The document discusses Plato's Allegory of the Cave and how it relates to human understanding of truth and knowledge. It uses the allegory to explain that humans can only "see" or "know" through representations, not absolute truth. It then discusses how art and culture arise from human social and communicative instincts and are framed by language and society. Art acts as a conceptual unifier that is defined by but also defines its social context.

2. So . . .
Among the myriad forms of art/tekhnē
why do we focus on the v i s u a l ?

4. form

7. . . . all enigmas . . .
balance

8. force

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symbolism

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17. All of these images are
artifacts
object-images

18. both
PERceptual
but
CONceptual;

19. They could apply to any of the senses
and
to the way we make meaning from them--
and thus they could apply
to any kind of art
(since art results from your experience)

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23. How are these objects “cultural”?
How do they “manipulate nature”?
What is their . . .

24. “THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE”
Plato
THE REPUBLIC, Book VII
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
.....

25. “THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE”
Plato
THE REPUBLIC, Book VII
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
.....
“ And now, I said . . .

26. “ let me show in a figure how far
our nature is enlightened or
unenlightened: “

27. “ let me show in a figure how far
our nature is enlightened or
unenlightened: “
--Behold!
Human beings living in an
underground den, which has a
mouth open towards the light and
reaching all along the den; here
they have been from their
childhood, and have their legs
and necks chained so that they
cannot move, and can only see
before them, being prevented by
the chains from turning round
their heads.

28. “ let me show in a figure how far
our nature is enlightened or
unenlightened: heads. “
--Behold!
Human beings living in an
underground den, which has a
mouth open towards the light and
reaching all along the den; here
they have been from their
childhood, and have their legs
and necks chained so that they
cannot move, and can only see
before them, being prevented by
the chains from turning round
their heads.

29. let me show in a figure how far our
nature is enlightened or
unenlightened: heads.
--Behold!
Human beings living in an
underground den, which has a
mouth open towards the light and
reaching all along the den; here
they have been from their
childhood, and have their legs
and necks chained so that they
cannot move, and can only see
before them, being prevented by
the chains from turning round
their heads.

30. Above and behind them a fire is
blazing at a distance, and
between the fire and the prisoners
there is a raised way; and you will
see, if you look, a low wall built
along the way, like the screen
which marionette players have in
front of them, over which they
show the puppets.
I see.

31. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see
only their own shadows, or the
shadows of one another, which the fire
throws on the opposite wall of the
cave.
To them, I said, the truth would be
literally nothing but the shadows of the
images.
And now look again, and see what will
naturally follow if the prisoner is
released and disabused of his error.
Will he not fancy that the shadows
which he formerly saw are truer than
the objects which are now shown to
him? . . .

32. The allegory: the prison-house
is the world of sight, the light of
the fire is the sun (physical
light), and the sun outside the
den is the light of knowledge,
i.e. of truth.

33. The allegory: the prison-house
is the world of sight, the light of
the fire is the sun (physical
light), and the sun outside the
den is the light of knowledge,
i.e. of truth.
[note that
“truth”
is not available to humans
except
through an allegory . . . ]

34. Plato:
To “see” is to “know”:
insofar as “we humans” can “know”:
to know is to “see”

35. What do “we” “know”
when confronted by “art/tekhnē”?

36. What do “we” “know”
when confronted by “art/tekhnē”?
We “know” we are connected to culture. . .
through metaphor, allegory, narrative.

37. What art is not . . .
Truth
Beauty
Power
Absolute
Sacred
Etc.

38. Those are all concepts that frame artifacts (art objects),
and that contribute to various definitions of “art.”

39. IF

40. IF
The origins of art are in

41. IF
The origins of art are in
magic

42. IF
The origins of art are in
magic
hunting

43. IF
The origins of art are in
magic
hunting
proto-community

44. IF
The origins of art are in
magic
hunting
proto-community
proto-communication . . .

45. THEN

46. THEN
Those origins coincide with

47. THEN
Those origins coincide with
“the human”

48. THEN
Those origins coincide with
“the human”
“culture”

49. THEN
Those origins coincide with
“the human”
“culture”
“the social.”

50. . . . social . . .

51. . . . social . . .
L. “socius”

52. . . . social . . .
L. “socius”
allies
companions
group
tribe

53. socius . . .
COMMON COMMUNICATION
image . . .
language . . .

54. LANGUAGE

55. LANGUAGE
L. lingua

56. LANGUAGE
L. lingua
“tongue”

57. Once language becomes central
To the formation of “society,”
It “frames” everything within it,
Including the “cultural” or “societal” artifact.

58. CULTURE

59. CULTURE (activity)

60. CULTURE (activity)
SOCIETY

61. CULTURE (activity)
SOCIETY (framework)

62. CULTURE (activity)
SOCIETY (framework)
ARTIFACT

63. CULTURE (activity)
SOCIETY (framework)
ARTIFACT (product)

64. CULTURE (activity)
SOCIETY (framework)
ARTIFACT (product)
ART

65. CULTURE (activity)
SOCIETY (framework)
ARTIFACT (result)
ART (concept)

66. CULTURE (activity)
SOCIETY (framework)
ARTIFACT (result)
ART (concept)
Art as unifying (or disunifying) concept
produced by—but defining—the social.

67. “society” =

68. Conceptual and Literal
Framing

69. Framing
Contextualizes or “gives art meaning”
(“meaning” isn’t “in there” . . . )

70. Ask not
What is the artist
trying to do to me?

71. Ask not
What is the artist
trying to do to me?
but rather

72. What does the artwork
evoke
In me?

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