Humanistic Art in Broad Perspective: A Reconstruction of the Literature

Abstract

On the formalist view of art, we concern ourselves with the art object itself separate from other possible contexts. On the expression theory, art is related to the emotions. The perspective is still a narrow one. We may also relate art to all of one’s cognitions, perceptions and contexts.¹ Our responses have the full range of all language and perception. We may, then, view art from a broad rather than a narrow perspective. Instead of formalism versus expressionism, we may substitute broad versus narrow, holistic versus disconnected, adequate versus partial, contextual versus atomistic.

Man is not a bird.

Dewey 1958: 70

Art has aesthetic standing only as the work becomes an experience for a human being.

Dewey 1958: 4

No act is moral unless it is aesthetic.

Author.