en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schopenhau … aesthetics
Do you agree with Schopenhaur that art is kind of a way to replace the high often gained by dogmatic religions?
Is intense artistic participation a way to emancipate yourself from the world?
PS. I find this stuff interesting. Much of my free time is spend playing/listening to music. (myspace.com/theswedishfish) It seems like most of what he talkes about holds water in my life. Does this ring true for anyone else?
Schopenhauer’s method to achieve the aesthetic Idea doesn’t seem to ring true for myself. If my memory serves me correctly, Schopenhauer’s aesthetics involves supressing the will, this then leads to contemplating the object ‘in-itself’. I play and listen to a bit of music myself, and from my own experience music becomes ‘beautiful’ when we feel it with the passions and let it move us. This would include the will being affected by the aesthetic rather being in a will-less state. In other words, I’ve turned Schopenhauer on his head.
it can probably be both ways: the will becoming suppressed by art, or fueled by it.
I was talking more the aspect of art replacing what religion or pure logic seems to not be able to do to well in most people’s lives.
yeah, I think any activity where you can lose yourself will do.
That’s interesting, because I have often thought that “art” or are desire for creative expression is nearly an innate quality. It is this drive, which I feel is the evolutionary development of “marking territory” and basic communication for survival of social animals is what led to the birth of religion.
So yes, I feel that creativity in the sense that you mean “art” is an inherent human quality. I think other people express this when they say that humans may be “inherently spiritual”.