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Open inquiry12 min4 historical perspectives

Why does art matter, and what makes a work valuable?

Follow a perfect copy, a disturbing tragedy, and an everyday experience to compare art as imitation, learning, judgment, and a rhythm of life.

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  1. Around 380 BCE

    Republic X asks poetry and images to answer for their epistemic and political effects.

    Plato — When a likeness obscures truth and the soul

  2. Around 335 BCE

    The Poetics makes tragic plot and emotion objects of analysis.

    Aristotle — Learning through imitation and organizing emotion through tragedy

  3. 1790

    The third Critique joins personal pleasure to the possibility of shared judgment.

    Kant — Beauty asks for agreement without proof

  4. 1934

    Published in New York, Art as Experience returns art to the rhythms of living.

    Dewey — A consummated experience, not merely a museum object

    New York · 출판