What Is the Highest Form of Art in Phi9losophy
Information technology is unsurprising that Arthur Schopenhauer had a gloomy view of existence. His mother disliked him, his father committed suicide, and he himself spent most of his life isolated in a small apartment in Frankfurt. For him, the very fabric of life was composed of suffering. However, he did have solutions to combat the horror of being. Amid some of his theories, ane thing he believed to offer respite was that of art and aesthetic encounters. In this article, we dive into his philosophy of life as suffering and his solutions to it.
Arthur Schopenhauer's Bike of Suffering
Schopenhauer'south philosophy of pessimism was based on ii claims: that non-existence is preferable and that our globe is the worst of all possible worlds. Let's have a expect at this first claim.
He argues that we are forever – in one way or another – in need of something; we experience that nosotros are lacking. This perception of insufficiency may be real or illusory. For case, we may be without food and the means past which to larn information technology, causing us to starve. Equally, we may want the newest iPhone but lack the money to purchase information technology. Either fashion, we lack these things and therefore endure from our perception of lacking.
However, as humans, we endeavour to put an end to this suffering past attaining what we lack: earning coin to purchase food or the new iPhone. This is what he calls 'striving.' In his opinion, striving has two ends.
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Either, our striving is successful and we accomplish what nosotros previously lacked. Or, we fail in our striving, and our suffering is now twofold, equally non only do we lack but we have to face the reality of our failure likewise. Yet, things don't end hither.
In the instance of having successfully strived and attained what we wanted, he argues, our escape from suffering and consequential satisfaction is simply momentary. Soon after buying the iPhone or acquiring the food, we quickly get bored past these things, causing a new perception of lacking to render. This leads only to more striving and, therefore, more suffering. As put by Schopenhauer:
"desires are unlimited, [their] claims inexhaustible, and every satisfied desire gives birth to a new ane"
(Janaway, 2013).
Thus, in accord with his philosophy, life is a bicycle of continual suffering, in which one's state of momentary satisfaction is only suffering yet to course; i.east. suffering presently to come.
The Three Solutions
Intrinsic to this bike of suffering is desire: the desire to attain and to alleviate. In other words, it is our very connection to the globe (i.due east. our stake in information technology) that causes u.s. to suffer.
Schopenhauer called this our 'will-to-life'; our self-centered view of the world in which phenomenal reality (i.due east. the earth as perceived by the senses) is divided and categorised based on its usefulness in our game of attaining and alleviating. Therefore, he argued, by cutting the 'm threads of willing' that demark u.s.a. to the world, we tin can escape this cycle of suffering (Janaway, 2013).
He suggested a few ways of doing this (of how we can deny our 'will-to-life'). More than specifically, he posited three possible pathways to enable us to convalesce the suffering innate to life. Namely, via:
- Asceticism.
- Compassion.
- Art and artful experience.
We will now analyse these possible pathways in a picayune more depth.
Asceticism as a Solution to Suffering
The most extreme pathway to the alleviation of suffering is asceticism. Asceticism is just the denial of all pleasure. The term describes the severely disciplined life associated with that of celibate monks and priests, in which the denial of sex, food, alcohol and many other pleasures is required.
Following in line with the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, Schopenhauer argued that past cutting all pleasures from one'due south life, desire and the related 'will-to-life' could be permanently eliminated. As the 'will-to-life' is the very thing responsible for all human suffering, one could complimentary themselves from this suffering by denying the thing that perpetuates it (i.e. want). In the same way the successful Buddhist somewhen reaches a land of nirvana, free from all temporal desire, the successful ascetic will attain a state of 'will-lessness,' resulting in a similar sort of serenity.
Withal, he understood human nature, himself by no means an ascetic. He admitted that the overwhelming bulk of people lack the involvement and/or discipline to be true ascetics, and will thus never overcome the suffering of life past post-obit this pathway. Thus, he posited a 2d pick.
Philosophy of Pity
According to Schopenhauer, if 1 cannot follow asceticism, one can at least be compassionate. But why empathetic? you may ask.
Without condign lost in the rather confusing depths of his metaphysics, it is necessary to outline his metaphysical stance in order to empathise the relevance of compassion every bit a ways by which to escape suffering. Every bit previously stated, he saw the 'will-to-life' as the root of all suffering. And this concept of 'will' can be thought of primarily as our wish to continue existing and to procreate.
This 'will' is the fabric underlying all of reality. For him, will is the only 'objective' reality split from that of our minds, i.e. distinct from astounding feel. This was a fundamental idea of his philosophy, evident in the title of his piece of work The World as Will and Representation.
Fundamental to the concept of volition is that it is present (immanent) in every aspect of reality. In other words, information technology is the whole of reality, inclusive of ourselves, the organic and the inorganic world. Thus, it follows that there is no distinction between things; no individuals, no self, no divisions – information technology is all will. Therefore, reality is i.
From this, he puts forward, information technology is only logical to treat fellow humans, animals and everything in the globe with pity, as everything is us. Thus, to exist compassionate is to care for oneself well. And to be compassionate is besides to recognise that the whole of reality is indeed composed of will, and thus to exist able to detach (or at least distance) oneself from this will and consequent will-to-life (thereby removing oneself from the associated suffering).
Art and Aesthetic Encounters
While being compassionate is a more reasonable request than becoming an ascetic, it notwithstanding requires the person to develop a specific approach to life. Even so, there is a third, temporary solution 1 tin employ to alleviate the suffering of life. This is through art.
Upon aesthetic contemplation, Schopenhauer described the following as the consequence:
"the attention is now no longer directed to the motives of willing, but comprehends things gratis from their relation to the will. Thus it considers things without interest, without subjectivity, purely objectively … Then all at in one case the peace… comes to us of its ain accord, and all is well with united states"
(quoted in Janaway, 2013).
Upon the contemplation of an artwork, the viewer is able to disassemble themselves from willing. They are momentarily suspended from the will-to-life, i.e. from desire and striving. In effect, they 'lose' themselves in the artwork, to the degree that they forget they are an individual governed by will, instead becoming 1 with the work of fine art.
But how is this possible?
He conceptualizes art every bit a 'Platonic idea.' By this, he ways that art and the adept artist aspire to replicate objects in their most undistorted class. In other words, the artist who paints a mural tries to paint information technology 'as information technology really is' rather than how they perceive information technology to be. Thus, art aims to capture objectivity.
For example, when an artist paints a flower, their aim is to capture the true essence of the flower and its 'ur' (intrinsic qualities). In then doing, the artist creates an image of the flower which is universal, and thus closest to objectivity.
For him, art sits between will and representation. In other words, information technology is a grade undistorted past phenomena (our own perception of things) and is thus not representation, but is equally separate from the volition (the striving innate to life). Therefore, fine art in its highest grade is the closest to objectivity we can come up.
Thus, to view a piece of work of fine art is to come closer to the 'existent' nature of things, which itself implies that the viewer understands what reality is really composed of (i.e. volition). It follows that through this recognition the viewer is able to momentarily detach themselves from this will and is able to look upon the true nature of things, liberated from pressures of the will.
Schopenhauer'south Favorite Art Grade
Co-ordinate to Schopenhauer's philosophy, there were five art forms through which 1 could be liberated from the suffering of life. These were architecture, poetry, painting, sculpture and music. However, he did not hold these in equal accord. Specifically, he accounted music to be the highest form of art. This is considering he argued, music embodies the will that underlies life itself. What did he mean past this?
Unlike sculpture or painting, whose artists attempt to replicate a Platonic idea, music is 'the copy of the volition itself.' In other words, music embodies the very will that underlies the whole of reality. This explains why music is considered to be a universal language. This is why film soundtracks and music set to a specific scene, for example, serve every bit the perfect commentary upon them and heighten the feel of viewing. Furthermore, music embodies the volition – the very affair of life and reality – but leaves bated the practical concerns that are bound up in it. Past this, it is meant that we can experience the will without actually suffering from its usual concerns.
For example, a piece of music that evokes a melancholy feeling allows us to experience and consider the emotion of sadness common to life, without really making united states sad. It is at in one case both a discrete and involved experience. Thus, music allows usa to empathize the very thing that underlies reality (will) without tying us to information technology. Hence, music – fifty-fifty more than and then than with other fine art forms – takes united states closer to objective reality.
Similarly, every bit music is only limited by fourth dimension and not infinite (the two factors limiting our perception of things), it is one stride further removed from phenomenal reality, and is thus ane pace closer to accessing an objective reality.
Overall, Schopenhauer offers multiple solutions to his philosophy of life every bit suffering. These solutions not only alleviate the suffering, but also allow the enlightened person to gain a greater knowledge of reality: of the oneness of things and their true form. While asceticism may exist too great a task, and compassion of similar difficulty, aesthetic appreciation is something mutual to the daily lives of usa all. So, the adjacent time you find yourself lost in portraiture or subsumed in a sonata, consider that you are one footstep closer to the true nature of things.
Source: https://www.thecollector.com/arthur-schopenhauer-philosophy-art/
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