THE ÆSTHETIC SENTIMENT 328
Its origin: the theory of play, and its variants—Æsthetic
activity is the play of the creative imagination in its
disinterested form. Its instinctive nature—Transition from
simple play to aesthetic play: primitive art of pantomimic
dancing—Derivation of the arts in motion; of the arts at
rest—Why was æsthetic activity evolved?—Art had, in the
beginning, a social utility—Evolution of the æsthetic
sentiment—Its sociological aspect: progression from the
strictly social character towards individualism in the
different arts—Its anthropological aspect: progress from
strictly human character towards beings and things as a
whole—The feeling for nature—The feeling for the sublime
only partially belongs to æsthetics—Its evolution: it is
not æsthetic in its origin, but becomes so—Why there are
not two æsthetic senses—The sense of the comic—Psychology
of laughter—It has more than one cause—Theory of
superiority. Theory of discord—These correspond to two
distinct stages, one of which is foreign to
æsthetics—Physiology of laughter. Theory of nervous
derivation—Theory of tickling—Pathology. Are there cases
of complete æsthetic insensibility? Difficulties and
transpositions of the subject—Pathological function of
emotion: pessimistic tendencies, megalomania, influence of
unconscious activity—Pathological aspects of the creative
imagination; its degrees—Reason why the intense image, in
artists, does not pass into action; ways in which it is
modified—Cause of this deviation; its advantages.