PRELIM

LESSON 3: Functions and

Philosophical Perspectives on Art
 Greek philosopher Aristotle claimed that
every particular substance in the world has an
end, or telos in Greek, which translates into
“purpose”.

This telos, according to Aristotle, is intricately

linked with function. 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 his
 FUNCTIONS OF ART

• When it comes to function, different art forms come with

distinctive functions. There is no one-to-one
correspondence between an art and its function. Some
art forms are more functional than others.

• Architecture, for example, as an art is highly functional

just like most applied arts. A building as a work of art is
obviously made for a specific purpose.
 FUNCTIONS OF ART
Taj Mahal
a massive mausoleum of white marble built in Agra
was constructed in memory of the wife of the then
emperor, Shah Jahan.
 FUNCTIONS OF ART
Jewelry Making
Jewelry-making as an art is known by its product.
The name of the art in these applied arts is basically
denoted by its specified function.
 FUNCTIONS OF ART

On the other end of the spectrum, one can only think of

painting and literature as forms of art that have the least to
do with purely practical values.

Unlike practical arts where the value of the art (in pottery,
jewelry-making, architecture, among others) in question lies
in the practical benefits one gains from it (a pot, a jewelry, or
a house or a building), with painting and literature, one can
only look at the value of the product of art in and for itself.
 FUNCTIONS OF ART

Roughly and broadly, the functions of art

are classified into three:
Personal (public display or expression)
Social (celebration or to affect collective
behavior)
Physical (utilitarian).
 1. PERSONAL FUNCTIONS OF
ART
• The personal functions of art are varied and highly
subjective. This means that its functions depend on
the person—the artist who created the art. An artist
may create an art out of the need for self-
expression.

• An art may also be therapeutic. In some orphanages

and home for abandoned elders, art is used to help
residents process their emotions or while away their
time
 2. SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF ART

• Art is considered to have a social function if and when it

addresses a particular collective interest as opposed to a
personal interest. Political art is a very common example
of an art with a social function.

• Art may convey message of protest, contestation, or

whatever message the artist intends his work to carry.
Often, art can also depict social conditions.
 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF ART

• Photography, as an art form, delivers this kind of function

by taking photos of subjects in conditions that people do
not normally take a look at or give attention to.

• Pictures of poverty may carry emotional overtones that

may solicit action or awareness from their audience.
Moreover, performances art like plays or satires can also
rouse emotions and rally people toward a particular end.
In these and more, the social function of art is apparent.
 3. PHYSICAL FUNCTIONS OF
ART
• The physical functions of art are the easiest to spot and
understand. The physical functions of art can be found in
artworks that are crafted in order to serve some physical
purpose.

Japanese Raku Bowl

 OTHER FUNCTIONS OF ART

• Music as an art is also interesting to talk about in relation

to function. Music in its original form was principally
functional. Music was used for dance and religion.

• Music also was essential to dance because music assures

synchronicity among dancers. Moreover, music also
guarantees that marches, in case of warriors, were
simultaneous.
 OTHER FUNCTIONS OF ART
• Today, music has expanded its function and coverage. Music is
listened to and made by people for reasons that were foreign to
early civilizations. There is now a lot of music that has no
connection whatsoever to dance or religion. Serenade is one
example. People compose hymns of love to express feelings and
emotions.

• Music is also used as a wonderful accompaniment to stage plays

and motion pictures. Interestingly, a piece of music can mean a
multitude of meanings to different people, a proof that as an art,
music has gone a long way.
 OTHER FUNCTIONS OF ART

• Sculpture, on the other hand, is another functional art

form that has long existed for various purposes. Just like
music, from the early days of humanity, sculptures have
been made by man most particularly for religion. People
erect statues for the divine. In Roman Catholic world, the
employment of sculptures for religious purposes has
remained vital, relevant, and symbolic.
 OTHER FUNCTIONS OF ART
• Another art form that readily lends itself to multiple
functions is architecture. In fact, architecture might be
the most prominent functional art form.
DOES ART ALWAYS HAVE TO BE
FUNCTIONAL?

• A functional object cannot be claimed to be beautiful unless

it can perform its function sufficiently. Adequate
performance of function partly determines the beauty of a
design in these functional art forms.

• Despite these, efficiency cannot be mistaken as beauty.

While it certainly determines the 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 in his masterpiece, The Republic, particularly
paints a picture of artists as imitators and art as mere
imitation. In his description of the ideal republic, Plato
advises against the inclusion of art as a subject in the
curriculum and the banning of artists in the Republic.
In Plato’s metaphysics of 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.
 ART AS AN IMITATION

• Human beings endeavor to reach the Forms all

throughout his life, starting with formal education in
school. From looking at the “shadows in the cave”,
men slowly crawl outside to behold the real entities in
the world.
• For example, the chair that one sits on is not a real
chair. It is an imperfect copy of the perfect “chair”
in the World of Forms.
• Much is true for “beauty” in this world. When one
ascribes beauty to another person, he refers to an
imperfect beauty that participates only in the form of
 ART AS AN IMITATION

• Plato was convinced that artists 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. Poetry and painting, the art forms that Plato
was particularly concerned with, do not have any place in
ideal state that Socrates (as the protagonist) in Plato’s
dialogue envisions.
 ART AS AN IMITATION

• First, Plato is critical of the effects of art, specifically,

poetry to the people of the ideal state. Poetry rouses
emotions and feelings and thus, clouds the rationality of
people.

• Likewise, Socrates is worried that art objects represent

only the things in this world, copies themselves of reality.
As such, in the dialogue, Socrates claimed that art is
just an imitation of imitation. A painting is just an
imitation of nature, which is also just an imitation of
reality in the World of Forms.
 ART AS AN IMITATION

• The arts then are to be banished, alongside the

practitioners, so that the attitudes and actions of the
members of the Republic will not be corrupted by the
influence of the arts. For Plato, art is dangerous because
it provides a petty replacement for the real entities that
can only be attained through reason.

• Artist are imitators and art is just an imitation.

 ART AS A REPRESENTATION

• Aristotle, Plato’s most important student in philosophy,

agreed with his teacher that art us a form of imitation.
• However, in contrast to the disgust that his master holds
for art, Aristotle considered art as an aid to philosophy in
revealing truth. The kind of imitation that art does is not
antithetical to the reaching of fundamental truths in the
world.
 ART AS A REPRESENTATION

• Talking about tragedies, for example, Aristotle in the

Poetics claimed that poetry is a literary representation in
general. For Aristotle, all kinds of art, including
poetry, music, dance, painting, and sculpture, do
not aim to represent reality as it is.
• What art endeavors to do is to provide a vision of what
might be or the myriad possibilities in reality. Unlike Plato
who thought that art is an imitation of another imitation,
Aristotle conceived of art as representing possible versions
of reality.
 ART AS A REPRESENTATION

In the Aristotelian worldview, art serves two particular

reasons:
• Art allows for the experience of pleasure – Experiences
that are otherwise repugnant can become entertaining in
art.
• Art also has an ability to be instructive and teach its
audience things about life; thus, it is cognitive as well.
Greek plays are usually of this nature.
ART AS A DISINTERESTED
JUDGEMENT
• In the 3rd critique that Immanuel
Kant wrote, the “Critique of
Judgement”, Kant considered the
judgement of beauty, the
cornerstone of art, as something
that can be universal despite its
subjectivity.
• Kant mentioned that judgement of
beauty, and therefore, art, is
innately autonomous from specific
interests. It is the form of art that
is adjudged by one who perceives
art to be beautiful or more so,
sublime.
 ART AS A DISINTERESTED
JUDGEMENT
• Kant recognized that judgement of beauty is subjective.
• For Kant, when one judges a particular painting as
beautiful, one in effect is saying that the said painting
has induced a particular feeling of satisfaction from him
and that he expects the painting to rouse the same
feeling from anyone.
 ART AS A DISINTERESTED
JUDGEMENT
• For him, every human being, should recognize the
beauty that is inherent in a work of art. This is the kind of
universality that a judgement of beauty is assumed by
Kant to have. So when the same person says that
something is beautiful, he does not just believe that the
thing is beautiful for him, but in a sense, expects that the
same thing should put everyone in awe.
ART AS A COMMUNICATION OF
EMOTION
• The author of War and Peace and Anna
Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, provided another
perspective on what art is. In his book,
What is Art?, Tolstoy defended the
production of the sometimes truly
extravagant art, like operas, despite
extreme poverty in the world.
• For him, art plays a huge role in
communication to his audience’s
emotions that the artist previously
experienced.
• Art then serves as a language, a
communication device that articulates
feelings and emotions that are otherwise
unavailable to the audience.
ART AS A COMMUNICATION OF
EMOTION
• Art communicates emotions. In listening to music, in
watching an opera, and in reading poems, the audience
as at the receiving end of the artist communicating his
feelings and emotions.
• Tolstoy is fighting for the social dimension of art. Art is
central to man’s existence because it makes accessible
feelings and emotions of people from the past and
present, from one continent to another.