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ARISTOTLE AND PLATO,S VIEWS ON ART
ARISTOTLE AND PLATO,S VIEWS ON ART
ARISTOTLE AND PLATO,S VIEWS ON ART
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In our philosophy of art class we have looked at many different classical views on art and beauty. Such ideals as Plato’s criticisms on art, Aristotle’s idea of exemplary beauty and Plotinus’ splendor were discussed in class, and now we look at different philosophers and their attempt to create a theory that holds true for all previous philosophies and more modern ideals; modern ideals such as taste, aesthetics, and imagination. The philosopher that I think did this very well incorporating not only classical philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato but also modern concepts such as imagination and aesthetics is Nietzsche.
Nietzsche’s philosophy on life and on art is deceptively simple. He believes that we are all part of a large will, but at birth we diverge slightly into our own individualistic will and follow our own paths in life. This is where we go wrong as Nietzsche would have us understand. He believes that life’s greatest tragedy is leaving The Will, and falling privy to our own desires and more importantly never getting exactly what we want all the time. For Nietzsche the best thing to happen in a person’s life would be to die, for then we leave our divergent tangents and fall back into The Will; the only thing better than death would be to have never been born and left The Will in the first place.
According to Nietzsche the things that are able to make us happy, or relieve our plight as human beings who are apart from The Will are those that bring transcendence and allow for us to fall back into the will, if only for a second. These activities or objects allow us to lose ourselves and again, transcend our individualistic desires and wills to fall back into The Will. Nietzsche would argue that the reason our happines...
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...s. Nietzsche had a simple philosophy based on wills or desires of not only people but of the universe really, and how it worked. He believed in a world where man’s greatest plight is being born and that the only way we could rectify this situation is by dying. With this somber ideal on the world he did believe in happiness and beauty. He believed that things that were wonderful were those that could make us lose ourselves and become part of The Will, and I would say I would have to agree with him. I personally am happiest when “becoming” another person through television or books and music and art. I also believe that many other people would agree with me. To expand on this though, the exercise in empathy we find ourselves happiest in also leads to a larger sense of peace, for it is not only when we lose ourselves that we are happiest, but also when we find others.
Therefore, happiness is “what provokes us, incites us, need not come from our own time. Indeed, our own time may be and probably is so d
Happiness is a reprise from the many trials and turmoil of life, and so it is natural that we should actively seek it. Ironically though, in our naïve belief that we can somehow augment the amount of happiness in our world, we are actually making our world more depressing to live in. Both John F. Schumaker, in The Happiness Conspiracy, and Ray Bradbury, in Fahrenheit 451, argue that our myopic pursuit of happiness is actually counterproductive. The two authors attempt to persuade the reader that happiness is, and should be, an almost-serendipitous byproduct of a truly fulfilling life, and therefore should not be an explicit objective.
Nietzsche uses an elevated level of diction to help him achieve his purpose, he uses Latin in many passages to make the reader look to the bottom of the page and thus think about what he is proposing. His combination of elevated diction along with deductive reasoning can sometimes lose the reader, but just as fast as the reader is lost Nietzsche offers forth a formula which helps the reader follow his thinking. Nietzsche believes that a person’s "virtue is the consequence of happiness," or that a person’s emotions are the product of their beliefs. Nietzsche’s uses consequence to mean something more like cause than effect. He interchanges monosyllabic and polysyllabic - in the form of metaphors - words in connotation to sometimes differ the reader from the beaten track of thinking. He believes in a set course "that he became ill, that he failed to resist the illness," for humans and that they cannot deter from it (this is very far left in a time of conservative Europeans, late 19th century). Even in his "formulas" Nietzsche’s meaning is not as straight forward as it seems. It seems that he believes that individuals genetically are means to an end, but this is more of a metaphor for humanity, or that humanity is their own means to an end.
This is seemingly the case in the time period prior to the collapse of society. For example, when a character named “[Jeevan] reached Allan Gardens Park… he found himself blindsided by an unexpected joy. Arthur died… there’s nothing to be happy about. But there was… now he was certain, absolutely certain that he wanted to be a paramedic” (11). When Jeevan finally realized what he wanted to be, his true calling, he was overwhelmed with joy. Even though somebody had just died, all he could feel was happiness because he found something within himself. When Arthur was beginning to reflect upon his life, “He stared at his crown and ran through a secret list of everything that was good… Dancing with Clark when he was eighteen… Tanya sipping wine, her smile… Riding in his father’s snowplow when he was nine, the time [he] told a joke and his father and his little brother couldn’t stop laughing, the sheer joy he’d felt at that moment” (327). All of these different things brought Arthur happiness and eventually sadness at some point in his life, showing that nothing can keep you happy forever. The meaning of happiness is ever-changing. Since happiness was based off of how much you had, people had the ability to manipulate it by obtaining more
The philosopher Aristotle once wrote, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” This famous quote compels people to question the significance of their joy, and whether it truly represents purposeful lives they want to live. Ray Bradbury, a contemporary author, also tackles this question in his book, Fahrenheit 451, which deals heavily with society's view of happiness in the future. Through several main characters, Bradbury portrays the two branches of happiness: one as a lifeless path, heading nowhere, seeking no worry, while the other embraces pure human experience intertwined together to reveal truth and knowledge.
Although Nietzsche lived in an extremely different time than the modern Western world, his ideas transfer well into the future. The man of the 2200, and beyond, he most likely will continue to be driven to work, over his drive to spend time enjoying art and his family. Nietzsche’s philosophy would continue to reprimand this man for not spending enough time at home and not spending enough time doing the things he wanted to do in life. The aesthetic hearer needs to crush the theoretical man and reestablish the society in a positive and artistic way. Nietzsche’s idea of the overman comes into play:
In this article Winckelmann states that the good taste in art that is present in contemporary works stems from the work of the ancient Greeks. The beauty in the modern works of artists like Raphael (especially his Madonna and child with St Sixtus and St Barbara) hold such beauty, complexity of emotion, and good taste because he draws on the ideas set up by the great ancient sculptures and society in which they lived and drew inspiration from. Winckelmann categorizes the ancients greatness into two main ideas that are necessary for contemporaries to draw from in order to reach greatness: Natural beauty and noble simplicity and quiet grandeur.
When an average person seeks happiness, most often they search in the wrong place: "If only I could have that I would be happy." For ages, man has been seeking happiness from outside, not within. People have the misconception that material things and materialistic goals will bring them ultimate happiness, but in truth those only bring transient happiness. True and lasting happiness can be reached from within when one realizes the ultimate truth. This ultimate truth, the main focus of transcendentalism, can be reached through self-reliance, nature, and oversoul, the main principals of the philosophy. By meditation, by communing with nature, through work and art, man could transcend his senses and attain an understanding of beauty, goodness, and truth.
Philosophies of Art and Beauty Edited by Hofstadter and Kuhns, (Chicago: University of Chicago press, 1976) chapters one and two for an overview of the aesthetics of Plato and Aristotle.
Firstly, Nietzsche stated that life is death in the making and all humans should not be determined by an external force rather, he believed that humans should have the incentive to think for themselves. Nietzsche claimed the future of a man is in his own hands. Simultaneously, humans are phased with struggles in the attempt to self-create themselves. Nietzsche proceeded with his argument affirming
When we are young children, we are introduced to the concept of "living happily ever after". This is a fairy-tale emotional state of absolute happiness, where nothing really happens, and nothing even seems to matter. It is a state of feeling good all the time. In fairy tales, this feeling is usually found in fulfilling marriages, royal castles, singing birds and laughing children. In real life, an even-keeled mood is more psychologically healthy than a mood in which you frequently achieve great heights of happiness. Furthermore, when you ask people what makes their lives worth living, they rarely mention their mood. They are more likely to talk about what they find meaningful, such as their work or relationships. Research suggests that if you focus too much on trying to feel good all the time, you’ll actually undermine your ability to ever feel good because no amount of feeling good will be satisfying to you. If feeling good all the time were the only requirement for happiness, then a person who uses cocaine every day would be extremely happy. In our endless struggle for more money, more love and more security, we have forgotten the most fundamental fact: happiness is not caused by possessions or social positions, and can in fact be experienced in any daily activity. We have made happiness a utopia: expensive, complicated, and unreachable.
Nietzsche evaluates the world in terms of how it really is. He recognizes that people are inherently different and frames his philosophy accordingly. This, his philosophical paradigm is superior in terms of its realism. Furthering that argument, Nietzsche also shows that he wants to preserve societal advancement. Nietzsche was primarily concerned what society would stagnate if we settled for mediocrity. While his philosophy may be somewhat elitist, it mandates societal advancement because it allows the elites to rise to the top and push society forward. There is link to Christianity. Societies cannot push forward with this notion of God. Christianity, with its conception of transcendent, omnipotent, omniscient and a just God, denies and negates too much that is valuable in this world. There was a direct link to Christianity and how there was a real manifestation of the will to power and that certain individuals have revealed themselves. He accounts for his own ethics. Nietzsche accounts for all people in society and provides all people the equal opportunity to maximize their own power. While power differences are inevitable based upon individual differences, all people have the same opportunity to Will to Power. This creates the basis of his ethics as
...e way. Apart from success, good health and longevity are associated with happiness. The lightheartedness that accompanies happiness has been said to lower the chance of strokes and heart attacks. Laughter releases tension and add to persons overall sense of well-being. Happiness is not death, or sorrow. It is not gloom, depression or heavy-heartedness. Happiness does not lament nor does it worry. It is neither moody nor pensive, neither wanton nor pessimistic. Happiness does not mourn for what was it instead rejoices in what will be. Happiness comes through good fortune and through loving and being loved. Eating a good meal, being in good health and enjoying the comforts of life can also achieve it. The simple pleasures of life bring happiness, whether it be enjoying a favorite dessert, smelling a rose or running in the rain.
Real happiness is more than brief positive feelings but rather a lasting state of peace or contentedness. According to Reich, a former professor of psychology at Arizona State University, happiness is “deeper than a momentary good mood” (Reich). When ordinary happiness is experienced, Jacobsen, a professor in the Department
At an essential human level there is recognition of beauty and creation, as Plotinus believed. There is potential for subjectivity in art and personal preference, but the principles of universality and the ability to incite emotion set apart fine art. Beauty, in the traditional concept, is irrelevant to fine art. What is beautiful changes and is subjective, so the artist does not have to capture what is beautiful in the traditional sense, but rather an idea or concept that possesses merit. Art may not be beautiful but can still possess meaning, such as Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” Though the subject itself may not be objectively pretty, capturing the expression and mystery makes the painting itself valuable and meaningful. Beauty in fine art is not a matter of the physical image as much as the expression, message, or emotion it incites. For that reason, beauty can be frightening or sad, as well as happy and peaceful. In fine art, the artist seeks not to capture the beauty of an object or item, but the feeling that viewing this brings. This is the concept of experiencing what the artist feels and thinks, beyond the physical work