Art, Ethics, and Philosophical Perspectives
Key Aspects of Art
Art is a production-oriented activity involving objects, experiences, and symbolic actions. It’s a type of interview where intuition and technique are highly valued. Key aspects include:
- Creativity: It’s a primary activity involving personal involvement.
- Disciplines: Painting, sculpture, architecture, cinema, dance, music, and literature.
- Technique and Inspiration: Requires both, especially technique.
- Dual Nature: “Art” and “art” can both be beautiful, but the former is generally recognized, while the latter may not be. A great artist produces beautiful art.
- Beauty and Art: Linked, but not synonymous. Beauty relates to harmony, proportion, and order.
- Functions of Art: Self-expression, entertainment, catharsis (release of emotions), and profit.
- Art and Nature: Plato believed art imitates nature, implying nature is “better.” Hegel argued that art *improves* upon nature.
Understanding Ethics
Ethics is a branch of philosophy dealing with moral objects, determining good and evil. Key points:
- The Kantian Question: “What should I do?” This prompts reflection on right and wrong.
- Uncomfortable Questions: Ethics confronts us with conflicts and problems. Think of Jiminy Cricket as the moral conscience.
- Freedom as Foundation: Freedom to choose is fundamental. Sartre: “We are condemned to be free.”
- Heteronomy to Autonomy: Moving from dependence on others to independence.
- Ethical Values: Life, liberty, justice, truth, and health. These often create conflicts (e.g., abortion: freedom of choice vs. life).
- Moral Consciousness: A social construction, becoming increasingly autonomous. Freud called this the superego.
- Ethical Proposals: Various proposals exist (Kant, Sartre, etc.). You must choose the best for you.
- Utopia: Ethics relates to utopia – impossible projects that nonetheless provide direction.
Philosophical Schools of Thought
Aristotle and Eudaemonism
Aristotle developed eudaemonism, stating that ethics centers on happiness, achieved through moderation. Happiness also requires a certain physical and social well-being. The greatest social good is justice and civic harmony. Good actions, repeated, form habits; virtuous actions lead to happiness, while bad actions lead to vice.
Epicurus and Hedonism
Epicurus founded hedonism, asserting that good and happiness consist in seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. However, some pleasures are accompanied by suffering, so one must rationally calculate which are more intense and lasting. For example, getting drunk provides temporary happiness but results in a hangover (suffering).
Bentham, Mill, and Utilitarianism
Bentham and Stuart Mill created utilitarianism, identifying good with utility. Moral value lies in the practical effects of an action, in achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Society regulates itself through the free exchange of interests.
Kant and Formalism
Kant rejected earlier ethical theories for failing to establish universality and necessity. He believed necessary and universal morality cannot be material. The goodness of an action lies in acting solely out of duty, without any other consideration. Performing duty for personal gain renders the action immoral. He created the Categorical Imperative.
Sartre and Existentialism
Sartre’s existentialism holds that human existence is not predetermined by any value, end, or prior reference. There is no human nature, absolute value, or God defining what a person is or should do. The goodness of an action lies in its radical and absolutely free character.
Apel, Habermas, and Discourse Ethics
Apel and Habermas developed discourse ethics, a reformulation of Kantian ethics, replacing individual conscience with a collective subject. It also addresses the emptiness of Kant’s maxims by investigating the minimum contents that can be universalized through consensus.