Tolstoy’s Contagion Theory of Art

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Philosophy

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Just as the food we ought to consume is not necessarily the tastiest, so the art we ought to value is not necessarily that which pleases most. So what kind of art truly nourishes the soul? This talk will explore Tolstoy’s answer –that it is the kind of art in which the audience contracts the feelings of the artist like a contagion, thereby forming moral bonds between individuals and within communities.