FUNCTIONS OF ARTS

AND ITS
PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVES
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
� 1. Determine and rationalize the functions of
art
� 2. Categorize and explain the various
philosophical perspectives of art
� Apply the lesson’s concept and theories in real life
scenarios
MOTIVATED ART OR DIRECTLY
FUNCTIONAL ART
� Refers to the intentional objectives of the artist
in creating piece of art.
� At its simplest, it serves an obvious purpose, which
can bring about changes at the personal or even
societal level.
1. AS COMMUNICATION
� Since most of communication are directed towards
another individual, art as a from of communication is
a motivated purpose.
� From ancient times, people have used images
to communicate.
� Emotions, moods and feelings are
communicated through art.
EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS
2. AS ENTERTAINMENT
� Art also bring about a particular emotion or mood
for relaxation or entertainment purposes
3. AS AVANT-GARDE
� Visual images are
normally critical of
the status quo which
can bring about
political change.
� Art as avant-garde expresses
an unorthodox way of
advocating a social or political
revolution, where avant gardist
is viewed as an outsider a
rebel or a martyr.
4. AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALING
TOOL
� Art therapists, psychotherapists, and clinical
psychologists make use of art therapy to diagnose a
patient and provide an avenue for therapeutic recovery
aside from the conventional forms of psychiatric therapy,
suitable for the patient.
5. FOR SOCIAL INQUIRY
▪ Graffiti or street art are graphic and images or
stenciled on publicly viewable walls, buildings, buses,
trains and bridges without permission.
▪ While similar to art for political to art for political
change, this kind of art seeks to critic the society
without any political reason.
6. FOR PROPAGANDA OR
COMMERCIALISM
� Oftentimes, Art is a form of propaganda, which can
influence popular conceptions or mood or sell a
product that also influences mood and emotion.
NON-MOTIVATED ART OR
INDIRECTLY FUNCTIONAL ART
□Are artworks that incorporate functional objectives
but do not serve its utilitarian purpose.
□Crafted Chinese vases that were crafted for a
particular use but are appreciated not by its use
but by its historic or aesthetic value
□These are masterpieces that collectors prefer to keep
on the display shelf even if they are still capable of
performing their original-intended function
� A functional object cannot be claimed to be beautiful
unless it can perform its function.
� An efficient functional object is not necessarily
beautiful
� Art demands so much more than mere efficiency
IN SHORT, NON-MOTIVATED ART
ARE FOR THE FOLLOWING
PURPOSES.
1. For internal appreciation of beauty
2. As an experience of the mysterious where art
provides a way to experience one’s self in relation to
the universe
3. As an expression of the imagination where art
provides a range of forms, symbols and ideas, with
flexible meanings;
4. For ritualistic and symbolic functions, where art is
used as part of one’s culture.
OTHER FUNCTIONS OF ARTS
□PERSONAL
FUNCTIONS OF ART
▪ It can be the form of
expression of a whole
dimension of one’s
personality
▪ Varied and highly subjective
▪ Its functions depend on the
person- the artist who
created the art
� Need for self
expression
� Need for communicate an
idea to his audience
� Mere entertainment
for his intended
audience
� It can be also
therapeutic
� Passion for their respective art forms
� For economic reasons
� Spiritual concern
� Social inquiry and intellectual inquiry
� Aesthetic expression
2. SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF ART
� If it addresses a particular collective interest as opposed to a
personal interest
� If it is made to be seen or used in public or social
situations
� If it enriches part of the country’s material culture and
non-material culture
� If it allows individuals to interact with each other
□Easiest to spot and understand
□Can be found in Artworks that are crafted in order
to serve some physical purpose
□Houses and other buildings are constructed to
protect their occupants and all the others inside
them.
□ Greek philosopher Aristotle
claimed that every
particular substance in the
world has an end, or Telos
in Greek, which translates
into “purpose”
□ Every substance defined as
a formed matter, moves
according to a fixed path
towards its aim.
□ For a thing to reach its
purpose, it also has to fulfill
its function.
□Man, in Aristotle’s view
of reality, is bound to
achieve a life of
fulfillment and
happiness, or in Greek,
eudaimonia.
□All men move toward this
final end.
□Man’s natural end, telos,
is connected with this
function, which is his
rationality.
PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVES
ON ART
ART AS AN IMITATION
□Plato in his masterpiece
the Republic,
particularly paints a
picture of artists as
imitators and art as mere
imitation.
� He advised against the inclusion of art as a subject in
the curriculum and the banning of artists in the Republic
� 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
� 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.
SOCRATES
□He is worried that art
objects represent only
the things in the world,
copies themselves in
reality.
□A painting is just an
imitation of nature, which
is also just an imitation of
reality.
ART AS A REPRESENTATION
ARISTOTLE

� Art as an aid to
philosophy in revealing
the truth
� All kind of art including
poetry, music, dance,
painting and sculpture, do
not represent reality as it
is.
2 PURPOSES OF ARISTOTELIAN
POINT OF VIEW
� 1. Art allows for the experience of pleasure
� 2. Art has an ability to be instructive and teach its
audience things about life; thus cognitive as well.
ART AS A DISINTERESTED
JUDGMENT
KANT
� He wrote, the “Critique of
Judgment”
� He mentioned that
judgment of beauty, and
therefore, art is innately
autonomous from
specific interests.
□He recognized that judgment of beauty is subjective
□Every human being, after perception and the free play
of his faculties.
ART AS A COMMUNICATION OF
EMOTION
TOLSTOY

□ Art plays a huge role in

communication to its
audience’s emotions that
the artist previously
experienced.
□ Arts serves as a language, a
communication device that
articulates feelings and
emotions that are likewise
unavailable to the audience.
� Art is given a unique opportunity to serve as a
mechanism for social unity.
� Art serves as a mechanism of cohesion for
everyone.