SIR ALLAN

Course Instructor

LESSON 1
 There is nothing that grounds men and women
more concretely than the work of their hands.
When Plato claimed that man, more than
anything else, is his soul and his capacity to think,
and Aristotle added that his being social and
political is what sets him apart, the masters of
thought disappointed by missing out on one of the
most important aspects of man: his capacity to
create and appreciate these creations.
OVERVIEW
 The result of this facet of man is art and the
humanities. It is no puzzle then why the field
was called humanities. It is the work of man:
his hymns, verses, paintings, and sculptures
that define his humanity, his being man or
woman. Without the great works of
civilization, man would not have been man.

OVERVIEW
WHAT IS ART: INTRODUCTION AND ASSUMPTION
Art is something that is perennially
around us. Some people may deny having
to do with the arts but it is indisputable that
life presents us with many forms of and
opportunities for communion with the arts.
 A bank manager choosing what tie to wear together with
his shirt and shoes, a politician shuffling her music track while
comfortably seated on her car listening for his/her favorite
song, a student marveling at the intricate designs of a
medieval cathedral during his field trip, and a market vendor
cheering for her bet in a dance competition on a noontime
TV program all manifest concern for values that are
undeniably, despite tangentially artistic.
 Despite the seemingly overflowing instances of arts
around people, one still finds the need to see more
and experience more whether consciously or
unconsciously. One whose exposure to music is only
limited to one genre finds it lacking not to have been
exposed to more. One whose idea of a cathedral is
limited to the locally available ones, finds enormous
joy in seeing other prototypes in Europe.
 Plato had the sharpest foresight
when he discussed in the
Symposium that beauty, the object
of any love, truly progresses. As one
moves through life, one locates
better more beautiful objects of
desire (Scott, 2000).
One can never be totally
content with what is just before him.
Human beings are drawn toward
what is good and ultimately,
beautiful.
 For as long as man existed in this planet, he has cultivated
the land, altered the conditions of the fauna and the flora, in
order to survive. Alongside these necessities man also marked
his place in the world through his works. Through his bare
hands man constructed infrastructures that tended to his
needs, like his house. He sharpened swords and spears. He
employed fire in order to melt gold. The initial meaning of the
word "art" has something to do with all these craft.

WHY STUDY HUMANITIES?

1. ART IS UNIVERSAL
 In every country and in every
generation there is always art.
Oftentimes, people feel that what is
considered artistic are only those
which have been made long time
ago. This is a misconception. Age is not
a factor in determining art. An "...art is
not good because it is old, but old
because it is good" (Dudley et al 1960).
 In the Philippines, the works of Jose
Rizal and Francisco Balagtas are not
being read because they are old.
Otherwise, works of other Filipinos who
have long died would have been
required in junior high school tool. The
pieces mentioned are read in school
and have remained to be with us
because they are good. They are liked
and adored because they meet our
needs and desires.
 Florante at Laura never fails to teach high school
students the beauty of love, one that is universal
and pure. Ibong Adarna, another Filipino
masterpiece, has always captured the imagination
of the young with its timeless lessons. When we
recite the Psalms, we feel in communion with King
David as we feel one with him in his conversation
with God. When we listen to a kundiman or perform
folk dances, we still enjoy the way our Filipino
ancestors whiled away their time in the past. We do
not necessarily like a kundiman for its original
meaning. We just like it. We enjoy it.
 The first assumption then about
the humanities is that art has been
crafted by all people regardless of
origin, time, place, and that it
stayed on because it is liked and
enjoyed by people continuously.
A great piece of work will never
be obsolete.
 Some people say that art is art for its
intrinsic worth. In John Stuart Mill's
Utilitarianism (1879), enjoyment in the arts
belongs to a higher good, one that lies at
the opposite end of base pleasures. Art will
always be present because human beings
will always express themselves and delight
in these expressions. Men will continue to
use art while art persists and never gets
depleted.
 2. ART IS NOT NATURE
In the Philippines, it is not entirely novel to
hear some consumers of local movies remark
that these movies produced locally are
unrealistic. They contend that local movies
work around certain formula to the
detriment of substance and faithfulness to
reality of the movies. These critical minds
argue that a good movie must reflect reality
as closely as possible. Is that so?
 A beautiful place or view is a great art.
Example: Sunset is beautiful but the real
sunset is part of nature. It becomes art if a
picture of sunset was taken or a painting of
a sunset was made. Then, the picture or
painting is the art.
 One important characteristic of art is
that, it is not nature. Art is man's expression
of his reception of nature. Art is man's way of
interpreting Nature. Art is not nature. Art is
made by man, whereas nature is a given
around us. It is in this juncture that they can
be considered opposites What we find in
nature should not be expected to be
present in art too.
 Movies are not meant to be direct
representation of reality. They may,
according to the moviemaker's
perception of reality, be a
reinterpretation or even distortion of
nature.
 This distinction assumes that all of us see nature,
perceive its elements in myriad, different, yet ultimately
valid ways. One can only imagine the story of the five
blind men who one day argue against each other on what
an elephant looks like. Each of the five blind man was
holding a different part of the elephant. The first was
touching the body and thus, thought the elephant was like
a wall. Another was touching the beast's ear and was
convinced that the elephant was like a fan. The rest were
touching other different parts of the elephant and
concluded differently based on their perceptions. Art is like
each of these men's view of the elephant.
 It is based on an individual's
subjective experience of nature. It is
not meant, after all, to accurately
define what the elephant is really like
in nature. Artists are not expected to
duplicate nature just as even
scientists with their elaborate
laboratories cannot make nature.
 3. ART INVOLVES EXPERIENCE

Getting this far without a satisfactory

definition of art can be quite weird for
some. For most people, art does not
require a full definition. Art is just
experience. By experience, we mean
the actual doing of something" (Dudley
et al 1960).
 When one says that he has an experience of
something, he often means that he knows what that
something is about.
When one claims that he has experienced falling
in love, getting hurt, and bouncing back, he in
effect claims that he knows the (sometimes) endless
cycle of loving.
When one asserts having experienced preparing
a particular recipe, he in fact asserts knowing how
the recipe is made.
 Art is always an experience. Unique fields of
knowledge that involve data, art is known by
experiencing. A painter cannot claim to know how
to paint if he has not tried holding a brush. A
sculptor cannot produce a work of art if a chisel is
foreign to him. Dudley et al (1960) affirmed that “all
art depends on experience, and if one is to know
art, he must know not as fact or information but as
experience.”
 In matters of art, the subject's perception
is of primacy. One can read hundreds of
reviews about a particular movie, but at the
end of the day, until he sees the movie
himself, he will be in no position to actually
talk about the movie. He does not know the
movie until he experiences it. An important
aspect of experiencing art is its being highly
personal, individual, and subjective.
 In philosophical terms, perception of art is
always value judgment. It depends on who the
perceiver is, his tastes his bases and what he has
inside him. Gustibus non disputandum est (Matters
of taste are not matters of dispute). One cannot
argue with another person's evaluation of art
because one's experience can never be known
by another.
 Finally, one should also underscore that every
experience with art is accompanied by some
emotion. One either likes or dislikes, agrees or , that
a work of art is beautiful. A stage play or motion
picture is particularly one of those art for that
evoke strong emotions from its audience. With
experience comes emotions and feelings, after all.
Feelings and emotions are concrete proofs that
the artwork has been experiences.