ART AND KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

T he idea that art can be regarded as a form of knowledge does not have a secure history in contemporary philosophical thought. The arts traditionally have been regarded as ornamental or emotional in character. Their connection to epistemological issues, at least in the modern day, has not been a strong one. Are the arts merely ornamental aspects of human production and experience or do they have a more significant role to play in enlarging human understanding? The positivist tradition that has animated western philosophy during the first half of the 20th century viewed the arts as largely emotive rather than primarily informative. The arts are forms that you enjoyed, or felt strongly about, or savored for their delicacy. They had little to do with matters of knowledge. For knowledge of the empirical world you rely upon synthetic propositions whose truth value can be determined. And if you needed to know something about logical relationships, analytic propositions were the sources of data you would manage or manipulate (Ayer, 1952). Part of the reason for the separation of the arts from matters epistemological pertains to the belief, a true one I would argue, that the arts are largely forms that generate emotion. We seek out the arts in order to take a ride on the wings that art forms provide: The arts are ways to 1