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The Perennial Relevance of the Humanities(Professor Alejandro Llano's arguments)

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The Perennial Relevance of the Humanities(Professor Alejandro Llano's arguments)

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Some members of society seem to have the perception that Humanities in itself is useless and an impractical career path to choose.

Man, as practical as we may seem, we hold on to things that are not simply utilitarian but dignifies one's existence as well.

Man strives to search for the meaning of life, it's the purpose and the reason for its existence.

The Sciences only take care of man's practical side however Humanities focus more on the value of human life which in the end, remains of more value than the Sciences.

In a technological society, man needs to commit to a more humanitarian formation rather than focus on its utilitarian side. Even in business, the current problems that arise are not economical ones, but human and social ones.

The world needs more "generalists" rather than more commonly known "specialists". Most of the work specialists can be taught or learned through practice however the Humanities require one to cultivate a deeper understanding of man as a whole.

The reason man can find value in themselves is that man is the only creation that God has loved for himself.

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We all know that God is our ultimate creator; the divine being who made us for the purpose of continuing and utilizing his work. We were created to give form and meaning that God entrusted us “in his image of likeliness” which of the essence is creating something that is good with the creative dominion that we have. In the Letter to Artists in 1999, Pope John Paul II talked about the significance of us as humans with artistic creativity. An artist that has the capacity to produce aesthetic ideas that bring out the moral values in them. Each one of us is given our own surpassing wisdom; to understand the “special vocation”.

An artist expresses themselves in a way that they want to be heard through their art. It is not only revealing his personality but also to give depth, emphasis, and spiritual growth as a mirror image of God; but we are not as near perfect just like him. We are an artist that produces our own story and recognizes our dignity with human existence. It may be arduous to share the stories of the artist but what matters the most is the capability we have in creating stories that contribute to the history of culture.

“Beauty is the visible form of the good, just as the good is the metaphysical condition of beauty” A quote from Plato basically means that when you define what inner beauty is despite other things, we get to what man creates as beautiful; they also create something good out of it. In such, finding ways of expressing as an artist meaningful things with others so they bring together the beauty into the world and encourage the good as well. What is beautiful is also good that God bestowed upon us the mission to be of creating and serving the common good. This is why our society develops as a community “the art of education” that teaches us art forms that enriches our cultural and creative panorama, exemplify the beauty of what art is and the inspiration that we get from it.

It is within the artist to promote the “special vocation” God has given them and to be a voice of responsibility, driven passion and conscious without allowing themselves to search for empty glory in the end. In doing so, we reach and obtain ethics. We are given this purpose to put off the service of an artist; creating the good and beauty of art. Creating what God has considered good and to unite each other so that we call all rise as one, and of humanity as a whole. Through the balance of divine nature and destiny, our artistic vocation given by God has a purpose in creating beauty, good.

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In John Paul II’s Letter to the Artists (1999), he stresses the idea of what the artists create can influence the people. So, in order not to waste their talent they should develop it to be good, for it to be used for the good, “Feel at the same time the obligation not to waste this talent but to develop it, to put it at the service of their neighbor and of humanity as a whole.” (John Paul II, 1999).

John Paul II (1999) mentioned in his letter, in the early days of Christianity was the bloom of classical art. Because of how they worship Jesus Christ, God, etc. the artists created sculptures, paintings, and statues to have a physical representation for the believers. However, Apostle Paul (Acts 17:24, 29, cited in John Paul II 1999, p. 5) said in the letter that these imitations are not where God lives, not where it is created by humans, that we should not think God is made up of wood or gold because according to John Paul II (1999), “If the intimate reality of things is always “beyond” the powers of human perception, how much more so is God in the depths of his unfathomable mystery!” This means we should not just accept and worship what the artists create because the idea of God is beyond human understanding.

But, because of the start of classical art for believers during early Christianity, it gave a huge impact on how we make art today. The influence of Christianity to classical art was the use of symbolism, “Art of Christian inspiration began therefore in a minor key, strictly tied to the need for believers to contrive Scripture-based signs to express both the mysteries of faith and a “symbolic code”.” (John Paul II, 1999). Like the painting of The Last Supper, how it represents Jesus sharing his final meal with his Apostles, as well as the symbolism of the bread and wine. That is why Classical Art is important since it created an innovation in art because it engaged us in the ideology of beauty and proportion. It’s the reference point on how art is understood and it is either continuing the tradition of creating art or reacting to it.

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Adler’s Idea on Beauty (Enjoyable Beauty)

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Adler’s Idea on Beauty (Enjoyable Beauty)

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When we hear the word “beauty”, we visualize it as something that is good to look at; but individuals do not think that it can philosophically please our aesthetic senses.

“Beauty is that which pleases upon being seen” this was said by St. Thomas Aquinas in where the clarity of beauty that pleases the eye of the beholder tends to support subjectivism. What he is trying to say that by the understanding of intellect, seeing is always pleasurable upon being seen. As humans, when a mind sees something we see in through our senses that makes it pleasurable; and that seeing is related to contemplating God face to face for eternity when we go to heaven. In short, you can never ignore it, if you see something beautiful your mind sees that and gets attracted to what is beautiful. Our perception is not always perfect in someone else's eye. We have it to make it sharp and precise. Looking at art will not only require you to analyze and interpret it but also practice looking at it from time to time.

Beauty does not exist on its own, but is created by observers; that is why the matter of subjectivity comes in, it may not be objective at all but what composes the art world are the people and these different unique individuals have intrinsic excellence that intervenes to an object. We don't think that all taste is equal because one thing that is important to all of us is that we all have background aesthetic principles; we morally learn and use it in our minds to think and function.

In conclusion with Mortimer J. Adler (1981) is saying that with enjoyable beauty, we may experience beauty while lacking but we can make judgments based on what we look upon that we consider “beautiful”. It is based on one looking that understands how an object has unity, proportion, and clarity that you cant change. But that is the art. The beauty that you perceive it; lastly it is reasonable, we can't ignore the fact that human beings logically can understand and make sense while animals cant. We naturally do intellectual activities or human activities that help us in rationalizing a complex whole but it also has an organization with a certain order system.

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Adler’s Idea on Beauty (Admirable Beauty)

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Adler’s Idea on Beauty (Admirable Beauty)

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Adler analyzes two definitions of beauty from the past to make an accurate definition today. These definitions are from a Catholic Priest and philosopher from the thirteenth century Thomas Aquinas and German Philosopher from the eighteenth century Immanuel Kant. Aquinas defines beautiful as “that which pleases upon being seen”. Adler criticizes this with the problematic use of the words “seen” and “pleases”. Pleasure is something that people crave. We naturally crave a sensory experience that is pleasant rather than unpleasant however there are some people that prefer physical pain. Anything needed or wanted is something that pleases or satisfies us when we receive it. In this definition of pleasure, one needs to possess the object to satisfy the desire. Kant, however, says that “pleasure must be a totally disinterested one”; “disinterested” in the sense that it is outside the sphere of our practical concerns. We would be content to contemplate or behold it, doing this gives pleasure. If we do want to possess it, we do not regard it as beautiful because of that desire.

“Seen” is another problematic point in Aquinas's definition of beautiful. Things that are beautiful aren’t just the things we see because music, poetry, and novels can be beautiful but we can’t see them, we can only picture them or listen to them. We tend to only find beauty in things we see. This is due to our speech habits which also makes us think that beauty is a superlative degree of quality found in visual things. Adler states that we must reserve beautiful which pleases us to the highest degree and most exceptionally. The word see does not only concerned with the visuals. We can see with our mind by saying “I see what you mean” meaning we understand. Adler gives us a refined definition of beauty “The beautiful if which pleases us upon being contemplated. It is which pleases us when we apprehend it with our minds alone, or if not by our minds alone, then by our minds in conjunction with other senses, but not the sense of sight alone. We might even say that the beautiful is something that pleases us to behold, but only if we remember that we can behold something in other ways than by sight.”

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Windows to the Divine (2010) ‘Vocation of the Artist’.

Available at: https://windowstothedivine.org/vocation-of-the-artist/

(Accessed 27 January 2020)

Paul II, J. (1999). To Artists: Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Adler, Mortimer J. (1981). Six Great Ideas

Colorado: Touchstone Publishing

Llano, Alejandro. The Perennial Relevance of the Humanities.

Pamplona Spain: University of Navarre