“Art and Civilization” by John Dewey
In this this chapter author John Dewey attempts to delineate the role of art beyond the experience of the individual, its influence on culture and its contribution to “civilization”. He writes, “Art is often distrusted because of its roots in imaginative creativity. A civilization’s art and culture is construed broadly in terms of its morals.” Hence, what Dewey really means to say is that art cannot be used as a source in the study of civilizations because of its inclinency to portray the author’s personal his or her own opinions and their understanding of morals.
- My question to you is whether or not art can be considered a great resource in one’s intellectual arsenal to understand a civilization and its culture?
- Or is it a deterring source, on which we cannot rely because of its strictly individualistic understanding of the civilization?
Author Dewey referred to Shelley’s theory that moral science only “arranges elements that poetry has created.” He also furthers his point by saying that “’intellectual’ products formulate the tendencies of these arts and provide them with an intellectual base.”
- The question that follows this thought is to what extents do intellectual thoughts and theories influence art?
- Is art intellectual or, in theory, an expression of the emotions of the artist and subject?
“Art and Civilization” by John Dewey
In this this chapter author John Dewey attempts to delineate the role of art beyond the experience of the individual, its influence on culture and its contribution to “civilization”. He writes, “Art is often distrusted because of its roots in imaginative creativity. A civilization’s art and culture is construed broadly in terms of its morals.” Hence, what Dewey really means to say is that art cannot be used as a source in the study of civilizations because of its inclinency to portray the author’s personal his or her own opinions and their understanding of morals.
• My question to you is whether or not art can be considered a great resource in one’s intellectual arsenal to understand a civilization and its culture?
• Or is it a deterring source, on which we cannot rely because of its strictly individualistic understanding of the civilization?
One can understand a society by studying its morals. Morals are not an individual’s view, but the way someone identifies with the outside world, and particularly their own society. This is explained by Shelley, “the great secret of morals is love, or a going out of our nature and the identification of ourselves with the beauty which exists in thought, action, or person.”
Art can be used to understand a civilization and its culture, since art is one way of measuring a society’s morals. Artists create art within the confines of the society’s morals in which they live. At the same time, artists are the ideal observers of society since they are not constrained by creating something that is either praiseworthy or not. As Shelley and Dewey explain, art is morals, and morals are “the creation of the good.” “Because art is wholly innocent of ideas derived from praise and blame, it is looked upon with the eyes of suspicion by the guardians of custom …yet this indifference to praise and blame because of preoccupation with imaginative experience constitutes the heart of the moral potency of art.”
In order to study a society you need to look at the society from an outsider’s point of view. An artists is not an outsider of his society, but he has the unique ability to look at his society through an outsider’s eye. The artist has the ability to look at the morals of his society and create art about their society. Art is therefore an important way we can understand a society. One example of the way that artists respond to the morals of their society through art can be seen in the ways that artists depict scenes from their religion in their artwork. The way Jesus is drawn by societies throughout history, illustrate the ways that different societies felt about their religion. At first Jesus and the crucifixion were depicted as a martyr’s death scene, and he wasn’t shown suffering. Centuries later, the iconic figure of Jesus was the man suffering on the cross. This change in the way that artists depicted Jesus shows how society changed from viewing the death Jesus as a positive force in the world, to the view of cruelty against Jesus.
Author Dewey referred to Shelley’s theory that moral science only “arranges elements that poetry has created.” He also furthers his point by saying that “’intellectual’ products formulate the tendencies of these arts and provide them with an intellectual base.”
• The question that follows this thought is to what extents do intellectual thoughts and theories influence art?
• Is art intellectual or, in theory, an expression of the emotions of the artist and subject?
The extent to which intellectual thoughts and theories influence art is dependent on what art means. Art is both intellectual and an expression of emotions of an artist and a subject. One important factor of something being characterized as intellectual is that there is something to be observed and someone that can observe it. The pinnacle of an intellectual act would be art because it has an observer and an object which is being observed.