FUNCTIONS AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES OF ART .pdf
- 1. 03 Functions and Philosophical Perspectives of Art
- 2. ARISTOTLE Telos, according to Aristotle, is intricately linked with function. For a thing to reach its purpose, it also has to fulfill its function. Greek philosopher Aristotle claimed that every particular substance in the world has an end, or telos in Greek, which translates to “purpose.”
- 3. Functions of Art When it comes to functions, different art come with distinctive functions. There is no one-to-one correspondence between an art and its function The functions of art are classified into three: ● Personal (public display of affection) ● Social (celebration or to affect collective behavior) ● Physical (utilitarian)
- 4. PERSONAL FUNCTIONS OF ART Personal functions of art are varied and highly subjective. Its functions depend on the person—the artist who created the art. An artist may create an art out of the need for self expression.
- 5. SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF ART Art is considered to have social function if and when it addresses a particular collective interest as opposed to a personal interest. Political art is very common example of an art with a social function. Art may convey message of protest, contestation or whatever the artist intends his work to carry.
- 6. PHYSICAL FUNCTIONS OF ART The easiest to spot and understand. The physical functions of art can be found in artworks that are crafted in order to serve some physical purpose.
- 7. OTHER FUNCTIONS OF ART Music is also used as a wonderful accompaniment to stage plays and motion pictures. Music in its original form was principally functional. Music was used for dance and religion. Music also was essential to dance because music assures synchronicity among dancers.
- 8. Sculpture Is another functional art form that has long existed for various purpose. Sculptures have been made by man particularly for religion. People erect status for the divine. Sculptures were also made in order to commemorate important figures in history.
- 9. ARCHITECTURE Another art form that readily lends itself to multiple functions is architecture. Architecture might be the most prominent functional art form. Whenever art serves a particular function, the form has to be determined by function.
- 10. DOES ART ALWAYS HAVE TO BE FUNCTIONAL? While it has been shown that most arts are functional, still there are some which are not. The value of art does not depend on function but on work itself. The plays of Aeschylus and the poetry of Robert Frost and Edgar Allan Poe are still counted as examples of great works of art despite their not having a known function.
- 11. PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ART Plato (2000) in his masterpiece, The Republic, particularly paints a picture of artists as imitators and art as mere imitation. In Plato’s metaphysics or view of reality, the things in this world are only copies of the original, the eternal, and the true entities that can only be found in the World of Forms. ART AS AN IMITATION
- 12. PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ART Plato was deeply suspicious of arts and artists for two reasons: ● They appeal to the emotion rather than to be the rational faculty of men ● They imitate rather than lead one to reality ART AS AN IMITATION
- 13. Socrates is worried that art objects represent only the things in this world, copies themselves of reality. Socrates claimed that art is just an imitation of imitations SOCRATES
- 14. ART AS REPRESENTATION Aristotle, Plato’s most important student in philosophy, agreed with his teacher that art is a form of imitation. However in contrast to the disgust that his master hold for art. Aristotle considered art as an aid to philosophy in revealing truth. The kind of imitation that art does is not antithetical to the reaching fundamental truths in the world. Unlike Plato who thought that art is an imitation of another imitation, Aristotle conceived of art as representing possible versions of reality.
- 15. ART AS REPRESENTATION In the Aristotelian worldview, art serves two particular reasons: ● First, art allows for the experience of pleasure. ● Secondly, art also has an ability to be instructive and teach its audience things about life.
- 16. ART AS A DISINTERESTED JUDGMENT Immanuel Kant wrote the “Critique of Judgment,” Kant considered the judgment of beauty, the cornerstone of art as something that can be universal despite its subjectivity. Kant mentioned that judgment of beauty and therefore, art is innately autonomous form specific interests.
- 17. KANT RECOGNIZED THAT JUDGMENT OF BEAUTY IS SUBJECTIVE For Kant, when one judges a particular painting as beautiful, one in effect is saying that the painting has induced a particular feeling of satisfaction from him that he expects the painting to rouse the same feeling for anyone.
- 18. ART AS A COMMUNICATION OF EMOTION In Leo Tolstoy’s book, What is Art (2016), art plays a huge role in communication to its audience’s emotions that the artist previously experienced. Art then serves as a language, a communication device that articulates feelings and emotions that are otherwise unavailable to the audience.