Introduction and Assumptions Flashcards
What does art provide opportunities for?
Communion with the arts
According to Plato, what does beauty progress towards?
Better, more beautiful objects of desire
What is the origin of the word ‘art’ in ancient Latin?
Ars, which means a craft or specialized form of skill
Ancient Latin word for “art”?
“ars” means a “craft or specialized form of skill, like carpentry or smithying or surgery”.
In Medieval Latin, what did ‘ars’ refer to?
Any special form of book-learning, such as grammar, logic, magic, or astrology
In the 18th Century what does art mean?
Art means not delicate or highly skilled art, but ’beautiful’ art. This is something more akin to what is now considered art.
Assumptions of Art
- Art is Universal
- Art is not nature
- Art involves experience
Literature has provided key works of art. Greek Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Sanskrit pieces Mahabharata and Ramaya, Ibong Adarna, Florante at Laura, these stories and tales have been passed on and has always been timeless and universal.
Art is Universal
One important characteristic of art is that it is not nature. Art is man’s expression of his reception of nature. Art is man’s way of interpreting nature. Art is not nature. Art is made by man. This distinction assumes that all of us see nature and perceive it differently.
Art is not nature
Art is experience. By experience, means the “actual doing of something”. Art depends on experience, and if one is to know art, he must know it not as a fact or information but as experience.
Art involves experience
What distinguishes art from nature?
Art is man’s expression and interpretation of nature
What does art depend on according to the third assumption?
Experience
What is a key aspect of experiencing art?
Highly personal, individual, and subjective
In philosophical terms, how is the perception of art characterized?
Always a value judgement
