Mitä on taide? by graf Leo Tolstoy
QR code
"Mitä on taide?" by graf Leo Tolstoy is a philosophical treatise written in the late 19th century. It examines what art is, why it matters, and whom it should serve, sharply challenging the era’s worship of “beauty” and the prestige institutions of opera, ballet, museums, and criticism. The work pushes toward an ethical, socially grounded understanding of art rather than elite entertainment. The opening of the work portrays a world saturated with
arts coverage and lavishly funded cultural institutions, then contrasts this with the exhausting, demeaning labor behind a fashionable opera rehearsal—petty tyrannies, empty spectacle, and a trivial, artificial plot—while calling ballet’s erotic display immoral. From there it asks who benefits from such “art,” whether its vast costs are justified, and why criticism is so contradictory. It questions the common identification of art with “beauty,” noting how the term stretches absurdly to cooking, dress, and even smell and touch, and then surveys a cacophony of aesthetic theories (from Baumgarten and Winckelmann through Kant, Schiller, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Herbart, Schopenhauer, and others) to show their incompatibility and obscurity. The start thus sets up a rigorous inquiry by demonstrating that current definitions of art and beauty are confused, unstable, and ethically unmoored. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Download for free
For your e-reader or reading app — Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Calibre etc.
Kindle → Use Send-to-Kindle
- Download the EPUB3 file above
- Upload it on the Amazon site your Kindle is registered with: amazon.com/sendtokindle for the US, amazon.co.uk/sendtokindle for the UK etc.
- It appears on your Kindle and in the Kindle app
Kobo, Nook etc. → Transfer via USB
- Download the EPUB3 file on your computer
- Connect your e-reader by USB and tap "Connect" on its screen
- Drag the file onto the e-reader drive
Phone, Tablet or Computer → Online or Reading App
Easiest: read online in your browser. Nothing to install.
Or use a reading app:
- Find and install one you like, for example Apple Books, ReadEra or Thorium Reader
- Download the EPUB3 file above
- Open it in the app
More help: iPhone / iPad · Android · Computer
Other formats & older devices
There may be more files related to this item.
About this eBook
| Author | Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910 |
|---|---|
| Translator | Aalberg, Jalmari, 1872-1904 |
| Title | Mitä on taide? |
| Original Publication | Porvoo: Werner Söderström, 1898. |
| Note | Translation of: Что такое искусство? (Chto takoe iskusstvo?) |
| Note | Wikipedia page about this book: fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mit%C3%A4_on_taide%3F |
| Credits | Juhani Kärkkäinen and Tapio Riikonen |
| Language | Finnish |
| LoC Class | BH: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Aesthetics |
| Subject | Arts -- Philosophy |
| Subject | Arts and morals |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 76972 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-76972-1 |
| Release Date | Oct 3, 2025 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 253 downloads in the last 30 days. |
Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free!