What is art? Ernst Cassirer.

The human is a symbolic animal. The liberal arts, fine arts and science developed parallel to one another through history. Science discovers the natural laws, while artists discover the forms of nature. According to Cassirer, art shows us the different possible ways we have to gain insight into the world and to give expression to this. “The artist is just as much a discoverer of the forms of nature as the scientist a discoverer of the facts or natural laws” (Ernst Cassirer, Essay on Man, 1944, p 143-144 via Bernard Frischer via Mike).

However, just as science has a concept of truth to select between what is scientific and what is not, art selects using its own aesthetic criteria. In this way a distinction can be made between a photograph which is called ‘art’ and a family portrait snap of significance to a small circle only. Various attempts at offering criteria for “what is art” have been outlined here previously, including that art facilitates a contact with being, away from the distractions of human social activity.

Being or nature.

The concept being suggests an strong connection between a perceiver and that which is being perceived. As such it includes highly subjective forms in its scope, including the virtual world and possible worlds of the imagination. Nature on the other hand suggests a reduction of art to a reflection of the empirical world of objects, so that art becomes a mere representation of material. However, if nature is understood as very general, abstract, imaginary and all-inclusive, then Cassirer’s art as the ‘discovery of forms’ can be understood as more open than just representation of an outside world.

Artistic discovery becomes a process of how to perceive the forms of the world. Discrimination is incorporated. Art becomes the creation of subject-object experiences with something special about them, not just random forms.

Tweet This