Provocation in Philosophy and Art
(2015) In The International Journal of Social, Political, and Community Agendas in the Arts 10(3). p.27-35- Abstract
- Provocation is an integral part of Socrates’ philosophical method. Does provocation have a similar methodological function in art? My tentative answer is no. In the Socratic method, provocation is used both on an individual level to force a person to think better (preferably in ethical matters) and on a general level in order to keep a society awake. A society should never rest but “be stirred into life.” Philosophy is a teleological practice with truth or enlightenment as its telos. Art has no well-defined telos, the place and use of provocation in art is therefore debatable. But for art to be something rather than anything, I argue that a provocative work of art has to provide for the aesthetic qualities of how the provocation is... (More)
- Provocation is an integral part of Socrates’ philosophical method. Does provocation have a similar methodological function in art? My tentative answer is no. In the Socratic method, provocation is used both on an individual level to force a person to think better (preferably in ethical matters) and on a general level in order to keep a society awake. A society should never rest but “be stirred into life.” Philosophy is a teleological practice with truth or enlightenment as its telos. Art has no well-defined telos, the place and use of provocation in art is therefore debatable. But for art to be something rather than anything, I argue that a provocative work of art has to provide for the aesthetic qualities of how the provocation is performed. Provocation without instrumental qualities is atypical in philosophy, whereas provocation without intrinsic qualities is atypical in art. Using this as a normative guide, we may claim that instrumental success is more important than intrinsic success in philosophy and that the opposite holds for art, as far as provocation is concerned. I conclude by commenting on two Swedish examples of provocation in art from this perspective. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5276864
- author
- Egonsson, Dan LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Provocation, Socratic Method, Art
- in
- The International Journal of Social, Political, and Community Agendas in the Arts
- volume
- 10
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 27 - 35
- publisher
- Common Ground
- ISSN
- 2326-9960
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 8b2466a8-57d2-45fe-9dc7-4389bd142086 (old id 5276864)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:58:08
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 20:21:46
@article{8b2466a8-57d2-45fe-9dc7-4389bd142086,
abstract = {{Provocation is an integral part of Socrates’ philosophical method. Does provocation have a similar methodological function in art? My tentative answer is no. In the Socratic method, provocation is used both on an individual level to force a person to think better (preferably in ethical matters) and on a general level in order to keep a society awake. A society should never rest but “be stirred into life.” Philosophy is a teleological practice with truth or enlightenment as its telos. Art has no well-defined telos, the place and use of provocation in art is therefore debatable. But for art to be something rather than anything, I argue that a provocative work of art has to provide for the aesthetic qualities of how the provocation is performed. Provocation without instrumental qualities is atypical in philosophy, whereas provocation without intrinsic qualities is atypical in art. Using this as a normative guide, we may claim that instrumental success is more important than intrinsic success in philosophy and that the opposite holds for art, as far as provocation is concerned. I conclude by commenting on two Swedish examples of provocation in art from this perspective.}},
author = {{Egonsson, Dan}},
issn = {{2326-9960}},
keywords = {{Provocation; Socratic Method; Art}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{27--35}},
publisher = {{Common Ground}},
series = {{The International Journal of Social, Political, and Community Agendas in the Arts}},
title = {{Provocation in Philosophy and Art}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/3697749/5337595.pdf}},
volume = {{10}},
year = {{2015}},
}