Function

&
philosophical
perspectives
on art
 Art has remained relevant in our
daily lives because most of it has
played some form of function for
man . Since the dawn of the
civilization, art has been at the
forefront of giving color to man’s
existence. The different function of art
may be classified as either personal,
social, or physical.
ARISTOTLE
A greek philosopher
claimed that every
particular substance in
the world has an end, or
telos in greek, which
translate
Into “purpose “.
Functions
of
art
1. Personal Functions of Art
The personal functions of art are often the most difficult to
explain. There are many types of personal function, and they
are subjective and will, therefore, vary from person to person.

An artist may create out of a need for self-expression, or

gratification. She/he might have wanted to communicate a
thought or point to the viewer. Perhaps the artist was trying to
provide an aesthetic experience, both for self and viewers. A
piece might have been meant to "merely" entertain others.
Sometimes a piece isn't meant to have any meaning at all.
Photo via Maxime De Ruyck
 An art may also be therapeutic. In
some orphanages and home for
abandoned elders, art is used to help
resident process their emotion or while a
way their time. The use of adult coloring
books to de-stress has been apparent
too. Now with a lot of design being sold
in bookstore nationwide. This all fall
under personal functions of art.
2. Social Functions of Art
Art has a social function when
it addresses aspects of
(collective) life, as opposed to
one person's point of view or
experience.
 Have no fear, Rody is
here

ARTWORK BY RENE ELEVERA

3. Physical Functions of Art
The physical functions of art are
often the most easy to understand.
Works of art that are created to
perform some service have physical
functions.
(etsy.com) http://www.motivatedtype.com The Motivated Type was born from a
desire to create and communicate inspirational, typographic design based upon
Figure 18. a Japanese Raku Bowl

serves as physical function in a tea ceremony

is an examples .

Architecture, jewelry making, and even

interior design are all forms of arts that have
physical function.
 A sculpture

https://ph.carousell.com/p/pope-francis-commemorative-coin-50-156523814/
An artistic form in which hard or plastic
materials are worked into three-dimensional
art objects. The designs may be embodied
in freestanding objects, in reliefs on
surfaces, or in environments ranging from
tableaux to contexts that envelop the
spectator.
An enormous variety of media may be used, including clay, wax,
stone, metal, fabric, glass, wood, plaster, rubber, and random
“found” objects. Materials may be carved, modeled, molded,
cast, wrought, welded, sewn, assembled, or otherwise shaped
and combined. an artistic form in which hard or plastic materials
are worked into three-dimensional art objects. The designs may
be embodied in freestanding objects, in reliefs on surfaces, or
in environments ranging from tableaux to contexts that envelop
the spectator. An enormous variety of media may be used,
including clay, wax, stone, metal, fabric, glass, wood, plaster,
rubber, and random “found” objects. Materials may be carved,
modeled, molded, cast, wrought, welded, sewn, assembled, or
otherwise shaped and combined.
 Architecture

File:Vigan Calle Crisologo 1.jpg

The art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished
from the skills associated with construction. The practice of
architecture is employed to fulfill both practical and expressive
requirements, and thus it serves both utilitarian and aesthetic ends.
Although these two ends may be distinguished, they cannot be
separated, and the relative weight given to each can vary widely.
Because every society—whether highly developed or less so, settled
or nomadic—has a spatial relationship to the natural world and to
other societies, the structures they produce reveal much about
their environment (including climate and weather), history,
ceremonies, and artistic sensibility, as well as many aspects of daily
life.
 Philosophical
Perspective on Art

(Art as an Imitation)
 This is a feature of both of Plato's theories. Of course he was not
the first or the last person to think that art imitates reality

Here is where Plato's two theories come in. In the Republic,

Plato says that art imitates the objects and events of ordinary life.
In other words, a work of art is a copy of a copy of a Form. It is
even more of an illusion than is ordinary experience. On this
theory, works of art are at best entertainment, and at worst a
dangerous delusion.
http://web.nmsu.edu/~everettt/philosophy/plato.html
Plato
Born circa 428 B.C.E., ancient Greek philosopher
Plato was a student of Socrates and a teacher of
Aristotle. His writings explored justice, beauty and
equality, and also contained discussions in aesthetics,
political philosophy, theology, cosmology,
epistemology and the philosophy of language. Plato
founded the Academy in Athens, one of the first
institutions of higher learning in the Western world. He
died in Athens circa 348 B.C.E.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Republic_(Plato)
Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Republic has been
Plato’s most famous and widely read dialogue. As in most
other Platonic dialogues the main character is Socrates. It is
generally accepted that the Republic belongs to the
dialogues of Plato’s middle period. In Plato’s early
dialogues, Socrates refutes the accounts of his interlocutors
and the discussion ends with no satisfactory answer to the
matter investigated. In the Republic however, we
encounter Socrates developing a position on justice and its
relation to eudaimonia (happiness). He provides a long
and complicated, but unified argument, in defense of the
just life and its necessary connection to the happy life.
 Art as a
Representation
Plato and Aristotle are key figures in early literary theory who considered
literature as simply one form of representation. Aristotle for instance, considered
each mode of representation, verbal, visual or musical, as being natural to
human beings. Therefore, what distinguishes humans from other animals is their
ability to create and manipulate signs. Aristotle deemed mimesis as natural to
man, therefore considered representations as necessary for people's learning
and being in the world.
Plato, in contrast, looked upon representation with more caution. He
recognized that literature is a representation of life, yet also believed that
representations create worlds of illusion leading one away from the "real things".
For Plato, representation, like contemporary media, intervenes between the
viewer and the real, creating illusions that lead one away from "real things". Plato
believed that representation needs therefore, to be controlled and monitored
due to the possible dangers resulting in its ability to foster antisocial emotions or
encourage the imitation of evil.
Art as a Disinterested
Judgment
 IMMANUEL KANT
An 18th century German philosopher
whose work initated dramatic changes
in the fields of epistemology,
metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and
teleology. Like many Enlightenment
thinkers, he holds our mental faculty of
reason in high esteem; he believes that
it is our reason that invests the world we
experience with structure. In his works
on aesthetics and teleology, he argues
that it is our faculty of judgment that
enables us to have experience of
beauty and grasp those experiences as
part of an ordered, natural world with
purpose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant#/media/File:Kant_gemaeld
e_3.jpg
Kant believes he can show that
aesthetic judgment is not
fundamentally different from ordinary
theoretical cognition of nature, and
he believes he can show that
aesthetic judgment has a deep
similarity to moral judgment.
 Art as a
Communication
of Emotion
The theory of art in which the abiding
philosophical interest in the connection
between art and emotion is most explicit is
expression theory, of which there have been
several, significantly different, versions.
Common to all of these is the thought that the
value of art lies at least largely in the value of its
expression of emotion; but theorists have
differed markedly in how they understand the
nature of such expression.
Leo Tolstoy
Expression is understood as a
matter of the communication or
transmission of emotion or feeling
from artist to audience via the work
of art. The value of a work of art, on
this view, will be a function both of
the value of the feeling that it
transmits (Tolstoy, for instance, held
that sincerity and individuality of
feeling were crucial criteria of
value in this respect), and of its
‘infectiousness’ (to use a Tolstoyan
metaphor) and the clarity with
which it transmits that feeling.
https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=FIGURE+23+CAMBODIA%27S+ANCHOR+WHAT&rlz=1C1CHBF_enPH791PH791&source=lnms&tbm=is
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Angkor Wat – This temple was built by Suryavarman and
is considered the biggest Asian pyramid. It is over 200 feet
high and divided in several layers. The central part has four
towers in the shape of a lotus flower. This temple is the largest
in the whole complex and is where the historic site gets its
name. The central temple complex has 2,600 feet of bas-
reliefs, including famous battles and Buddhist scenes like the
Battle of Kurukshetra, the Army of Suryavarman II, Heaven
and Hell, Churning of the Ocean of Milk, Elephant Gate,
Vishnu Conquers the Demons, Khrishna and the demon King,
Battle of the Gods and the Demons, and the Battle of Lanka.