ABSTRACT
S triking though the parallels may be, however, there are important differences also, between the objects of scientific and of aesthetic analysis, of which Taine was insufficiently aware. These differences all spring from a central paradox, which makes a work of art seem, now more complex, now more simple, than a work of nature. The individual King Oedipus (of Sophocles’ tragedy), like the subject of the psychologist’s study and experimentation, is inexhaustible, but in different ways. For all the ‘infinite’ complexity of a single biological cell, many such cells exhibit relatively stubborn structures, or at least the scientist is persuaded that they do. Works of art, however, involve such complex variables as media, language, traditions of style, symbolism, personalities of artists, and so forth, each of which is capable of endless study, the result being a kind of multiplication of ‘infinities’.
