Summary
Josef Durdík’s Aesthetics
Eva Foglarová
The study follows the development, transformation and character of the aesthetic thinking of
Josef Durdík from his first research work until his Czech university years. More attention is
given to his earlier oeuvres that precede his major opus Všeobecná aesthetika (General
Aesthetics). The objective of the study is to familiarize readers with Josef Durdík as well as to
contribute to a better understanding of his aesthetics.
The Ambiguities of Josef Durdík Philosophizing Sub Specie Pulchritudinis
Ivo Tretera
A constituent and fundamental characteristic of the most outstanding Czech Herbartean was
his universal sense of beauty (beauty is our obligation). The philosophical aestheticism as his
life’s credo, and to a certain extent his world view too, was his starting point in his ethics and
metaphysics as well. Durdík’s lifelong effort to interpret the methaphysics in this way is
illustrated in his private Diaries that have not been published to date. In his ethics he followed
one of Herbart’s morally aesthetic ideas: Dispute is ugly in itself, which he tried to apply in
his polemics with T. G. Masaryk newly clarified on the basis of as yet unknown archival
documents. In contrast with prevalant views, it is possible to find more similarities than
differencies in Durdík and Masaryk’s philosophies as well as in personal characterictics of
these two university rivals.
Philosophical Problems as the Starting Points of Josef Durdík’s Aesthetic Standpoints
Jaroslava Pešková
The authoress took advantage of Josef Durdík’s anniversary to search for inspirational
„questions“ to his philosophical „answers“. First, she concentrated on the tradition of his
precursors, influenced by Herbart, and which Durdík follows: it is an interpretation of
philosophy as Bearbeitung der Begriffe, which he views as a contradiction of the given (des
Gegebenes). As Herbart, Durdík applies causality as a relation between the thing in itself and
transformations of the mental real. (The real being Herbart’s notion for the primal particle of
physical and mental reality.) Ego or Self is a manifestation of becoming within a living being
and a mark of a factual, real basis of this becoming. The Self in itself contains no factuality, it
is only an expression of the innermost becoming, a general notion which has no factuality out
of the becoming itself. It is the innermost contextualization and openness of a living being. In
the treatise Darwin und Kant Durdík deals with the ontological nature of species and finds out
their duality: these are developing existences – Gegebenes – as well as contextual references
(species and genera in the logical sense) – Begriffenes. He understands ethics as aesthetics of
will with the emphasis on the function of the form and the whole and regards the idea of God
as an expression of the feeling of derivation from the universe which is essential for human
beings but a common person cannot express it in a philosophical form. Durdík's work proves
that his philosophy was compatible with the quality of spiritual events and development in the
territory we belonged to in the 19th century.
Darwinism in the Work of Josef Durdík
Karel Stibral
As a Herbartean and initially a high school mathematics and physics teacher, Josef Durdík
was understandably quite interested in the natural sciences (e.g. the book On the Progress in
Natural Sciences, 1874). One of the chapters that he was most interested in was Darwinism
and he ranked Darwin among the most outstanding figures in world thinking.
In his habilitation thesis Leibnitz and Newton (1869), Durdik already mentions Leibnitz
thoughts as anticipation of Darwin’s. Later he lectures on Darwinism and writes popularizing
articles (On Darwin Teachings, Osvěta, 1871; Darwin, Politika,1871, etc.) with which he
infuriates a considerable part of conservative and church circles.
The culmination of Durdík’s work is his treatise Darwin and Kant finished in 1875, which,
unfortunately, was published after the author’s death in 1906. Here he tries to demonstrate
how darwinism emerges from Kant’s thinking and how Darwin, in principle, completes
Kant’s thinking. He is not therefore interested in the mere quest for the theory of evolution in
Kant’s works.
In his publictions Durdík in particular takes note of some theses, notably the struggle for life,
as a leading idea of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Intriguingly enough, as an
aesthetician Durdík does not pay any attention to Darwin’s reflections on aesthetic
phenomena in nature or a sense of beauty in animals.
Durdík, rather, is concerned with ethical implications of Darwinism (e.g. Darwinism and
Ethics, Paedagogium, 1883). For Durdík, together with Darwin, scientific knowledge, and in
this case Darwin’s struggle for life, is not any authority in ethics.
Durdík was also the only Czech who personally met with Darwin and a year after the visit he
wrote about it in his „A Stay With Darwin“ (Osvěta, 1876).
Josef Durdík’s Aesthetics in the Reflection of Slovak Thinkers
Jana Sošková
Based on period documents, the author of the paper concludes that the Josef Durdík aesthetics
reflection in Slovakia was fragmented, unconceptual and isolated from the domestic tradition
of the Kant aesthetic thinking (e.g. M. Greguš, K. Kuzmány, K. Banšell). Familiarization with
Durdík’s aesthetic work (Poetics, Kallilogia, General Aesthetics) as well as Durdík’s
interpretation by O. Hostinký put new subjects in discussion in Slovakia; national in the arts,
idealism and realism, social and ethical role of the arts, aesthetic forms and their relations, the
arts’ themes and contents. However, Slovak thinkers – J. Vlček, J. Škultéty, S. H. Vajanský a
T. Milkin were trying to solve Durdik’s motifs more in the intentions of H. Tain, B. Croce and
Russian literary realism. The result of such discussion was conscious resignation of Slovak
thinkers from conceptual form of scholary aesthetics along the J. Durdík’s lines.
Josef Durdík, T. G. Masaryk and Belles-Lettres
Jan Zouhar
The text compares Durdík’s and Masaryk’s approach to belles-lettres. It shows Durdík’s
distinction between historical and esthetic critique and his concept of relational esthetics,
which aims to explore a piece of art as a collection of esthetic qualities. Masaryk’s
relationship to literature is followed on the basis of his neo-idealistic essay „O studiu děl
básnických“ (1884) and his later ethical and sociological assessment of literature as an
epistemological document about the individual and society, which manifested itself in his
works „Modern man and religion“ or „Russia and Europe“.
Josef Durdík and Music
Rudolf Pečman
Josef Durdík (1837 – 1902), the first, and at the same time, the last systematist of the Czech
aesthetics was considered a conservative who did not understand the evolution of Czech art.
Recent years of totalitarianism emphasized sharp differences between e.g. Durdík and Otakar
Hostinský (1847–1910). Whereas the former was a representative of the so-called abstract
formalism, the latter was an advocate of the so-called concrete formalism. Hostinský fought
for Richard Wagner and Bedřich Smetana, whereas Durdík was cautious about Wagner
because he was a lover of Italian opera. He did not fully understand Smetana’s development.
However, labelling him as a reactionary obviously damaged Durdík. It comes from a blackand-white approach which does not suffice if we want to evaluate Durdík’s contribution to
music aesthetics. Durdík’s work, e.g. his General Aesthetics, (Praha, 1875) is the proof that
the professor of philosophy, apart from other things, also took notice, as a systematist in
aesthetics, of music and attached a lot of importance to it.
Durdík followed the aesthetics of Old Czechs and František Ladislav Rieger. He was a
sybarite, music for him was mainly amusement. In the system of aesthetics, however, it has its
inalienable place. It belongs to the area of sensory beauty, it progresses in time, its rhytmical
side intervenes in spacious beauty. The dynamic side of music has its pendant in chiaroscuro
beauty, tonal beauty in colour beauty. Music has a firm form, similarly to painting, to which it
is connected with the same effort to create a feeling of permanence. Music is plain art because
it turns one’s attention only to one sense – the sense of hearing. It belongs to the kind of the
arts of immediate appeal because it does not need an intermediary through the other senses. It
is decidedly pure art because it cannot be mixed with another content. It is not able to render
non-musical tendences and ideas. Durdík thus reaches the position of the programme music
adversaries.
It is interesting that Durdík’s interpretation of music suited Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928) who
studied his aesthetic views in detail. He was captivated by Durdík’s psychological explanation
of temperament based on mathematical-natural science knowledge. In Durdík, Janáček finds
important passages of music in relation to non-musical qualities. It is possible that Durdík
indirectly inspired his research in the speech melodies. In any event, we should fundamentally
re-evaluate Durdík’s relation to music. It would be revealed that Josef Durdík anticipates even
modern aesthetic schools and trends, e.g. the 20th century structuralism.
Josef Durdík’s Interpretation of the Golden Section
Roman Dykast
In his major work Všeobecná aesthetika (General Aesthetics), Josef Durdík includes the
golden section primarily in the category of extensive beauty. For, in purely geometrical
interpretation, the perfect proportionality satisfies the condition for the form consent (one of
the five principal aesthetic forms). His work also shows, however, that the mathematical
representation of the golden section enables Durdík to explain the proportionality within the
remaining principal aesthetic forms. Durdík’s interpretation of the golden section is based on
the work of Adolf Zeising which had been published twenty years before General Aesthetics.
In human body proportionality and in music examples the impact of the male and female
principles, which emerges from the sum line (Fibonacci line today), is demonstrated. Since
the 16th century, musical means of expression have been distributed by this principle and at
the same time the contrary affective characteristics have been assigned to them. Also Durdík
makes reference to the connection between the principle of division of the means of
expression and emotional qualities. The golden section in Durdík’s geometrical-mathematical
interpretation meets all major aesthetic forms and inevitably leads to an aesthetic predilection.
To problems of Durdík’s conception of the theory criticism
Miloslav Blahynka
Josef Durdík was connected with the theory of art criticism from the point of view of the form
aesthetics. He understands the function of the critic as a mediator between artist and audience.
His role consists not only of clarifying aesthetic values of works, but also of posing questions
and searching understanding. In the Czech contemporary context, there is significant Durdík’s
requirement of high expertness of art criticism. Durdík anticipated the semiotic and
hermeneutic conception of art criticism. His contribution to the theory of art criticism was
appreciated by the exponents of Czech structuralism first of all.
Tomáš Štítný of Štítný in the Work of Josef Durdík
Alena Rynešová
The great interest in Tomáš Štítný of Štítný during the 19th century was conditioned on the
need for a historical justification of the existence of Czech philosophy. Josef Durdík, a
renowned representative of the Czech Herbartism, tried in his presentation Tomáš ze Štítného,
praotec filosofie české, to evaluate Štítný’s overall way of thinking. Most of all, he outlined
the important role Štítný played within the history of Czech education because he was the first
one to write in his native language about complicated theological-philosophical subjects (his
accomplishments were not only dedicated to his family but also to a vast community of
readers). His accomplishment could be considered as the peak of the educational prose of the
pre-hussite era. The essay Řeči besední contains yet another important aesthetical reflection –
the category of beauty. Štítný describes four specifications of beauty – the first being the right
place (order), the second adequate motion, the third a form and the fourth a quality. The first
three specifications agree, according to Durdík, with the basic theses of form aesthetics, the
fourth is false (comparison of the thoughts of Štítný and Herbartism can be also found in the
works of Čupr and Dastich). Štítný is, according to Durdík, the prophet of form aesthetics.
On the Approach to the Work of Art in Josef Durdík and Otakar Hostinský
Petr Dvořák
In a comparative manner, the author follows theoretical (conceptual) approaches to the
relevant problems of the work of art in two noted Czech aestheticians of the end of the 19th
century: Josef Durdík and Otakar Hostinský.
The paper presents the starting points of their understanding of aesthetics. It mentions their
delineation of aesthetics as a scientific discipline based on an exact scientific method.
Attention is paid to a new approach to the work of art, to the reflection of the relation between
the work of art and its recipient, leading towards a new conception of art criticism.
The objective of this paper is to examine the line of thinking about the work of art, which
through the aesthetic objectivism directs itself to the structuralism of Jan Mukařovský. The
paper mentions Oleg Sus’s and Jan Mukařovský’s points of view on possible solutions to
these problems suggested by Josef Durdík and Otakar Hostinský.
In the conclusion, the author wants to confirm the role of Josef Durdík and Otakar Hostinský
as founding personalities of the scientific discourse in the context of the history of Czech
aesthetics.
It was also the author’s effort to suggest that Durdík’s Všeobecná aesthetika (General
Aesthetics) is not only a passive historical resource, but on the contrary, with its inspiring
power, it emerges with a surprising actuality of its solutions.