Immanuel Kant claimed that there were 4 distinguishable capacities to artistic genius : imagination, understanding, soul and taste.
Kantanian philosophy (concerning artistic genius, that is, because that’s what I’ll be talking about) also says that artistic geniuses are not capable of demonstrating how they came up with their works, because Nature is the rule it follows. To put it simpler, they don’t know how they arrived at their idea, because they cannot will their ideas into existence.
The truth? Kant baffles me. I can never understand what it is I’m reading. Sometimes, I think I do… I can almost get it. Then, I read something else and it shatters everything all over again. And what I wrote above was just the tip of the iceberg.
Because, what is imagination, anyway? David Hume explained this as the mere capacity for filling gaps between momentary sensations, or perceptions.
Imagination, for some, is the capability of forming mental pictures, summoning something in the mind’s eye, pretending and creating worlds.
And whoever said that the reason for the never-ending duel between scientific genius and artistic genius was imagination? It’s exactly what links them together!
That’s exactly what Kant sought to do: to separate the scientific genius from artistic genius.
That gives me the platonic notion that Scientists see the Universal forms of things with more accuracy than normal people (forgive me for this term)… and that artists are notoriously unreliable guides.
Okay. So maybe I will never be able to convince people that science and art are almost symmetrical. I don’t believe so myself, really. Maybe, it’s because that I too see their differences. After all, they are only two proponents of factual modern civilization as we know it. There’s so much more… like religion, belief, death, language, art, science, love, war, music…
The hugest difference for me is that science seeks to explain mysteries, and art connects us to mystery without trying to explain it.
But Kant failed at one point: because scientific genius is capable of imagination, understanding, soul and taste, too. Not more or less than the artistic genius.
Time for Lunch!!! Chow time!!! Have a good day ahead, all.
