Human Action, Work, Technology, Art, and Beauty
Human Action
Human action is the capacity to act in different ways in various situations and to build upon previous thoughts. Features include: 1. Intentionality: a way to act. Two aspects of intentionality: theoretical desire to know and practical application to cover basic necessities. Objective 2: Use x necessary to reach an end. 3. Flexibility: nothing is predetermined (e.g., innovate). Practical reason: Humans work with symbols to represent reality in its absence.
Work
Work is the action necessary to procure and uncover our needs. It involves invention and transformation of nature. Greek life distinguished two types of work: “private” (meeting proper requirements, often hidden). Post-life was without work (reserved for slaves and women), a medieval Christian idea. Traits of work: 1. Violence on nature: the product is extracted. 2. Follows a model. 3. Converts humans into designers of their world. 4. Is rewarding. Work in industrial society: 1. A new area of work (manufacturing): steam engine, automation, etc. 2. Fragmented distribution of time, governed by clock and sirens. 3. Localized production in cities (urban planning, new social model). 4. New type of properties: stocks and bonds (emergence of bourgeois capitalist owners). 5. Hard working and living conditions result in the proletariat. 6. Women linked to the productive process (liberation). Marx: workers lose value, leading to class tension and revolutions. Contemporary work: Post-WWII, a new democratic society with economic growth and equality in education emerged. The welfare state was achieved, making people capitalists and consumers, the basic economic engine. Work leads to increased consumption and technology use, automating production. New technologies invade all areas, creating better workplaces for some, while others struggle to adapt, leading to disorientation and demotivation.
Technicians
Technicians have the ability to transform nature into artificial realities, traditionally reserved for craft techniques. However, scientific technology involves coding skills. The philosophy of technology reflects on technical systems and the social effects of technological phenomena. Ortega y Gasset: Humans are drafted by technology, creating dependence. Heidegger: Technology shapes the unveiling of being. Nature is seen as a resource, and technical operation is closer to craft, but technology breaks the landscape. Habermas: Technology is contaminated by political interests. Only technicians have the right to decide and command, making technology an instrument of domination. Risks: Society risks collapse due to technological development and global environmental catastrophe. Philosophy stresses potential hazards and the need for extreme control measures. Fear arises: Will machines think and impersonate humans? Technology has negative effects, but coding skills can combat them, controlling machines with reason.
Action and Symbolic Art
Artistic creation aims to produce beautiful objects. Symbolic action involves technique and the intuition of genius. Art was conceived as a copy of nature, its value lying in the quality of representation. The symbolic value of artwork symbolizes the creator’s new understanding of reality. It contrasts with useful work, having a purpose beyond mere execution, being significant in itself. Other functions and interpretations: 1. Art as a form: value lies in the formal par excellence. 2. Art as an expression of feelings and human values. 3. Art as symbols: significant role of human feelings in icons. Society and artistic symbols: Societies have always channeled symbols, fear, hope, conflict, pride, and misery through art. Art expresses the society of its time. History shows primitive peoples’ collective conscience through art, medieval and Renaissance religious art guiding development. Currently, art has more freedom, with new forms of creation, genre, and style.
Philosophical Reflection on Beauty
The beauty of artwork is guided by the intuition of beauty, an emotional and intellectual experience. The aesthetic aspect is the ability of objects to draw attention, revealing their essential character in contemplation. We experience various pleasures, with taste being a constructed experience influenced by person, culture, or generation. General features: 1. Admiration and contemplation: born from experiencing phenomena that break the daily and attract us. 2. Disinterested pleasure: pleasure from admiration, not possession. 3. Intensity and brevity: achieving great intensity, producing a trance-like state. Beauty and ugliness, sublimity: Is beauty objective or subjective? 1. Objectivism: beauty is the harmony of things (old-eighteenth century). 2. Subjectivism: beauty is a projected sense (eighteenth century-present). Different terms refer to beauty, emphasizing the sublime. Kant distinguishes beauty and sublimity: 1. Beauty is apprehensible reality, expressed in words and judgments, leading to quiet contemplation. 2. Sublimity is terror, facing something vast, where imagination falters, and reason prevails, bringing a feeling of grandeur and dignity. Ugliness breaks symbols, representing error and evil. Today, we condemn brutal beauty and seek a more humane and just world. Philosophy and art: From ancient times, philosophy has reflected on beauty and art. Platonic aesthetics: intellectualized vision, reaching ideas beyond sensory reality. Aristotle: contemplative dimension of aesthetics, disinterested. Kant: defines aesthetics as joy and freedom, not responding to specific sensory or rational necessity, but human demands aesthetic judgments.