Single Idea 8116

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 6. Value of Art]

Full Idea

For Schopenhauer, the point of art lies in the metaphysical liberation from selfhood that will-less aesthetic contemplation induces.

Gist of Idea

The will-less contemplation of art brings a liberation from selfhood

Source

report of Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Idea [1819]) by Sebastian Gardner - Aesthetics 3.6.3

Book Reference

'Philosophy: a Guide Through the Subject', ed/tr. Grayling,A.C. [OUP 1995], p.620


A Reaction

I've never understood why anyone (Buddhists included) would want 'liberation from selfhood'. Certainly art can make us forget ourselves in a more objective view of things, but science can do that too.