{"id":164,"date":"2011-07-24T21:24:27","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T01:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=164"},"modified":"2011-07-24T21:24:27","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T01:24:27","slug":"rethinking-the-relationship-between-art-and-morality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2011\/07\/rethinking-the-relationship-between-art-and-morality.html","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking the Relationship Between Art and Morality"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the voluminous body of evidence that the television and film industries are comprised of doctrinaire leftists determined to promote their political program via these media, we can now add Ben Shapiro\u2019s recently released Prime Time Propaganda.\u00a0 <\/em>This work is at once too long and too predictable, it is true.\u00a0 But in spite of its vices, it would be unfair to begrudge Shapiro the commendation for the service that he supplies, namely, a much needed reminder of the variety of typically subtle (and not so subtle) ways in which Hollywood routinely attempts to invite sympathy from consumers for causes that they would otherwise reject.<\/p>\n

My intention here, however, is not to review Shapiro\u2019s book.\u00a0 Rather, I wish to say a couple of things about the relationship between art and politics that he, among legions of others, addresses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first thing of which to take note is that while those on the right incessantly (and understandably) bemoan the injection of leftist \u201cpolitics\u201d into the arts, it is really leftist morality <\/em>that is the object of their disdain.\u00a0 \u201cPolitics\u201d is a term loaded with negative connotations.\u00a0 This explains why politicians charge their rivals with \u201cplaying politics,\u201d or why we complain that this situation or that is \u201call <\/em>political.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cPolitics\u201d has gotten a bad rap, I believe, but that is grist for another mill.\u00a0 The point here is that while it is a much easier sell to accuse one\u2019s opponents of politicizing <\/em>matters than to accuse them of moralizing <\/em>them, political causes are<\/em> moral causes.<\/p>\n

Second, since it is leftist morality of which those on the right want to divest the arts, it is unclear exactly what it is they are saying.\u00a0 To put it another way, they appear to be simultaneously advocating two mutually contradictory positions: the arts should and <\/em>should not <\/em>promote morality.\u00a0 Nationally syndicated radio talk show host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham is about as perfect an illustration of this tendency as any of which I am aware.\u00a0 The title of her book, Shut Up and Sing, <\/em>readily reveals her call for a morally-neutral art world.\u00a0 At the same time, though, Ingraham also urgesHollywood to provide consumers with products that embody \u201cfamily-friendly\u201d messaging\u2014i.e. \u201ctraditional\u201d or \u201cconservative\u201d morality.<\/p>\n

The relationship between art and morality has always been a subject of interest for philosophers.\u00a0\u00a0 That the arts contribute powerfully to the formation of character is a proposition that few could coherently deny.\u00a0 It is precisely our recognition of this fact that motivates parents to regulate the images that their children ingest, and both parents and non-parents alike to repudiate those parents who fail in this regard.\u00a0 Similarly doubtless is that for as long as they have existed, artists have sought to advance their conceptions of morality through their work.\u00a0 At no time has this been truer than today.<\/p>\n

Yet to concede all of this should not be confused with conceding that art and morality are one and the same.\u00a0 It seems to me that if \u201cart\u201d is a concept with any intelligibility whatsoever\u2014and we all appear to be in agreement that is\u2014then we have no choice but to acknowledge the illegitimacy<\/em> of reducing art to morality.\u00a0 Art and morality are indeed distinct activities; neither should be measured in terms of the other. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The moral philosopher or the ethicist and the philosopher of art or the aesthetician center attention upon fundamentally different kinds of objects.\u00a0 The moral philosopher examines the concepts that constitute morality: \u201cought,\u201d \u201cright,\u201d \u201cwrong,\u201d \u201cduty,\u201d \u201cobligation,\u201d \u201cvirtue,\u201d \u201cvice,\u201d \u201chappiness,\u201d \u201cpleasure,\u201d \u201cpain,\u201d etc..\u00a0 The philosopher of art, in contrast, focuses on such concepts as \u201cbeauty,\u201d \u201cmimesis,\u201d \u201cemotion,\u201d \u201crepresentation,\u201d \u201csymmetry,\u201d and \u201cexpression.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of moral agents and their actions it is proper\u2014it is expected\u2014that we should express approval or disapproval.\u00a0 More specifically, agents and their actions are to be praised or blamed, rewarded or punished.\u00a0 Artworks, on the other hand, considered solely as artworks, <\/em>elicit no such responses.\u00a0 Artworks are neither \u201cright\u201d nor \u201cwrong,\u201d and the artist is neither \u201cvirtuous\u201d nor \u201cvicious.\u201d\u00a0 Far from inviting endorsement or reproach, an artwork provokes what we may call contemplative enjoyment.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

The response to an artwork is enjoyment <\/em>because, like all other forms of enjoyment, an observer\u2019s relationship to an artwork is an activity, <\/em>not a momentary emotion.\u00a0 <\/em>Enjoyment is not synonymous with pleasure. <\/em>Enjoyment can be and not infrequently is<\/em> derived from activities that are productive of pleasure and <\/em>pain alike.\u00a0 \u201cNo pain, no gain,\u201d an expression with which weightlifters have long been familiar, is a standing testament to this truth, for in spite of the cost in pain that the activity of weightlifting incurs, the weightlifter persists because he enjoys it.\u00a0 And what is true of weightlifting is no less true of all manner of activity, from sports to music, writing to teaching, parenting to marriage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet the enjoyment that an artwork produces, unlike that to be had from the pursuit of these other objects, is also contemplative, <\/em>for an artwork is uniquely situated to arrest our daily activity just long enough for us to reflect upon something that is beyond the world of wanting and getting, truth and falsity, right and wrong.\u00a0 A fine artwork accepts nothing less than the observer\u2019s undivided attention.\u00a0 It is not, however, ungrateful, for in exchange for the abandonment of all other considerations\u2014considerations of right and wrong, say, or scientific or historical accuracy\u2014it promises its own unique enjoyment.<\/p>\n

Anyone calling into question this (admittedly sketchy) theory of art would do himself a good turn to consider our reaction to, say, The Godfather.\u00a0 <\/em>Although this story has, with all of the justice in the world, been criticized for its romantic depiction of organized crime, that it is a stellar artwork is all but beyond dispute.\u00a0 That Mafioso aren\u2019t \u201creally\u201d as educated, articulate, or successful at eluding capture as Michael Corleone is neither here nor there as far the merits of The Godfather <\/em>as an artwork are concerned.\u00a0 What makes The Godfather <\/em>an artwork is its potential to provoke contemplative enjoyment in those who behold it.\u00a0 And what makes it a masterpiece is that it has succeeded in not only actualizing this potentiality, but in doing so excellently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is much more that can and should be said on this subject.\u00a0 Since \u201cthe politicization of art\u201d has been and remains an issue for those on both sides of the political divide, my objective here was simply to encourage more thought on the nature of art and its relationship to morality.\u00a0 It was toward this end that I offered this preliminary analysis of art.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

originally published at The New American<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To the voluminous body of evidence that the television and film industries are comprised of doctrinaire leftists determined to promote their political program via these media, we can now add Ben Shapiro\u2019s recently released Prime Time Propaganda.\u00a0 This work is at once too long and too predictable, it is true.\u00a0 But in spite of its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRethinking the Relationship Between Art and Morality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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