelings reality, living form and art are closely connected. Thus,"living form" shows rich connotation of Langer’s art theory to us and is a new key to it. Her theory breaks the shackles of dualism of feeling and form and integrates the opposites in conception of "living form". This is a new perspective to understand the relationship of life and art, as well as the nature of art.From the angle of "living form" concept, this dissertation integrates other art theories of Langer and constructs "living form theory" of Langer. Furthermore, it compares Langer’s theory with "vivid" theory of Chinese art and summarizes the life connotation of art as well as the relationship of life and art, so as to introduce a new understanding of art nature, which regards art as a form of life. In conclusion, it examines the ait education in China and introduces the art education idea of "back to the root of life".