Hume 1 How Does Art Seem Both Subjective and Objective?
Throughout the ages philosophers have wrestled with the notion of art at every possible level. From Plato to Marx, Aristotle to Hume, Kant to Danto, history's great minds accept theorized about the nature of fine art, testing the depths of human understanding. With art one tin can easily find discussion delving into ontology, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, sociology, psychology, and even politics without fifty-fifty scratching the tip of the iceberg. Yet even with the enormous breadth of conceptions of fine art on which to meditate philosophers and theorists have concocted numerous opposing view points which take helped to shape and focus each other throughout the centuries. This newspaper will focus on the particular theories of one of the first slap-up thinkers to tackle the enigmatic nature of fine art; Aristotle. While Aristotle did not take the vast wealth of art theory to reply to that later philosophers would accept, he did immediately follow the first and 1 of nigh emphatic philosophers to annotate on the nature of fine art; Plato. Every bit was frequently the case with aboriginal philosophers, both Plato and Aristotle were forced to establish a theory of fine art based heavily on their metaphysical views about the nature of the world. It will exist shown later on, in contrast to Aristotle, that many thinkers, such every bit Kant, Hume and Freud adult theories of art grounded in their artful, sociopolitical, and psychological theories. Finally, in order to exemplify the conceptions of art examined in the first part of the paper, 2 pieces of art from a genre which Aristotle was well-nigh passionate near will be examined critically in gild to see how specific artwork can fit into the complex framework of philosophical theory. In keeping with the ancient Greek traditions of art Sophocles' ii tragedies, Oedipus the King and Antigone, will be investigated.
In society to understand Aristotle's perspective on art it is important to get-go have a moderate understanding of Aristotle'southward metaphysics. However, since Aristotle'south metaphysics tin can best be understood as a response to the theories of his teacher nosotros must first accept a look at Plato's theories of the nature of the universe. Plato believed that all things that exist in reality are mere representations of perfect metaphysical constructs which he called the Forms. This doctrine which permeates through all of Plato's philosophy reveals several important bug with the nature of fine art which shall be examined in response to Aristotle'south theories. Aristotle, in opposition to Plato developed a metaphysics which was grounded much more than in the real world. For Aristotle the notion of class was really a function of all matter and the stardom between the grade and the actual substance that made up an object was only an intellectual one. This bears a relation to art because for both Plato and Aristotle fine art is an faux of the bodily world (Palmer, pp 447-452). The 2 thinkers however, interpret the nature of this imitation in opposing manners. While Plato condemns art because information technology is in effect a copy of a copy - since reality is false of the Forms and art is then fake of reality - Aristotle defends art by saying that in the appreciation of fine art the viewer receives a certain "cerebral value" from the experience (Stumpf, p 99). This is to say that through the perception of fine art 1 gains a certain understanding about the nature of reality. This brings the states to the question of the epistemological concerns relating to fine art.
For Plato, since fine art is an imitation of an faux it is in issue iii times removed from the truth. As a result, Plato interprets this to mean that art cannot requite the viewer any real knowledge well-nigh the world (Palmer, p 438). Aristotle's objection to this can be about easily seen in his favor for poesy and drama. While Plato would argue that we tin obtain no truth from the report of fine art, Aristotle would say that fine art actually theorizes a corking deal nigh what is possible in human guild. His famous example compares poetry to the report of history. Aristotle argues that history is only concerned with specific instances while poetry deals with "basic human, and therefore universal, experience." Aristotle reasons that "poetry … is a more philosophical and higher thing than history: for poesy tends to express the universal, history the detail" (Stumpf, p 99).
Plato's final objection to fine art which Aristotle responds to is a claim of a moral nature. Plato argued that art appeals to the passions which can be wild and unsafe. Aristotle, dissimilar Plato, believed that while art does entreatment to the more unruly side of humanity, the encouragement of these animalistic characteristics is beneficial to order because through experiencing art, particularly tragedy, the people would experience a catharsis, or a purgation, which would rid them of their dangerous emotions (Palmer, p 450). This upshot of purgation is the commencement instance where parallels can be drawn betwixt Aristotelian theories of art and a more modern realm; that of psychoanalysis. Surprisingly, Sigmund Freud would concur with Plato'southward moral objection to art. According to Freud, fine art is used by both artists and art viewers alike as a grade of escapism. Similar Plato, Freud would argue that indulgence in fine art is akin to removing oneself from reality. He would propose that art "has the issue, and therefore probably the purpose, of forcing the patient out of real life, of alienating him from actuality" (Palmer, p 446).
Another aspect of art that Aristotle commented on was its sociopolitical connotations. It is in this area that we tin can notice connections betwixt the theories of Aristotle and Karl Marx. Aristotle believed that society could exist cleaved up into two groups. Members of the get-go group were "free and educated," while the second group was "fabricated up of mechanics and full general laborers and other such people." He described the latter group equally being vulgar and "perverted from their natural state." In this mode art provided an efficient way of "pacifying the masses" (Palmer, p 451). There are clear similarities in Aristotle's theories with those of Marx's socioeconomic view about the nature of art. On a Marxist interpretation art is but another mode in which the wealthy upper class can oppress the proletariat through pacification (Palmer, p 458).
The last concept of art that should be investigated, earlier moving on to Aristotle'south interest in tragedy, is his ideas of beauty and taste. Though information technology is difficult to find concise references to beauty in the Aristotelian texts he does seem to support the notion of an objective beauty. That is to say that there are certain universal characteristics which a work of art must have in guild to be beautiful. From his periodic reference to mathematics in relation to beautiful objects it is often extrapolated that Aristotle believed in that location to be a certain social club to beauty. In the Metaphysics he says that "the chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness." (Copleston, p 359). Empiricist David Hume had a very unlike idea of what could classify as beautiful or as adept art. According to Hume the criterion for good fine art was completely subjective. On his theory there are certain educated members of social club who "he felt, eventually [would] attain consensus, and in doing and then, [would] ready a 'standard of taste' which [would be] universal" (Freeland, p nine). Immanuel Kant, on the other hand, had a conception of beauty which, though it did not completely coincide with Aristotle's criterion, was at least in a similar spirit. At this signal a treatment of Kant's metaphysics would be helpful, only for the sake of brevity a complete one will not be given. Kant believed that reality consisted of 2 worlds: the neuminal earth and the phenomenal world. Think of the neuminal world as a world containing only essences of individuals. In the neuminal world there is no space, no time, no substance, none of the normal paradigms which we associate with reality. The phenomenal world then is the way that we interpret the neuminal earth through a set of Categories which we have built into our psyches. These Categories allow one to excogitate of fourth dimension, infinite, and sure enough, beauty (Silverstein). For Kant and so, dazzler is not something which is completely objective since our perception of beauty is function of our heed. Information technology does, however, have a certain level of universality to information technology which gives it a much more objective status than that of Hume's taste-arbiters.
At present that the reader has a fair idea of Aristotle's conceptions of art and some of the supporting and opposing viewpoints of his swain philosophers information technology is time to consider the detail genre of art known as tragedy, which Aristotle was so fond of. He defined tragedy every bit "the imitation of an action that is serious … with incidents arousing pity and fearfulness, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions" (Copleston, p 363). Notice the use of the word "imitation" in the definition. Retrieve that Aristotle idea that by imitation of action one could get insight into the nature of the universe. Also, recall that for Aristotle one of the main objectives of fine art was to induce a purgation which would rid the citizens of their less pleasurable emotions. For Aristotle, a successful tragedy would be ane in which the main character was neither likewise virtuous nor besides villainous. The plot should starting time out well for the main character then through no more error of his ain, other than a possible mistake in judgment, he should come up to a demise which instills feelings of pity, sadness, and anger in the gallery thereby inducing catharsis.
Aristotle's favorite tragedy was Oedipus the Male monarch by Sophocles. The play begins with the Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes. Upon the nascency of their son, Oedipus, an oracle proclaims that he volition impale his father and marry his mother. Petrified the king and queen carelessness their son to die in the wilderness, merely he is picked upward and cared for by a shepherd. The shepherd takes Oedipus to the town of Corinth where he is adopted past the male monarch and queen. One day when Oedipus is grown he learns that he has been adopted and goes to an oracle in search of answers. Instead the oracle tells him the prophecy that he will kill his begetter and ally his mother. Not believing that he was truly adopted Oedipus leaves Corinth then as to avoid killing who he thinks is his father and marrying who he thinks is his mother. At an intersection in the road he gets into a scuffle with a group from Thebes and ends upwards killing Male monarch Laius who was traveling in disguise. Not knowing what he has done he continues on to Thebes and somewhen ends up marrying Queen Jocasta and becoming the king. He rules well and he and Jocasta end up having 4 children together. Then one twenty-four hour period a soothsayer reveals to them the truth of their situation and Jocasta commits suicide. Meanwhile Oedipus gouges out his eyes and banishes himself from Thebes, destined to become a wandering beggar.
For Aristotle, Oedipus the Rex is the perfect tragedy. Information technology has a worthy master grapheme and a complicated plot. Through a sequence of coincidences and unforeseeable events Oedipus is reduced to a sorry end because he committed a horrible deed without knowing it. The power for such an unavoidable mistake to crusade such catastrophe is meant to illustrate the frailty of the homo life. Since the drama "shows how a good person confronts adversity, it elicits a cleansing … through emotions of fright and pity" (Freeland, p 32). Eventually, later on many years of wandering the land as a bullheaded beggar, Oedipus attains sort of a saintly stature in the eyes of his fellow Greeks. On Aristotle's more than general formulation of fine art Oedipus has worth as an false of what could conceivably happen to anyone in the Greek society.
The third tragedy in the Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy is chosen Antigone. The setting is a few decades subsequently the tragic downfall of Oedipus in the midst of the Thebean civil war. The two sons of Oedipus, Polyneices and Eteocles, have been killed in battle and Creon assumes the thrown of Thebes. In society to insult his opponents Creon orders that Eteocles be buried honorably but that Polyneices be left on the battleground to rot. Oedipus' 2 daughters, Antigone and Ismene, plot to disobey Creon and bury their blood brother Polyneices. Nether the threat of death Ismene decides not to aid her sister in the task. Later burying her brother Antigone is captured and brought earlier Creon to confront judgment. Though Antigone proclaims her sis innocent Creon imprisons the pair of them. Haemon, Antigone's fiancé and Creon'southward son comes to show his back up to his male parent while at the same time beg him to spare his helpmate. Creon refuses and Haemon vows never to see him again. Though he does decide to spare Ismene, Creon orders that Antigone exist locked up in a cavern forever. Along comes the blind soothsayer Teiresias who warns Creon that the gods wish him to release Antigone and bury Polyneices body or else they will take abroad one of his children and all of Greece will turn against him and Thebes. Frightened Creon agrees to release her, but alas it is besides belatedly. A messenger arrives and tells him that Haemon and Antigone accept both committed suicide and soon after Creon's married woman also takes her ain life. Broken past self-blame the drama ends with Creon slinking back into his home and the chorus offering an exclamation that the gods punish the proud just the lessons learned volition make the punished wise.
Antigone was some other of Aristotle'due south favorite tragedies. Sophocles was the third tragic playwright who revolutionized drama in Hellenic republic with his addition of more main characters and a bottom presence of the chorus. Earlier Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles there would accept merely been one grapheme in the play and a large chorus. The chorus would be so active in the story that plays were more than like narratives than bodily dramas. The audition might take been surprised at the end to find out that the master tragic graphic symbol in Antigone was not Antigone herself, just rather it was Creon. This drama illustrates the second style in which a tragic character can reach his downfall. In the instance of the first play in the trilogy Oedipus suffered from a hamartia; a tragic mistake rather than an evil intent (Freeland, p 34). In Creon's instance his tragic flaw is an instance of hubris; an overbearing pride or airs. In the end the audience certainly feels pity for Creon and experiences catharsis, since it was really more than of a blindness than a malicious intent that caused him to make the decisions that resulted in the loss of his entire family. Every bit fine art this tragedy certainly fulfills its duties in Aristotle's eyes.
Equally has been illustrated Aristotle had a very concise idea of the nature and the purpose of art, specially every bit it relates to tragedy and drama. While many of the philosophers who came before and after Aristotle had opposing philosophies of fine art one cannot deny that his theories made very good sense in his historical context and many of them still have some merit today. If one steps back and attempts to look at philosophy of art as a whole over the centuries 1 cannot deny that the practical merit that his theories contained and cannot help but exist impressed at how early they came in the history of philosophy of art.
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by Christian Ketelsen Major: Mathematics and Philosophy Expected
Graduation Appointment August, 2003
Hometown Battle Ground, WA
Earlier becoming a math major I spent ii semesters every bit a double major in Philosophy and English. During this time I wrote a large number of argumentative essays and literary critiques. Since becoming a Math major I have had to learn to write technical papers.
Source: https://public.wsu.edu/~kimander/aristotleart.htm
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