Is Life Like Art?
Fundamental pillars of life include Unity and Coherence amongst other things. However, Art does not always include unity and coherence. Thus, life should not be preemptively lived as any kind of art. If life is treated as a work of art, there are further issues regarding whether one can become better or worse? Even though technical mastery remains somewhat of an insatiable reality, consequent questions that follow examine what constitutes a “good life”? Responses in philosophical and scientific circles throughout history have suggested that one must be conscientious about how they live and what they do. Just like art, one must be enticed to create a life that is fulfilling and enduring which was an idea that was championed by Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly regarding his theory on eternal recurrence. According to Nietzsche’s theory on eternal recurrence, whatever we do in our life would continue to occur forever.
Yet, a profound quality of our daily realities relies largely on the expectations we have. If we are said to have high expectations, it is said that we are constantly in search of novel viewpoints, detaching ourselves from practical utility, and attending to the aesthetic world around us that continuously fuels the transformative engine within us. On the other hand, if we are said to have low or fixed expectations, we are consequently shutting down the possibilities of acquiring novelty in our lives, increasingly setting the tone of living a dull, mundane life.
Our expectations are driven by what we see which depends on the cognitive penetration we are subject to and the context we are accurately able to identify. Context can be understood as a function that takes us from observable properties to experiences. In other words, contexts create venues or possibilities of seeing. Seeing depends on identifying context and art teaches people how to see through establishing context.
Life, as it develops, affords certain opportunities for seeing because of the context and appropriate context it introduced to. To be completely closed or completely open is a disservice to the quality of our life that limits our understanding of what we are. According to existential philosophy, people are a combination of facticity, which regards the finite contingent realities of our lives, and transcendence which is closely associated with limitless freedom to influence the realities around us. The latter somewhat overlaps with art which manifests itself in the openness of perception in that we can see in a variety of different ways and thus we can change how our realities appear to us through the utility of identifying different contexts, appropriate contexts.
All things considered; it is imperative to never single out facticity from transcendence for it is the joint constitution between the two that creates the pragmatic realities of our daily lives. Neither should it be detached from action and value because it all would ultimately influence how we act, and what we value. Thus, the art of living resonates with how well we navigate between facticity and transcendence which ultimately affects the quality of our daily lived experiences. Additionally, we must proactively seek to understand other appropriate contexts to acquire and pleasure in shared aesthetic claims.
