Aesthetic Realism is the philosophy founded by Eli Siegel (1902–1978) in 1941. It is based on three core principles. First, according to Siegel, the deepest desire of every person is to like the world on an honest or accurate basis. Second, the greatest danger for a person is to have contempt for the world and what is in it—contempt defined as the false importance or glory from the lessening of things not oneself. And third, it is the study of how what makes for beauty in art is a guide for a good life: "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."
The philosophy is principally taught at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation based in SoHo, New York City, through a variety of lectures, classes in poetry, anthropology, art, music, and individual consultations.
The Foundation faced controversy for its assertion that men changed from homosexuality through study of this philosophy, and in 1990 it stopped presenting this change. Some former students have said that Aesthetic Realism is a cult, but other former students say it is nothing of the kind.
Read more about Aesthetic Realism: Philosophy, Poetry, Opposition To Prejudice and Racism, Criticism and Response
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