Jan Śniadecki’s Philosophical Interpretations of the Concepts Explaining Beauty and Art

Abstract

Analysing Śniadecki’s articles and chapters from his “Philosophy of Human Mind” dealing with the problems of aesthetic taste, style, wit, imagination and essence of beauty, we question a view of Śniadecki as a dogmatic proponent of Classicism and an enemy to Romanticism, which, in our view, is based on in-depth studies of his most famous nevertheless only one article “On Classical and Romantic Writings”. We suppose that French aesthetics is not the exclusive keystone of Śniadecki’s ideas. Therefore, we examine the peculiarities of his thought in the context of their relationship with the ideas by philosophers of the Scottish school of common sense and argue that these are close. His descriptions of taste and style, of the roles of imagination and sensory expressions are similar to Reid's and Stewart's ones. We show that Śniadecki strives to substantiate the objectivist view of aesthetics and rationally explain the essence of beauty and art, but, by surprise, his thought about the relationship between genius and rules is recalling Kantian view. Our conclusion is that Sniadecki's ideas might be attributed to at least neo-Classical, or even to pre-Romanticist period.

Full text

Sententiae 39:1 (2020) 054-060
https://doi.org/10.31649/sent39.01.054
54 ISSN 2075-6461. Sententiae, Volu me XXXІХ, Issue 1, 2020.
ФІЛОСОФІЯ ХІХ СТОЛІТТЯ
Ruta Marija Vabalaite
JAN ŚNIADECKI’S PHILOSOPHICAL
INTERPRETATIONS OF THE CONCEPTS
EXPLAINING BEAUTY AND ART
Introduction
Polish and Lithuanian historians of philosophy have carried out an in-depth analysis of the
ideas pertinent to epistemology and science methodology by Jan Śniadecki, a prominent as-
tronomer and mathematician of the beginning of the 19th century and a rector of the Imperial
University of Vilnius. Śniadecki is also known to historians of Polish literature, whereas nu-
merous histories of it touch upon his attitude toward classical and romantic literature, mean-
while historians of Polish aesthetics just mention Śniadecki’s thought1 but, as far as we have
found out, do not explore it deeper2. According to Dalius Viliūnas, an expert in history of the
Lithuanian philosophy of the beginning of the 19th century, “the aesthetics of Jan Śniadecki is,
in general, ignored by many researchers” [Viliūnas 2014: 191]. But, as a matter of fact, this
gap in the history of philosophy of our region has been started to be filled in the last decade:
concise descriptions of Śniadecki’s classicist viewpoints were published [Plečkaitis 2007: 16;
Plečkaitis 2008: 182-184; Viliūnas 2010: 562-563; Viliūnas 2014: 186-191], in a monograph
“Lietuvos estetikos istorija: Apšvietos epocha” (History of the Lithuanian Aesthetics: Period
of Enlightenment), it has been noted that he was the major proponent of academism in Vilnius
who “represented the Warsovian line of academism” [Vaitkūnas 2011: 147], and it is men-
tioned several times that he had influence upon the aesthetic viewpoints of professors of the
Faculty of Literature and Liberal Arts at Vilnius University. In continuation of the analysis of
the thoughts of professors of other faculties of Vilnius University regarding philosophies of
beauty and art, which were previously started in the publication about Anioł Dowgird [Vaba-
laite 2018], we will study in more detail Śniadecki’s aesthetic thought that the above-mentioned
researchers view as a significant factor in the formation of the views in the academic milieu of
Vilnius. Lithuanian researchers, as well as already mentioned Polish ones, have analysed a
polemic article by Śniadecki “O pismach klassycznych i romantycznych” (1819) (On Classical
and Romantic Writings) [Plečkaitis 2008: 182-183; Viliūnas 2014: 189-191]; therefore, we will
© R.M. Vabalaite, 2020
1 Śniadecki‘s concept of “classical”: [Tatarkiewicz 1975: 208, 210, 212]; his attitude toward classical and
romantics literature: [Morawski 1961: 159]; his neo-classical views: [Morawski 1957: 235].
2 As far as we have found out, the only description of his concept of beauty was given in Mirosława
Chamcówna’s monograph “Jan Śniadecki” [Chamcówna 1963: 99-100].

Jan Śniadecki’s Philosophical Interpretations of the Concepts Explaining Beauty and Art
ISSN 2075-6461. Sententiae, Volume XXXІХ, Issue 1, 2020. 55
focus our attention on the philosopher’s statements in the articles “O logice i retoryce” (1818)
(On Logics and Rhetoric) and “O Literaturze” (1818) (On Literature) as well as his work
“Filozofia umysłu ludzkiego, czyli rozważny wywód sił i działań umysłowych” (1821) (Phi-
losophy of Human Mind, or a Comprehensive Study of Intellectual Powers and Actions).
It has to be admitted though that the fundamental premises of Śniadecki are not original: in
his explication of what plays should be like he concisely replicates Aristotelian ideas; by ac-
knowledging Shakespeare’s genius but also criticising him for not being educated, he echoes
the opinion that was prevalent in the beginning of the 18th century that, alongside the genius’s
greatness and naturalness, there is “something nobly wild and extravagant” in him, as a famous
publisher of “The Spectator” and writer Joseph Addison (1672-1719) put it [Addison 1891a].
We cannot disagree with Ignacy Chrzanowski‘s opinion, that Śniadecki‘s classicistic attitudes
are rooted in French literature and aesthetics [Chrzanowski 2003: 381], but simultaneously we
see some analogies between Śniadecki‘s aesthetic ideas and the ones raised by the philosophers
of Scottish school of common sense3. However, if we look deeper at our philosopher’s under-
standing of particular aesthetic categories and interpretations of their relations, we are faced
with his rather original thoughts. Śniadecki writes about beauty and art using the concepts of
taste, imagination, genius, style and wit4 that were common at that time.
1. Concepts of taste and style
Our author defines taste similarly to Thomas Reid, a philosopher of the Scottish common
sense school that had a huge influence on Śniadecki’s epistemology; Thomas Reid viewed taste
as “internal power of the mind; by which we perceive what is beautiful and what is deformed
or defective in the various objects that we contemplate” [Reid 1852: 490]. Śniadecki also at-
tributes taste to powers of the mind and believes that it is the ability “to differentiate beauty of
nature and beauty of art works from ugliness” [Śniadecki 1822: 403]. Our philosopher
acknowledges that people view as beautiful those things that cause pleasure and that they like
but he also stresses that the power to cause sensory pleasure is not sufficient as a beauty crite-
rion. Sensory impressions of liking and pleasure are conditioned by multiple circumstances of
place and time, they change and are experienced by different people because of different things.
Though not mentioning Plato, Śniadecki maintains that real beauty must have constant univer-
sal features and must be liked everywhere and always. Since mind, and not feeling, can be the
source of constant and universal rules, taste must function alongside mind. An uncultivated
taste that has not undergone the critique of common sense might like the things that have been
dictated by “seeking of insufficiently comprehended and hurried novelty, authority of promi-
nent people” [ibid.: 406] or by something that lacks simplicity resulting from successfully over-
come difficulties. Just like another famous representative of the above-mentioned common
sense school, Dugald Stewart5, who is, by the way, often quoted by our author in his works, he
3 Our study of these analogies might be conceived as an attempt of a response to Stefan Morawski‘s note:
“an influence of 18th century English aesthetics on Polish thought in 1815-1830 requires study, which,
as it seems, would be extremely fruitful” [Morawski 1961: 50]. We are particularly intrigued by the
fact that further, in support of this idea, Morawski mentions the dependence of Sniadecki’s thought
about Shakespeare on Samuel Johnson.
4 It is noteworthy mentioning that wit was made especially significant in Baroque aesthetics, not Classi-
cism aesthetics.
5 In the second part of “Philosophical Essays”, devoted to the problems of aesthetics, Stewart states that
correctness has “for its province the detection of blemishes”, delicacy – “the perception of those more
refined beauties which cultivated minds alone can feel” [Stewart 1816: 492-493].

Ruta Marija Vabalaite
56 ISSN 2075-6461. Sententiae, Volume XXXІХ, Issue 1, 2020.
notes that taste needs regularity and subtlety, “i. e. the ability to notice the beauties hidden from
common sight and intellect, also to discern slight vices and defects and to avoid them” [ibid.:
407]. Taste rules can help avoid defects; thus, in seeking perfection of taste, it is necessary to
get to know them. Alongside that, our author warns that those who are not endowed with taste
by birth cannot develop taste by knowing the rules; therefore, he views taste as an innate6 abil-
ity that is dependent on sense and mind but he does not explain that in more detail.
In an analogous vein, Śniadecki thinks about the style of linguistic expression. In his
article “On Logics and Rhetoric”, he maintains that “after deeper consideration, I see all the
rules of aesthetics that were borrowed from the fine arts as distant, unsubstantiated and
merely empty metaphysics that is not suitable for anything in writing” [Śniadecki 1837:
125], and thus he differentiates the rules of creation of fine arts from those rules that are
either consciously or unconsciously followed by great writers. Appropriate style of writing,
in the philosopher’s opinion, is formed through deep analysis of one’s own senses and senses
of other people. Our author thinks senses are simple, just like uncomplicated images; there-
fore, he states that they are not even worthwhile decomposing. The theories that analyse style
and seek to decompose it into separate elements, according to the philosopher, do not explain
it but rather make it confused, dull or even destroy it completely. Subtleties of style are sup-
posedly easier felt than understood. Śniadecki substantiates his opinion by referring to the
statement of Blaise Pascal that “style dies where mind starts to analyse it” [ibid.: 126], thus
specifically acknowledging the existence of the insightful human soul, not only mathemati-
cal. Of course, a writer needs to know excellently the described thing as this knowledge
allows expressing ideas exactly, clearly and simply; however, according to our author, think-
ing alone is insufficient for elaboration of beautiful ideas: it has to be inspired by feelings.
Good style is characterised by original language, power, splendidness and revelation of the
flow of passions.
2. Concepts of talent and imagination
In his analysis of higher and complex abilities of intellect, our philosopher notes that one
of the important abilities of a writer is wit, or the ability of the creative power of mind to see
the previously unnoticed side of things, quickly establish relations among concepts, show the
reader the novelty noticed in the known phenomena and to captivate the reader’s attention.
Śniadecki differentiates between that what is witty and that what is majestic and beautiful, see-
ing wit as merriment of soul that seeks neither to raise one higher nor fill one with enjoyment,
its “consequence is universal attraction and pleasure” [Śniadecki 1822: 383]. The philosopher
acknowledges that wit aligned with modes of imagination and serious mind can be even more
impactful on readers’ viewpoints than strong and elaborate argumentation.
In his article “On Literature“, the author views the exceptional impactfulness of the lit-
erary art as an expression of the highest power of the writer‘s talent that, even when not
abiding by the rules, sometimes emerges so strong that it even turns over the whole meta-
physical theory. Unfortunately, it is impossible to foresee or to describe how the writer’s
talent will act. Śniadecki often employs the concept of talent, just like other concepts such
as exceptional abilities or genius, that are not explained in more detail, when he analyses
deeper the specificities of the literary art, and, in his analysis of fine arts, he stresses more
the rules for using tools of artistic expression as well as application of findings of optical
6 Śniadecki’s interpretation of aspects of innate and cultivated taste is also close to the one presented in
the already cited part of “Philosophical Essays” [Stewart (1816): 503-505].

Jan Śniadecki’s Philosophical Interpretations of the Concepts Explaining Beauty and Art
ISSN 2075-6461. Sententiae, Volume XXXІХ, Issue 1, 2020. 57
sciences in artistic creation; thus maybe this complexity of literary art leads our philosopher
towards the viewpoint that, alongside grammar, rhetoric, aesthetics, dialectics, hermeneutics,
literature (literary science in today’s terms) should be listed as a separate branch of science.
Following French and English examples, this science should study the subtle feeling of
beauty that serves as grounds for assessing real poetry and fictional prose. To this branch of
science, Śniadecki attributes “exemplary writings” (pisma wzorowe), which “do not allow
us to make it clear what the sources of that indeed unknown [creative] power and activity
are” [Śniadecki 1837: 84]. The status of “exemplary writings” is granted to them by the
genius who guides the writer’s thoughts and accompanies the writer’s pen, and, hence, the
wonderful magic of language, taste and thought in created texts.
Our philosopher thinks about the relationship between genius and rules in a similar vein
as Kant7. In Śniadecki’s opinion, one can discern the rules of order, power and beauty in the
works of exemplary writers but these works are not created by following them. In the au-
thor’s own words, “we see how genius does not break rules that he has never heard of, he is
inspired by them through truth itself; how he establishes the ones that have never been known
before; how diversely and pleasantly he presents colours and shapes to our thoughts and
knowledge; how, in depictions of things, without seeking it, he leaves traces of his character,
intellect and education” [ibid.: 86].
Differently from Kant, though, our thinker is striving to substantiate comprehensively
the objectivist conception of truth. He regards proportions, order, regularity of perspective,
colour, light and shadow as the principles of beauty in imitative arts. The philosopher
acknowledges that criteria of beauty are unknown in other arts; their beauty is felt but unex-
plainable. Conversely, he believes that this hidden je ne sais quoi element, in terms of those
times, is unexplainable only for the time being but it is not essentially irrational, and he tries
to predict what may be acknowledged as universal beauty in the future. Our author thus
deliberates on beauty in the section on beauty in „Philosophy of Human Mind“: “Maybe
time will come when the features of beauty in all creative arts will merge and will lead to the
same simple and scarce but universal truths and principles; maybe beauty will be a need,
commodity, use, purpose and project, or all at once, a way towards real pleasure and ele-
gancy, satisfied, thought over and aligned with settings of mind” [Śniadecki 1822: 405].
Of course, the philosopher admits that the mind on its own is just a judge of beauty, not
its creative power, and he thinks that the creative ability lies in imagination. It is noteworthy
that, differently from theoreticians of the Scottish common sense school, Śniadecki separates
imagination from fancy. Admittedly, through this separation, he replicates “an older tradition
with roots in classical and medieval thought that assigned roles to the faculties on the basis
of etymology: fancy being associated with the Greek phantasia – from phantazein, “causing
to appear” – was awarded the power of creativity, while imagination from the Latin imagi-
natio was given the more concrete task of copying percepts in the shape of images” [Costel-
loe 2013: 195]. Śniadecki views fancy as power that takes hold of intellect due to experi-
enced strong impressions; an individual, undergoing the impact of this power does not real-
ize that the images that overflow him are merely his imagination. Imagination, as he puts it,
is “the power of soul that allots to all concepts a strong sensory guise, it is intellectual paint-
7 The author of “Critique of Judgement” states that “fine art cannot itself devise the rule by which it is to
bring about its product“ and „they do not themselves arise through imitation, still they must serve
others for this, i.e., as a standard or rule by which to judge” [Kant 1987: 175].

Ruta Marija Vabalaite
58 ISSN 2075-6461. Sententiae, Volume XXXІХ, Issue 1, 2020.
ing” [Śniadecki 1822: 452]. The sensory “guise” can be understood as an expression of men-
tal things through compositions of concepts experienced through senses. Due to senses, ab-
stractions, words and their meanings, memory, insights into relationships, and associations,
imagination allows conveying thoughts by the use of metaphors, comparisons, personalisa-
tion and other impactful means of indirect expression. The philosopher agrees that an artist’s
imagination can overstep the limits of understanding because images perceived through
senses and created in imagination do not need to persuade but rather they have to draw at-
tention, “excite, be liked, bring joy and surprise” [ibid.: 430]. Of course, as a proponent of
ideas of the Enlightenment, our author stresses that creation of illusions is merely a tool for
expressing didactic ideas in a lively, attractive and not boring form.
We have mentioned several times earlier that Śniadecki describes the factors that determine
the value of literary arts and imitative fine arts (or, as he puts it, inventive arts) in different
ways. He believes that merely nice sound, fascinating language and harmony are insufficient
for a good literary piece. All intellectual abilities of a writer have to help his imagination. How-
ever, our philosopher does not impose such strict requirements upon the imagination of a cre-
ator of the imitative fine arts; he believes that this imagination “is sometimes allowed to follow
the inspiration of fancy and to overstep the limits of credibility” [ibid.: 449].
Like other already cited authors – Addison8 and Stewart9 – Śniadecki also admits that an
artist does not have to imitate reality; an artist, just like a composer or an architect, achieves
most in depicting new idealised reality. People endowed with imagination and taste make up
“a different world of strangeness and illusions, they associate and link those creatures of the
new world, transfer them and relate them with real world phenomena in order to inspire life,
freshness and diversity into their thoughts” [ibid.: 429]. Namely these abilities, in his opin-
ion, compose the mysterious power of genius.
Conclusions
The conclusion of researchers of the history of philosophy that Śniadecki was a propo-
nent of Classicism can be supplemented by the statement that his aesthetic viewpoint was
grounded in his more general philosophical convictions that were influenced by the ideas of
the Scottish common sense school. Just like the theoretician of this school, Dugald Stewart,
our author develops the aesthetics that should be attributed to pre-Romanticist period.
Though presenting such an interpretation of genius that resembles that of Kant, Śniadecki
tries to substantiate objectivist aesthetics and rationally explain the principles of beauty and
art. Conversely, due to common sense, not being able to ignore the fact that the existing
reality does not provide material for solving the secrets of the nature of geniality, essence of
beauty and other artistic creation, he expresses the hope characteristic of the entire Enlight-
enment that the progress of mind will sometime allow to provide answers to these mysterious
questions based on rational arguments.
8 In entry no. 419 he maintains that imagination “has not only the whole Circle of Nature for its Province, but
makes new Worlds of its own, shews us Persons who are not to be found in Being” [Addison 1891b].
9 According to this philosopher, “imagination, by her power of selection and of combination, can render
her productions more perfect that are those which are exibited in the natural world [...] collects into a
single ideal object the charms that are scattered among a multitude of realities” [Stewart 1816: 361].

Jan Śniadecki’s Philosophical Interpretations of the Concepts Explaining Beauty and Art
ISSN 2075-6461. Sententiae, Volume XXXІХ, Issue 1, 2020. 59
СПИСОК ЛІТЕРАТУРИ / REFERENCES
Addison, J. (1891a). No. 160 Monday, September 3, 1711. In H. Morley (Ed.), The Spectator in
three volumes (Vol. I). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/
12030/12030-h/12030-h/SV1/Spectator1.html#
Addison, J. (1891b). No. 419 Tuesday, July 1, 1712. In H. Morley (Ed.), The Spectator in three
volumes (Vol. III). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/
12030/12030-h/12030-h/SV3/Spectator3.html#
Chamcówna, M. (1963). Jan Śniadecki, Kraków: Nakładem Uniwersitetu Jagiellońskiego PWN.
Chrzanowski, I. (2003). Historia literatury polskiej (T. 2). Kraków: Collegium Columbinum.
Costelloe, T. M. (2013). The British Aesthetic Tradition. From Shaftesbury to Wittgenstein.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139023399
Kant, I. (1987). Critique of Judgement. Indianapolis, & Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
Morawski, S. (1957). Polish Theories of Art between 1830 and 1850. The Journal of Aesthetics and
Art Criticism, 16(2), 217-236.
Morawski, S. (1961). Studia z historii myśli estetycznej XVIII i XIX wieku. Warszawa: PWN.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139023399
Plečkaitis, R. (2007). Mokslo filosofijos kūrėjas senajame Vilniaus universitete. In J. Sniadeckis,
Raštai: filosofijos darbai (pp. 5-17). Vilnius: Margi raštai.
Plečkaitis, R. (2008). Romantizmo nepripažinimas: Janas Sniadeckis apie klasikinius ir romantinius
raštus. In D. Viliūnas (Ed.) Apšvietos ir romantizmo kryžkelėse. Filosofijos kryptys ir kontroversijos
Lietuvoje XVIII a. pabaigoje - pirmojoje XIX a. pusėje (pp. 182-184). Vilnius: KFMI.
Reid, Th. (1852). Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man. In W. Hamilton (Ed). The Works of
Thomas Reid, D.D. (pp. 213-508). Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart.
Stewart, D. (1816). Philosophical essays. Edinburgh: George Ramsay and Company. Retrieved
from https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b79124
Śniadecki, J. (1837). O Literaturze. O logice i retoryce. In M. Baliński (Ed.) Dzieła J. Sniadeckiego
(T. IV, ss. 76-97, 115-127). Warszawa: Nakład Augusta Emmanuela Glücksberga.
Śniadecki, J. (1822). Filozofiia umysłu ludzkiego, czyli rozważny wywód sił i działań umysłowych. In
Pisma rozmaite Jana Śniadeckiego (T. IV, ss. 173-492). Wilno: Nakład i druk Józefa Zawadzkiego.
Tatarkiewicz, W. (1975). Dzieje sześciu pojęć. Warszawa: PWN.
Vabalaite, R. M. (2018). Angelo Daugirdo grožio ir meno filosofija / Anioł Dowgird‘s Philosophy
of Beauty and Art. Logos 96: 28-35. https://doi.org/10.24101/logos.2018.44
Vaitkūnas, G. (2011). Lietuvos estetikos istorija: Apšvietos epocha. Vilnius: Versus aureus.
Viliūnas, D. (2010). Śniadecki Jan. In J. Mureika (Ed), Estetikos enciklopedija (pp. 562-563).
Vilnius: MELI.
Viliūnas, D. (2014). Filosofija Vilniuje XIX amžiaus pirmoje pusėje. Vilnius: LKTI leidykla.
Одержано / Received 10.01.2020
Ruta Marija Vabalaite
Jan Śniadecki’s Philosophical Interpretations of the Concepts Explaining
Beauty and Art
Analysing Śniadecki’s articles and chapters from his “Philosophy of Human Mind” dealing
with the problems of aesthetic taste, style, wit, imagination and essence of beauty, we question
a view of Śniadecki as a dogmatic proponent of Classicism and an enemy to Romanticism,
which, in our view, is based on in-depth studies of his most famous nevertheless only one article
“On Classical and Romantic Writings”. We suppose that French aesthetics is not the exclusive

Ruta Marija Vabalaite
60 ISSN 2075-6461. Sententiae, Volume XXXІХ, Issue 1, 2020.
keystone of Śniadecki’s ideas. Therefore, we examine the peculiarities of his thought in the con-
text of their relationship with the ideas by philosophers of the Scottish school of common sense
and argue that these are close. His descriptions of taste and style, of the roles of imagination and
sensory expressions are similar to Reid's and Stewart's ones. We show that Śniadecki strives to
substantiate the objectivist view of aesthetics and rationally explain the essence of beauty and
art, but, by surprise, his thought about the relationship between genius and rules is recalling
Kantian view. Our conclusion is that Sniadecki's ideas might be attributed to at least neo-Clas-
sical, or even to pre-Romanticist period.
Рута Марія Вабалайте
Ян Снядецький і його філософські тлумачення понять, що пояснюють
красу й мистецтво
Аналізуючи статті та глави з «Філософії людського розуму» Яна Снядецького, що сто-
суються проблем естетичного смаку, стилю, кмітливості, уяви й сутності краси, ми ста-
вимо під сумнів погляд на Снядецького як на догматичного прихильника класицизму й
ворога романтизму. Цей погляд, на нашу думку, ґрунтується на поглиблених досліджен-
нях його найвідомішої, однак лише однієї статті «Про класичні й романтичні твори». Ми
припускаємо, що французька естетика не є винятковою основою ідей Снядецького. Тому
ми розглядаємо особливості його думки через зв'язок останньої з ідеями філософів шот-
ландської школи здорового глузду і стверджуємо, що тут існує близький зв'язок. Описи
смаку і стилю, ролей уяви й чуттєвих виразів у Снядецького схожі на описи Рейда і Стю-
арта. Ми показуємо, що Снядецький прагне обґрунтувати об’єктивістський погляд на ес-
тетику й раціонально пояснити суть краси й мистецтва, але його думка про зв'язок генія і
правил несподівано нагадує Кантів погляд. Ми висновуємо, що ідеї Снядецького можна
віднести принаймні до неокласичного, якщо не до доромантичного періоду.
Ruta Marija Vabalaite, Doctor of humanities in philosophy, scientific researcher, Lithuanian Culture
Research Institute (Vilnius, Lithuania).
Рута Марія Вабалайте, доктор філософських наук, науковий співробітник Литовського ін-
ституту культурних досліджень (Вільнюс, Литовська республіка).
e-mail: marijavabalaite@gmail.com