What Is Art For ? \ stacker news ~FiresidePhilosophy

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3631 sats \ 18 comments \ @0xbitcoiner 4 Apr FiresidePhilosophy

This question has crossed my mind before, but this time I decided to look for answers and came across this video. I enjoy art, but I don't really know why, and it depends on the type of art. I feel differently about painting and sculpture than I do about music and theater, for example. In this video, I found some explanations.

During my research, I rediscovered that philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, among others, had already explored this topic. Plato believed that art was an imitation of reality, an imperfect copy of the perfect ideas that exist in the intelligible world. He considered that art had an important moral role, as it could educate and elevate the human soul. For Aristotle, art was a form of knowledge that imitated nature. He believed that art had an important role in the formation of human character, as it could arouse emotions such as catharsis and purification.

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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @provolone 4 Apr

I think great art causes us to experience something that transcends our expectations of reality. This creates a feeling that is unintelligible in that there are no words to describe it, and that feeling creates an expansion... maybe it makes room in your soul

28 sats \ 0 replies \ @Taft 4 Apr

I agree with @Scoresby that both philosophers were wrong. The experience of humans and the history of art have clearly shown that art isn't just "an imitation of reality, an imperfect copy of the perfect ideas that exist in the intelligible world", but a pure act of creation, a sublime act of creation.

149 sats \ 6 replies \ @Scoresby 4 Apr

Both Plato and Aristotle are wrong. It's not imitation at all. Art is creation.

If art was imitation, we'd be like bowerbirds hopping around in front of our fancy nests, just trying to get laid.

But human art is gratifying even to ourselves alone. It's what we do to escape our fear that we are nothing more than a collection of atoms.

Art is transhumanism before it was cool.

By which I mean art is how we become gods.

38 sats \ 5 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 4 Apr

It takes guts to go against Plato and Aristotle! 😂 The Force is strong with you! But I see your point, it makes sense.

43 sats \ 4 replies \ @Scoresby 4 Apr

How much art did they make?

59 sats \ 3 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 4 Apr

If we consider writing as an art, there were many. Whether they made other types of art, I don't know.

43 sats \ 2 replies \ @Scoresby 4 Apr

It's interesting to think about philosophy as art. Does the Nicomachean Ethics have artistry?

Probably a lot of it is changed by translation (I certainly don't read Greek). So are we even experiencing Aristotle's artistry - or the translator's?

But this gets to the bigger point: what part of human life is art and what is not?

If a cashier makes change for me - not art.

If they do it with flair - art?

Art is distinct from the other stuff we do in that it is somehow beautiful.

A landscape is beautiful but not art until you paint it or describe it or photograph it.

What if the cashier making change without flair was actually the true artistry?

I guess art is intentional too.

Probably there is only fuzziness when we look too closely at the boundaries of art.

But I think this is a good taglong question for the one you pose in the OP:

What isn't art?

76 sats \ 1 reply \ @0xbitcoiner OP 4 Apr

You raise some good points. In a broader sense, I would say that anything that involves creation can be considered art. But that's a highly debatable topic. We can talk about the art of cooking, the art of sewing, the art of writing poetry, and so on. Now I have more doubts than I did an hour ago. :)

27 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 4 Apr

Thanks for bringing the topic up and for the great video!

64 sats \ 0 replies \ @OriginalSize 4 Apr

Art helps to get to fundamental aspects of the mind which can't be reached in other ways. Sometimes I think of it is a way to understand what's going on when it's to complex to name or categorize.

It can also be a way to say things which are too hard to say outright like is done with comedy.

I like it as the result of the creative impulse. Sometimes nothing is meant by it but it hits a button for someone else. It's a lot better at this than random chance so I feel it's worthwhile.

64 sats \ 1 reply \ @frostdragon 4 Apr

Here's a related quote that resonated with me:

"Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time"

I feel like art is a way to express or induce unquantifiable or otherwise intangible thoughts and feelings.

also... This is apparently my 500th "item"!

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 4 Apr

I love the idea that music can decorate time. Congratulations on your 500th item 🤠

32 sats \ 0 replies \ @herschel 4 Apr

Art is one of the many, natural creative responses of humans. We are essentially creative creatures. Most people are, obviously, not the people we've allowed to operate our systems. I feel terrible for people who are confounded by art and by artists. I can't imagine what must be going in there.

16 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei 5 Apr

Sensei’s writings = Art

16 sats \ 0 replies \ @drewskiinem5 5 Apr freebie

art is for expression of self to the world, and for whatever you want it for, and interpreted differently from person to person. Expression. Originality. Independence. And political suggestion. Love, desire, beauty. All forms of art are your own spin of reality or even your version on someone else's art.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @podconf 5 Apr

The only art that matters and that will last for the next 1000 years are inscriptions.

NGU At All Costs®

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 5 Apr

Plato and Aristotle are out of the game now. AI being the new scholar defines, "Art is definitely the other word or short form for Artificial, that means whatever is creation by man is art, and as now AI has replaced man at many levels, Art is for AI's sake.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 5 Apr

Transmutation.