The Social Value of Art (1939) is a thorough examination of art activity, using the knowledge of the workings of the mind and of the attractions of pleasure. It helps us understand the arts through an analysis which goes to the root of our ways of thinking and feeling.
Part
1. The Place of Art Activity in the Structure of Human Life
1. The
Nature and Context of the Subject
2. How the Influence of Art May Operate
3.
Art for Arts Sake
4. Emotional Life
5. The Special Necessity of Art to
Modern Life
6. The Two Ways in Which the Values of Works of Art May Be
Considered
7. A Psychological Theory of Value Part
2. Technical and Other
Aspects of Art Activity
8. How to Answer the Question What is Art?
9. The
Nature of Experience
10. Art as Communication of Experience
11. Art Processes
12. The Place of Pleasure and Beauty in an Estimation of Art Values
13.
Examples in Poetry and Prose of an Artists Expressive and Communicative
Gifts
14. General Considerations Part
3. Some Relevant Questions
15. An
Analysis of Some Objections to Art Theory
16. Impersonal Judgement
17.
The Linguistic Aspect of Discussion
18. Censorship
