WELCOME

to
ART APPRECIATION
ARTS & HUMANITIES
10 August 2019
What can we appreciate:
Arts and Humanities: Western and Filipino Concepts
Art as a Humanistic Discipline
The Humanities in Western Civilization
The Humanities and the Filipino Personhood (Pagkatao)
The Filipino Concept of Art
What can we appreciate:
Art Appreciation and the Human Faculties
Art and the Human Faculties
The Process of Art Appreciation
Art and the Perception of Reality
 1. Art as Humanistic Discipline
To be human. To make life worth living. Are these what we can learn from the Humanities?
 HUMANITIES
the study of how people process and
document the human experience
Notes: Stanford Humanities Center describes the humanities “as the study of how people process and
document the human experience. Since humans have been able, we have used philosophy, literature,
religion, art, music, history and language to understand and record our world… Knowledge of these records
of human experience gives us the opportunity to feel a sense of connection to those who have come
before us, as well as to our contemporaries.”
 “Why study cultural history?”
“
Notes: If people are not educated into their place in human history – 5000 years of relatively
uninterrupted topsy-turvy developments – then they are powerless, subject to passing fads and
outlandish beliefs. They become vulnerable to the flattery of demagogues who promise heaven on
earth, or they fall prey to the misconception that present-day events are unique, without precedent
in history, or superior to everything that has gone before. Perhaps the worst that can happen to us is
to exist in a limbo of ignorance – in Goethe’s words, “LIVING FROM DAY TO DAY”.
 “
Without knowledge of the past and the perspective
it brings, people may come to believe that their
contemporary world will last forever, when in
reality much of it doomed to be forgotten.
(Matthews, 2001)
CULTURE the way of life

the artistic and intellectual

expressions of people, their
creative achievements.
 ART
a diverse range of human activities in creating
visual, auditory or performing artifacts (artworks),
expressing the author„s imaginative, conceptual
ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated
for their beauty or emotional power.
The material of study
Issue of artistic/ authorial “intention” and its
rootedness in a particular historical period.

Our interpretation of intentions are biased by our

own attitude which is based on our own individual
experiences and historical situation.
Methods of interpretation/ explanation
Scientists deal with natural phenomena
(explanation in terms of objectives, repeatable
examination of physical reality.

Humanists deals with human actions and creations

(explanation is intuitive aesthetic recreation)
Humanist Method
to study the formal principles that control the
rendering of the visible world (familiarizes himself
with the social, religious, and philosophical
attitudes of other periods and countries, continually
check own experiences against archaeological
research).
 AESTHETICS
the branch of philosophy concerned with the
nature and appreciation of art, beauty, and good
taste.
Notes: It has also been defined as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature". The word "aesthetics"
derives from the Greek "aisthetikos", meaning "of sense perception". The meaning of beauty and art is
explored in the branch of philosophy called aesthetics
to be continued…