فصلنامه کیمیای هنر
پیاپی 30 (بهار 1398)

This article aimes to emphasize certain points concerning traditional art , and to put forward a question. As the term” Traditional art” is rather ambiguous, first we try to clarify it. To do so, we propose an approach somehow different from one generally admitted. Thereby, we discuss the reasons why it is not so easy to give a definition of traditional art, islamic art in particular, specially from a historical point of view. That is why some specialists are willing to deny the existence of islamic art, as some historiens of philosophy seem to have the same attitude vis-a-vis islamic philosophy. Finally, encountering handicrafts with modern technology, we ask whether , in the light of traditional art, it is possible to speak of aesthetique regarding technological products : could a refrigerator be called beautiful; what about a washing machine or a car etc. ? In other words, how could we, with reference to traditional art, define an aesthetique for modern technology and, to speake in platonic terms,save it from the rudeness of the factory?

The increasing growth of technology in the twentieth century has brought about profound developments in the relations between man and the world. These developments, which included large industries and automatic and semi-automatic machines, necessitated the question of technology not only by intellectuals, but also by artists. Thus, different approaches to technology were formed, all of which were subdivided into two types of determinist  approaches, namely the utopian and the dystopian that each predicted a certain destiny for humans alongside technology. The utopianists considered technology as the key to human success and dreams, whereas the dystopianists saw nothing in the technologic world but destruction and decay. But the passage of time, the changes that took place in role of technology, as well as the developments which transformed human life-world, all are evidences of the insufficiency of these approaches in analyzing human-world relations through technology. The same is also true for the changes in the analytical context of the 20th century art, when the combination of art and technology took its first steps. Now the question is,how to lay the theoretical foundations of the 20th century machine art, in order to reach an analytical framework beyond deterministic viewpoints. In this regard, it seems that the ideas of those thinkers who besides technology are concerned with the human knowledge, are applicable. Meanwhile, Martin Heidegger’s ideas are especially valuable, in that he recognizes an ambiguity in the nature of technology that eventually results in emancipation of technology from the clutches of the determinists. Following Heidegger’s theory of technology will lead our way to Don Ihde, who not only is heavily under Heidegger’s influence, but also believes that he goes beyond Heidegger in facing with the deterministic approaches. By a phenomenological method in his philosophy of technology that could be considered as a synthesis of husserlian and heideggerian types, Ihde shows that his quadruple system which accords the relations between man, the world and technology, reveals a more complete picture of the aforementioned relations than deterministic approaches. Thus, by employing Ihde’s philosophy of technology and his phenomenological method, the present study tries to explain the presence of the machine as a symbol of technology in the works of the Avantguard artists of the first half of 20th century, regardless of a deterministic look to the implications of technology. The theoretical framework of this study, which attempts to take steps in the path of phenomenology, is based on Ihde’s quadruple relations in his philosophy of technology, and at the same time there is an effort to show its advantages over deterministic standpoints. Eventually, what is extracted from Ihde’s ideas in order to found an aesthetics for the machine art, is the ambiguity that lies within the heart of technology; the ambiguity which is recognizable and common in all the artworks that deal with the machine.

The present research addresses Mendelssohn’s theory of the sublime as one of the significant figures in German rationalist aesthetics. Our research obtains its significance primarily from the fact that there has been no research prior to this about Mendelssohn’s aesthetics in Persian; and secondly that even in the Continental philosophy researchers have often focused on other areas of Mendelssohn’s philosophy while his aesthetics and theory of the sublime has been overshadowed by his contemporaries such as Baumgarten and Kant. Our purpose is thus, firstly, to introduce a significant figure in German rationalist aesthetics; and secondly, to study and analyse in detail his theory of the sublime as both a bridge between German and British aesthetics and theories of the sublime with an influence on Kant, and a unique theory in itself with innovative and rich aspects. The current research is based on Mendelssohn’s texts addressing the sublime and takes as its method an in depth text study in order to reveal the unique aspects of his theory. This method has led us to the conclusion that despite Mendelssohn’s debt to Burkean theory of the sublime, his commitment to Wolffian rationalist philosophy and its corresponding aesthetic paradigm have helped him develop a very specific theory of his own which is based on and keeps at its heart the concept of perfection and other rationalist aesthetic principles while simultaneously incorporating Burkean ideas into the paradigm of his own theory; ideas which help him revise even the notion of perfection. To achieve this aim, we have introduced Mendelssohn’s aesthetic theory’s main themes in the first part of our research while moving in the second part to the more detailed and in-depth analysis of his theory of the sublime based on his main oeuvre on the sublime.

This article tries to elucidate Kosuth’s intention in the presentation on conceptual art. It focuses on an explanation about his opposition on aesthetics and formalism with regard to the Wittgensteinian origin of his measurements. For evaluation of what this artist said and what he performed in his artistic  works, we concentrate on the artist’s article entitled “art after philosophy”. We also study and analyze one of his works from series called “one and a few things”. This study shows that Kosuth with relying on “family resemblance” avoids presenting a decisive definition for the concept of art. His research in the conceptual condition of art production leads to the formation of an open concept for Art. So Kosuth hasn’t provided the necessary and sufficient condition for the definition of art. He has created assemblage like “one and three chairs” which is comprised of three parts. One belongs to the definition of a dictionary. The second is a real object in the world. The third is a representational photograph. This whole assemblage is designed equivalent to the proposition “one and three chairs”. So the artist avoids expressing himself, his sentiment, feeling & senses. We conclude that the artist tries to make ready a kind of “state of affairs” for an analytical proposition. This type of proposition doesn’t say anything about the world. It is repetitive. Kosuth shows an advanced and conceptual form of art presentation. He avoids presentation of perceptual, ornamental and optical forms. These kinds of new forms entangled in the enclosed circle of discourse and picture of thought. At last, they aren’t able to go beyond the circle of representation. They neglect to take into account unpredictable effects.

Philosophical texts have emerged in diverse genres and literary forms. Thinkers take different stands about importance of elements of these works. Some of them consider ornamental and accidental role for literary forms and the others in contrast consider philosophical implication for these elements. Philosophers’ approach to the role of literary elements of philosophical text is influential on their ways of studying history of philosophy and writing philosophical text as well. For this reason, a survey of the relation between literary form and philosophical content is of great importance. Overall purpose of this study is to examine the relation of literary forms and philosophical content. In this regard limitations and potentialities of style and literary forms are studied. The method of this research is descriptiveanalytical. Findings of this research show that the literary aspects of philosophical text are not accidental or ornamental and each genre has its own limitations and potentialities.

In this article, by examining the artistic beauty and explaining the elements of artistic beauty from the point of view of Allameh Tabatabai, one can providea correct explanation of the order of existence of artistic value. Using the rational-analytic method, we examine the theory of aesthetics from the perspective of Allameh in order to clarify Allameh’s objectivism in the philosophy of art. The role of the art supervisor in practical wisdom and Atebariat- theory of Allameh is important, and the artistic observer has a Hozory-dark of the realities of artistic phenomena. In the next step, he uses Hosoly-dark of artistic phenomena in the form of artistic values in artistic and aesthetic theories. And to understand artistic values correctly, we need to know the realities of art, as well as the particular kind of relationship that exists between reality and artistic value. So, without knowing the real art, understanding the aesthetics of Allameh Tabatabai is not possible. Finally by considering various philosophers’ explanation of the elements of beauty as well as the philosophical foundations of the Allameh, the place of Allameh’s artistic values in the philosophy of art will be determined.