Critic

Critic
Critic by Lajos Tihanyi. Oil on canvas, c. 1916.

A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive (in praise of an object of attention), negative (in dispraise), or balanced (weighing a combination of factors both for and against). Since all criticism must be regarded as having a purpose, a critic may also be definable by his or her specific motivation. At its simplest, and for whatever reason, a critic may have either constructive or destructive intent.

Formally, the word is applied to persons who are publicly accepted in a recognised capacity, such as professional employment, graduation from a course of study, etc., to give critical commentaries in one or any of a number of specific fields of public or private achievement or endeavour. Such domains most commonly include the arts, performance and public service (such as catering) but may extend more widely to pronouncements on moral character, group behaviour, or any activity involving repute in public life, including war, broadcasting, academia, politics, science, etc. Critical judgements in this sense must always entail some degree of subjectivity and are themselves subject to critical analysis.

Particularly in the domains of the arts and culture, where judgements can be at their most subjective, a formally accepted critic can play a powerful role as a public arbiter of taste or opinion and can occasionally play a more or less defining role in cultural history. Also, because formal criticism is necessarily selective, the role of the formal critic generally intersects with issues of censorship and the construction or denial of canonical reputation in cultures. But criticism need not merely be perceived as a matter of building up or destroying reputations. Good peer-group criticism is an important part of developing or maintaining excellent standards of achievement in any art or discipline, whether at the level of apprenticeship or ongoing practise.

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Critic and genius

The critic is considered to be the dialectic of genius.[1] This insight was formulated early by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing as "not every critic is a genius, but every genius is born a critic...genius has the proof of all rules within itself." Kant scholar Jane Kneller has read this to indicate that, as opposed to the externally oriented and culturally dependent critic, "genius demonstrates its autonomy not by ignoring all rules, but by deriving the rules from itself".[2]

Derivation

The word critic comes from Greek κριτικός (kritikós), "able to discern",[3] which is a Greek derivation from the word κριτής (krités), meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ The Harvard Crimson, "To be a critic is to trade transcendence in for self-awareness and proficiency—which is not to say that geniuses don’t know what they’re doing...genius involves a sort of freefall, brave, bold and fluent, that most of us aren’t capable of."
  2. ^ Paul Guyer, ed (2003). Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgement: Critical Essays. Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0742514196. 
  3. ^ Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus, Kritikos, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott.
  4. ^ Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus, Krites, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott.

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  • critic — CRÍTIC, Ă, critici, ce, adj., subst. I. adj. 1. Care apreciază calităţile şi defectele (unor oameni, stări, fapte, opere etc.). Aparat critic = totalitatea notelor lămuritoare, a comentariilor etc., introduse la editarea unui text, cu scopul de a …   Dicționar Român

  • Critic — Crit ic (kr[i^]t [i^]k), n. [L. criticus, Gr. kritiko s, a critic; prop., an adj. meaning able to discuss, from kri nein to judge, discern. See {Certain}, and cf. {Critique}.] 1. One skilled in judging of the merits of literary or artistic works; …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Critic — Crit ic, v. i. [Cf. F. critiquer.] To criticise; to play the critic. [Obs.] Syn: critique. [1913 Webster] Nay, if you begin to critic once, we shall never have done. A. Brewer. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Critic — Crit ic, a. Of or pertaining to critics or criticism; critical. [Obs.] Critic learning. Pope. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • critic — (n.) 1580s, one who passes judgment, from M.Fr. critique (14c.), from L. criticus a judge, literary critic, from Gk. kritikos able to make judgments, from krinein to separate, decide (see CRISIS (Cf. crisis)). Meaning one who judges merits of… …   Etymology dictionary

  • critic — [n1] analyst, interpreter analyzer, annotator, arbiter, authority, caricaturist, cartoonist, commentator, connoisseur, diagnostic, evaluator, expert, expositor, judge, pundit, reviewer, sharpshooter; concept 348 critic [n2] faultfinder, detractor …   New thesaurus

  • critic — [krit′ik] n. [L criticus < Gr kritikos, a critic, orig., critical, able to discern < krinein: see CRISIS] 1. a) a person who forms and expresses judgments of people or things according to certain standards or values b) such a person whose… …   English World dictionary

  • critic — index malcontent Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • CRITIC — Intelligence Report (Governmental » Military) …   Abbreviations dictionary

  • critic — ► NOUN 1) a person who expresses an unfavourable opinion of something. 2) a person who reviews literary or artistic works. ORIGIN Greek kritikos, from krit s a judge …   English terms dictionary

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