Eli Siegel | |
|---|---|
 Eli Siegel in 1947 (photo by Louis Dienes) | |
| Born | August 16, 1902 |
| Died | November 8, 1978 (aged 76) Greenwich Village, New York City, New York, United States |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism |
Eli Siegel (August 16, 1902 – November 8, 1978) was a poet, critic, and educator. He founded Aesthetic Realism, a philosophical movement based in New York City. An idea central to Aesthetic Realism—that every person, place or thing in reality has something in common with all other things—was expressed in the title poem of his first volume, Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana: Poems. His second volume was Hail, American Development.[1]
Siegel's philosophic works include Self and World: An Explanation of Aesthetic Realism, Definitions, and Comment: Being a Description of the World, and The Aesthetic Nature of the World. His teaching of Aesthetic Realism spanned almost four decades and included thousands of extemporaneous lectures on poetry, the arts and sciences, religion, economics, and national ethics, as well as lessons to individuals and general classes which showed that questions of everyday life are aesthetic and ethical.[2]
His lecture on the poetry of William Carlos Williams, which Williams attended, is published in The Williams-Siegel Documentary and his lectures on Henry James's The Turn of the Screw were edited into a critical consideration titled James and the Children. Siegel's philosophy, and his statement, "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites", has influenced artists, scientists, and educators.[3][4][5]
- ^ Rexroth, Kenneth (March 23, 1969). "Hail, American Development; By Eli Siegel. 194 pp. New York: Definition Press. Cloth, $4.95. Paper, $2.45". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Shapiro, Alan (September 20, 2017). "The Fight about Knowledge—in Schools & Everywhere". Aesthetic Realism Online Library. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Kranz, Sheldon; et al., eds. (1969). Aesthetic Realism: We Have Been There: Six Artists on the Siegel Theory of Opposites. New York: Definition Press. ISBN 0910492115.
- ^ Perey, Arnold (1976). "The Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel as Teaching Method in Anthropology". Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 7 (4). Wiley: 46–48. doi:10.1525/aeq.1976.7.4.05x1663y. JSTOR 3216520.
- ^ Green, Edward. "Aesthetic Realism and the Need for a Philosophic Musicology". International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music. 36 (2 (Dec. 2005)). Croatian Musicological Society: 227–248. JSTOR 30032170.