Why are Philosophy and Art more Relevant in Our Time?
“We see things not as they are, but as we are.” -Immanuel Kant.
By examining the subjects given to our children and grandchildren in high school and higher, we might conclude that philosophy and art have lost relevance, which could be due to the need to adapt to the demands of our time: to focus on the digital revolution and trends in social media, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and mass communication.
Anyone has the option, via cut and paste, to get an appropriate response to any question regardless of the formal or empirical knowledge on a particular topic. However, this is more an illusion than a real case.
What can we get out of AI and social media trends?
Social media’s trends and AI depend on algorithms whose sources are unknown and difficult to validate. Their nature falls outside the realm of physical sciences and more into the value judgments. In this field, Immanuel Kant offered one of his most recognized contributions when he stated:
“We see things not as they are, but as we are.”
Without claiming to interpret Kant’s aphorism in its most adequate terms, he meant that there is no way to know anything as it is but rather as we experience it. And our experience or perception of reality is limited, so one can only offer a personal interpretation of anything.
So, by using artificial intelligence to look for knowledge and truth of any subject or experience, we are delegating that to an almost infinite number of opinions on any specific subject as experienced by third parties. For important subjects, we should research and form a more adequate idea.
What role do art and philosophy play in our lives today?
Both offer us an alternative interpretation of reality. When I see Picasso’s famous painting Guernica, I get a completely different impression of the suffering during the Spanish Civil War. I have read books on the subject or even listened, as I have done, to people who lived during that period, but in both cases, those testimonies reflected their experience. Picasso’s Guernica is also a personal approach to the subject, though one from a genius that offers a unique interpretation.
During the pandemic, the New York Metropolitan Opera House (MET) offered free access to its library of plays. I watched Percival by Richard Wagner: I loved its music and libretto in a way I had never experienced, even when I had attended live events at the MET and in Europe.
In her essay, Wagner’s Parsifal: Christianity, Celibacy, and the Ideal of Medieval Brotherhood, Carole M. Cusack, University of Sydney, has this to say:
Medievalism refers to “how and why various individuals and institutions have chosen to engage with the Middle Ages.” Very different motives may inspire. Outcomes may result from such engagement.
Wagner was concerned with promoting the contemporary relevance of Norse mythology for the nineteenth century, presented in a Romantic manner. Romanticism is a complex historical and cultural movement, beginning in the eighteenth century as a reaction to the Enlightenment.
Parsifal is a unique combination of the medieval and the modern, so much so that it is difficult not to conclude that nineteenth-century Wagner heralded a particular vision of the medieval as the cure for the ills of modernity.
Wagner and Nietzsche were close friends. Both were used as propaganda by the Nazis as references for their ideology. In my experience, I see no support for such claims but rather their profound and unique view on religion, philosophy, and arts from both geniuses, which left us with their works of philosophy and arts that remain relevant in our times.
What is then the use of philosophy and arts in our time?
My experiences with both have contributed to my understanding of the challenges of our time in a significant way. Philosophy and art interpret reality in a different dimension: space and time were a reference and influence for philosophers and artists, but their unique interpretation of things remains and contributes to our thinking and actions through a timeless reflection outside of space.
