We are serializing a truly landmark lecture. It is by Eli Siegel and titled Hazlitt Tells of Criticism. It took place on August 12, 1970.

The word criticism in the title refers centrally, but not only, to literary criticism. And the chief reason I say “not only” is: Aesthetic Realism shows that we are all constant critics of the world and ourselves. We’re always asking—mostly without articulating it—how good or not good something is. And this something can be as diverse as the meal we just ate, a colleague who didn’t smile at us, the décor of a room, a decision we made yesterday and are unsure of now.

Mr. Siegel gave the following informal definition: a true critic is one who “makes a good thing look good, a bad thing look bad, and a middling thing look middling.” Without knowing it, there’s nothing we long for more than to be true critics of ourselves and the world. Through Aesthetic Realism we can be that increasingly, and with great happiness… more