For a long time aestheticians looked for laws governing art outside society. The evolution of art is made by atmospheric fluctuations. Art changes under the influence of climatic factors and depends also on in national character.
Hegel considered art a result of the world’s global evolution. He explained the movement of earth through its various stages (Symbolic, classic and romantic) by the stadial evolution of the Absolute Idea. In the second half of the 19th century, Hippolyte Taine, the French theorist is of the opinion:
“Art is affected by a combination of the frame of mind and the morals of society.” The “prevailing mood” produces certain “spiritual temperature” which affects the development of art, same as physical temperature affects the development of in fauna and flora. A French philosopher believed that art is a function of the social organism.
The classics of Russian aesthetics emphasised the link between art and the conditions of life. They connected the merit, significance and content of a work of art with the life of the people.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels believed that out of the sum of social factors which determine the evolution of the forms of social consciousness, the leading one is the mode of production.
These elements interact in the process of cognition: The object (that which is cognised) the subject and his activity (who cognises and what for), the forms (how, what form the object is cognised). The world and man’s inner life and needs are so rich and diversified that they could not but produce a great number of forms of social consciousness. Philosophy, art, morals, religion, political and legal ideology – these are the forms assumed by the more or less adequate cognition and reflection of the world.
All forms of social consciousness have a number of common characteristics:
First, man’s intellectual and cultural life takes place in concrete historical circumstances. Social being is the material foundation of all forms of social consciousness which are dependent on the economic system i.e the basis.
Second, all forms of social consciousness are relatively independent. This is shown by the fact that the level of development of art does not always correspond to the levels of economic development. At the time of Shakespeare, art was thriving despite the country’s economic development. At the time of Shakespeare, England was far from flourishing economically. In the 19th century Russia, art was thriving despite the country’s economic backwardness. The relative independence of social consciousness can be accounted for by the direct influence of social struggles on the cultural life of a given society, mutual interaction of the forms of social consciousness, the role of cultural heritage, traditions, technical skills and devices (in art) and the available material accumulated by philosophy and science. Third, all forms of social consciousness, do not only reflect life but also exerts an influence over it.
Finally, in all of them, the process of cognition passes from contemplation to thinking and to action.
A part from the features they have in common, each form of social consciousness also has its own of social consciousness field of investigation. Each form of social consciousness concentrates on individual sides and relationships of life. Besides, each has its own functions, object, method, content and laws of internal development and uses its own forms (scientific laws, philosophic categories, moral norms, artistic images).
Art as a specific form of social consciousness is crooked in the world of nature and social relations which form the background of man’s daily life. This dependence is the most striking in primitive art created lay the peoples standing at a low level of social development. The Australian’s hunting dance imitated the movements of Kangaroos and emus: the dance of the inhabitants of Kamchatka those of a bear.
The art of hunting peoples such as Australians, was dominated by images from the animal world and had no floral motives. These peoples had no agriculture. The world of plants remained outside the scope of their experience.
In more advanced civilizations, there is a connection between art and the level of social development, the degree of man’s familiarity with nature, his ability to put it to use and the character of production. However, this dependence is not immediate. It is made indirect by the nature of social struggles. Besides, art is also influenced by philosophy, morals, politics, religion and other forms of social consciousness as well as the previously established tradition.
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