PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ART
Throughout history, philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Kant
have questioned the meaning of art. In this lesson, you will realize the
meaning of art from philosophy’s point of view.
ART AS MIMESIS
The term, “mimesis” might sound like a part of an insect’s life cycle, but
it has more to do with human life than we may all think. According to
Auerbach (1953), mimesis is the basic theoretical principle in the creation of
art. It is a greek word which means, “imitation,” more so a ‘representation’
rather than a ‘copy’ of something (Oxford Dictionary, 2017).
It has been mentioned several times in this lesson that art represents
nature - it imitates life. In fact, mimesis is the process by which art reflects and
reinterprets the world around it. One can see how visual arts portray real-life
images such as paintings, drawings, photographs, and the like. When director
Peter Jackson decided to film The Lord of the Rings in New Zealand, fictional
locations like the city of Edoras became visually mimetic of real-life locales,
like Mt. Sunday seen right above. Plato, in his theory of Mimesis, asserts that
all art is mimetic by nature. What is real is the ‘idea’. To better understand this,
he used the carpenter and a chair. The idea of ‘chair’ came into the mind of
the carpenter. The carpenter, in return, gave the chair a physical shape out of
wood and created a chair. A painter, on the other hand, imitated the
carpenter’s chair in his painting. To Plato, the painter’s chair, a mimicry of the
carpenter’s version, is removed from reality twice — art, then, is twice
removed from reality. Further, Plato rejected poetry on its moral and
philosophical grounds. It is mimetic in nature and deals with illusion that
distorts the reality.
In other words, Plato argued the following: (1) art only gives the
likeness of a thing in concrete, but is always less than real; (2) art does not
inspire virtue and does not teach morality because of the imaginary events of
sorrow and happiness portrayed in artworks that make humans weaker; (3)
poetry does not teach ethics as it presents illusions that have never been
experienced in reality.
ART AS REPRESENTATION
Aristotle, Plato’s most important student in philosophy, agreed with
Plato in calling art, an imitation and the poet, an imitator. He does not agree
with Plato that the poet’s imitation is twice removed from reality, which
presents an unreal representation of the truth. Aristotle, then, compared a
historian and a poet. Both do not differ in the medium they use. The true
difference is that, historians relate the reality — what happened in the past.
The poet, on the other hand relates what ought to have happened — the ideal.
Aristotle in his Poetics (Tsitsiridis, 2005) adapted the concept of art as
‘imitation’ to fit his idea that artistic pursuits (particularly tragic or drama),
mimic the people, places, and conditions that we find around us in the real
world. Art, then, is a representation of nature or of the ideal.
In defense of his theory that art is a representation, Aristotle objected
against Plato’s arguments as discussed in the previous page: (1) An artwork
does not necessarily reflect the reality just like a mirror does. Literary works
are not exact reproductions of life in its totality. Literature is actually a
representation of selected events and characters necessary for the realization
of the artist’s purpose in creating such an artwork. More importantly, art does
not only give the likeness of a thing. Rather, it gives much more than which is
absent in real-life. In short, Aristotle believed that art does not take us away
from the Truth, but leads us to the essential reality of life. (2) In Plato’s
argument that art does not teach virtue, Aristotle’s objection was simple:
teaching is not a function of art. Its aim is to provide aesthetic delight,
communicate experience, express emotions and represent life. Art, for
Aristotle, should not be confused with ethics as it is to teach morality. Artists
create an artwork and it is up to the audience/viewers to draw an lessons from
it. (3) Poetry should not be judged because it does not teach ethics. At its
simplest, poetry is different from philosophy and ethics — if poetry, philosophy
and ethics have identical functions, how, then, could they be different subjects?
To sum this up, Aristotle tells us that art is not an exact imitation of
nature, but a representation.
Let us now take a look at a few examples of different kinds of mimesis
used in literature:
Behavioral Mimesis and Impersonation
In literature, behavioral mimesis is employed when characters who
mirror actual human responses are employed to various scenarios. In the
Dickens' classic, A Christmas Carol, the character Ebenezer Scrooge is a
perfect behavioral representation of a bad-tempered old collector. The
mimetic qualities that Dickens employed were so realistic, in fact, that the
name 'Scrooge' has been applied to many real-life penny-pinchers. Behavioral
mimesis is one of the author's best tools for creating believable characters.
Much like behavior mimesis, impersonation involves the adoption of
modes of conduct. However, this type goes a bit further by fully assuming a
role or persona clearly different from an individual's normal character. This
means that not only does the character act like another, but the character also
most likely takes on the dress and distinct mannerisms of the role. Remember
in the Harry Potter series wherein the characters use the Polyjuice Potion to
take on the exact physical characteristics of another person? In order to
infiltrate the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the
protagonist and his friends use this potion and must also adopt, as best they
can, the mannerisms of those they have impersonated in order to avoid
detection.
Vocal Mimesis and Metaphorical Mimesis
Authors and playwrights in literature use vocal mimesis by endowing a
character with the accent, inflection, and other speech patterns of someone of
a certain region or socioeconomic level. A good example of vocal mimesis is
in the classic play, Desire under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill. In this play,
O'Neill wrote the dialogue using the speech patterns found in rural New
England. With phonetic spellings and abruptly abbreviated words and phrases,
O'Neill captures the unique vocal quality of this region and brings it to the
listener's ear. Although extremely useful in creating fuller mental images of
characters, this sort of mimesis can become taxing and confusing to readers if
authors do not employ it well.
Visual and behavioral mimesis, impersonation, and vocal mimesis are
all considered formal mimesis, which means that they are a representation of
something directly observable in the real world. On the other hand,
metaphorical mimesis is a way of bringing intangible human concepts, such
as religious and philosophical ideas, into a real-life literary context. Think
about places like hell, purgatory, and heaven. Dante Alighieri, a 13th-century
Italian poet had to rely on a great deal of metaphorical mimesis. His renowned
Divine Comedy reflects Christian morality and principles of the afterlife;
therefore, he has to employ a wide range of allegorical or symbolic language
to embody them in concrete literary form. For instance, the various levels of
the Inferno reflect the respective gravity of each sin represented there. Also,
we can find images, such as that of a scorching desert, in the purging heat of
Purgatory. Much like Dickens, Dante was such an effective user of mimetic
representation that much of the imagery and ideology associated with these
concepts is still recognizable to readers today.
ART FOR ART’S SAKE
When artists create an artwork, that is to appeal to emotion as well as
to one’s mind. But when caught in a situation that asks to justify themselves
and their activities, artists would usually insist that art serves no ultimate
purpose - basically, an end in itself. When asked what art is really for, they
would simply say, art is not something to be used as a means to something
else, but simply, to be accepted and enjoyed on its own terms.
Immanuel Kant, in his “Critique of Judgment,” defines beauty as
something that can be universal. Judgment of art (or of beauty) is
independent of specific interests depending on the one who perceives art to
be beautiful. For Kant, when an artwork is being judged — say, a painting —
as something beautiful, one is saying that the painting has induced a sense of
satisfaction and is expected to provoke the same feeling of pleasure or
satisfaction from any other perceiver. For him, each individual must recognize
the beauty innate in any work of art. This is the kind of universality that Kant
assumes in our judgment of beauty — that we say that something is beautiful,
we do not only believe that this is so, but expect others to be in admiration of
the same thing as well.
ART AS AN ESCAPE
People tons of everyday life experiences — good or bad. Without a
mental escape, there is a tendency for us to build up too much anxiety within
ourselves. Through art, we are able to get rid of this anxiety and pressure,
preventing us to come out in the form of anger that can often be taken out on
the wrong people.
Have you ever experienced walking around in public and notice
someone wearing a headband with ears on the top? Psychologically speaking
(Mangal, 2010), people who wear this kind of art would rather look odd or
funny than show the broken college student that he or she really is. An
individual can get too engrossed with a character in a novel because it is
possible that he or she would rather be in love with a character than end up
realizing their own loneliness. Art, for some, serves as a coping device to
getaway from something or someone.
ART AS FUNCTIONAL
Basically, art as functional is akin to motivated art, that is both aesthetic
and useful. The intention is to bring in the artist’s creativity and beauty in our
everyday lives. Whether it is a curvy chair made of balikbayan boxes or a bag
rack made of car parts, art is designed to serve a purpose, which likewise
make us rethink the way we look at ordinary things.
