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WEEK 1 DISCUSSION 1.2: Integrating Philosophy and ArtDiscussion TopicI’m Done
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Get Help Now!GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS: Your contributions should be thoughtful and developed. Answer all parts of the question and use concepts from the course materials. Use a professional style of communication, with attention to grammar, spelling, and typos; cite your sources.
Answer ONE of following questions and give a substantive response to at least two other students.
OPTION 1: THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
For this discussion, we will reflect on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and relate this philosophical story to our study of the arts. (Search YouTube to hear it narrated by the great actor Orson Welles.)
An allegory is a story where the elements are symbolic. What do you see as the symbolism of the cave, the shadows on the wall, the prisoners, the man who escapes, the daylight outside? Do you know of other stories that make similar points?
The story assumes there are major difference between “appearances” and “reality,” and that “reality” is superior. What does this mean for the arts? Arts and letters may present “appearances” quite unlike what they are depicting. In short, the style of the arts is often not “realistic.” Does this mean that what the arts convey is always more like illusion than reality? Use an example and explain your thinking.
Have you ever accepted an illusion as reality? How did you recognize that you were mistaken? Did that recognition change you in any important way, or was it more like a minor correction to your perception? Do you think that people today live in a world of “shadows”? Are we imprisoned in some way, with our minds shackled? Explain your thinking.
OPTION 2: ART, ILLUSION, AND REALITY
Read this excerpt from Book X of Plato’s Republic about art and imitation.
Describe how this conversation between Socrates and Glaucon relates to the Allegory of the Cave? Given the information about reality, illusion and the arts from both sources, what do you think Plato’s position on the arts is? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Now, provide an example from one of the arts that you think could be used to illustrate Plato’s position on the arts and explain how it does.
- IntroductiontotheHumanities.docx
Introduction to the Humanities: Philosophy
| “It is not a trivial question,” Socrates said. “What we are talking about is how one should live.” —Plato (Republic, 352D) |
Pagan Philosophy by Arthur Dove
Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access “The Met Collection”
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People seeking to answer this question—really, the question of how to live a meaningful life—may turn to cultural traditions, common sense, religion, and personal feelings. Is this adequate? Philosophers as far back as the ancient Greeks have answered “no.”
The reason our normal understanding of the meaning of our lives can fall short is illustrated by one of the most famous stories in Western philosophy. The Allegory of the Cave is a kind of myth, a story filled with symbolic elements and complex meanings. The author, Plato, attributed the story to Socrates, his teacher, although we can’t know if Socrates told the story, or if Plato was simply honoring his instructor. The allegory suggests that we live in a twilight world, plagued by illusion, confusion, and error. To apprehend the true nature of reality, Plato suggests, we need a better approach, and this is the task of philosophy.
The word philosophy comes from two Greek roots, philos and sophos—love and wisdom. In its broadest sense, philosophy is the search for wisdom and truth motivated by desire. But how one seeks wisdom and truth has changed over the past two thousand years. In the old days, philosophers might aim to know everything that could be known. Plato’s student Aristotle was known for his wide-ranging curiosity about the human and natural worlds. Today, the search for knowledge is highly specialized and disciplined. If you’re curious about plants and animals, you start with the discipline of biology; to learn about society, you study sociology. Today’s philosophers are intellectual clarifiers, seeking insights into the human condition, including what people do and don’t know, in the hope of cutting through confusions. These skills of careful, rigorous, systematic thinking can be useful in many contexts.
Traditional philosophy has five main branches. Logic addresses reasoning and argumentation to help people think more clearly and systematically. The fundamental nature of reality is the subject of metaphysics, which splits into two subdivisions: epistemology, or the study of what we can know and how we achieve knowledge, and ontology, or the study of being, becoming, and ultimate reality. Making morally sound decisions is addressed in ethics. And questions about the purpose and function of the arts, and the nature of beauty, are explored in aesthetics. Modern philosophers also focus on topical issues, including science, politics, language, and religion.
This course is an introduction to classic fields in the humanities: the visual arts (painting, drawing, photography, sculpture), architecture, music and dance, poetry and fiction, theater and film, religion and myth. Much of this will involve questions of aesthetics—judgments on the creation, representation, and expression of individual and collective meaning. Before delving into the exciting world of arts and letters, we’ll explore the questions of art as representation and the interpretation of symbols through Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
Authors and Contributors
This course was developed by Debra Rosenthal (philosophy and connections), Heidi Nasstrom Evans (visual arts), Anita Hanawalt (music and dance), Anthony W. Lee (poetry and fiction, drama, and film), Heather Hartel (religion and myth), and Jose Bourget-Tactuk (conclusion), with inspiration and help over the years from numerous colleagues at UMUC and elsewhere.
