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Does Art Always Have To Be Functional?

This document discusses whether art always needs to have a functional purpose. It provides examples of art forms like plays, poems, and books that are considered great works of art despite not having a functional purpose. While efficiency can determine beauty in some functional objects, a purely efficient object is not necessarily beautiful as art requires more than just efficiency. The document also discusses Plato's view that artists are imitators and art is mere imitation of copies, not reflections of true eternal forms. Plato was suspicious of art because it appeals to emotion over reason and imitates reality rather than leading to it.

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697 views11 pages

Does Art Always Have To Be Functional?

This document discusses whether art always needs to have a functional purpose. It provides examples of art forms like plays, poems, and books that are considered great works of art despite not having a functional purpose. While efficiency can determine beauty in some functional objects, a purely efficient object is not necessarily beautiful as art requires more than just efficiency. The document also discusses Plato's view that artists are imitators and art is mere imitation of copies, not reflections of true eternal forms. Plato was suspicious of art because it appeals to emotion over reason and imitates reality rather than leading to it.

Uploaded by

Ria Ria
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DOES ART ALWAYS

HAVE TO BE
FUNCTIONAL?
Functional art refers to aesthetic
objects that serve utilitarian purposes.
The genre is remarkably inclusive: it
encompasses everything from furniture
and lighting to dishes and even books.
EXAMPLES:
The value of a work does not depend on function
but on the work itself. The plays of Aeschylus and
the poetry of Robert Frost and Edgar Allan Poe
are still counted as examples of great works of
art despite their not having known function.
A functional object cannot be claimed to be
beautiful unless it can perform its function
sufficiently. Despite this, efficiency cannot
be mistaken as beauty. While it certainly
determines beauty in some works of art, an
efficient functional object is not necessarily
beautiful. Art demands so much more than
mere efficiency.
PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVES ON
ART
ART AS AN IMITATION
Plato (2000) in his
masterpiece, The Republic,
particularly paints a picture of
artist as imitators and art as
mere imitation. In Plato’s
metaphysics or view of reality,
the things in this world are only
copies of the original, the
eternal, and the true entities
that can only be found in the
World of Forms.
When one ascribes beauty to another
person, he refers to an imperfect
beauty that participates only in the
form of beauty in the World of Forms.
Plato was convinced that artist merely
reinforce the belief in copies and
discourage men to reach for the real
entities in the World of Forms.
Plato was deeply suspicious of arts and
artists for two reasons; they appeal to
the emotion rather than to the rational
faculty of men and they imitate rather
than lead one to reality.
For Plato, art is dangerous because it
provides a petty replacement for the
real entities that can only be attained
through reason.

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