Cruz, Nicholas Michael

WHAT IS ART?

I have long held the belief that there are two kinds of truth in this world. One refers to the empirical or the corporeal, that is, the objective. Such kind is the end sought by the discipline we call Science. In this field of knowledge, it is not uncommon to hold the notion that greater levels of intellect are required in order to master its complex fundamental theories and determine new concepts and discoveries that shed light to the darkness of the place we call universe. Do not be misled however, I do not refer only to the conventional “Science” we refer to as the subject we study in the academe. This umbrella term encompasses many fields of knowledge. The procedures in accounting, the computations in mathematics, the syntax and semantics of language – those are sciences. In other words, it is anything that deals with right-or-wrong answers therefore not subject to open interpretation, only concrete facts.

It is therefore logical (at least in my opinion) that the realm of Man deal first with the pursuit of this aspect of truth as it is the commonly observed truths that holds the survival of society and the human race altogether. Indeed, if the goal of Man was merely survival or the propagation towards a new step in evolution, finding the answers to this first classification of truth is all that is needed. But what differentiates Man from other organisms aside from his ability to think is his ability to feel. We are not merely driven by instinct or by logic. I dare even argue that what ultimately drives the actions of an individual is what his emotions dictate, particularly his own pursuit of happiness. It is due to this thing we call “emotion” that I am led to doubt that sciences are all there is to anything. It is an aspect that is not clearly definable, another type of truth created by the mind that controls the singular person. This second kind of truth is that which refers to what we do not physically see, that which is only within the confines of an individual’s mind – the subjective. A truth that is not easily achieved through Science (if not entirely impossible), that which is sought through Art. Therefore, to answer the question posed in the heading of this paper: Art is the discipline that deals, studies, and appeals with the subjective aspect of truth particularly through the emotions manifested through each person.