Practical Criticism: a Study of Literary Judgment

Abstract

THIS book has attracted much attention in literary circles, but it deserves notice here also, because it is a good example of the present tendency to bridge the old gulf between the study of the humanities and the study of science. Mr. Richards points out that there are subjects which can be discussed in terms of verifiable facts and precise hypotheses. These are the subjects called the sciences. There are other subjects, such as the concrete affairs of organisation and administration, which can be handled by rules of thumb and accepted conventions. Between these two come ethics, meta-physics, theology, aesthetics, and so forth; the sphere of “random beliefs and hopeful guesses”.