Focusing on
alternative practical experiences, philosophy can practically
help people to free themselves from the obsession with
progress-seen as a sequence of ever-escalating records (of
production, distribution, expectation)-and moreover, from the
fear of all its consequences. It can also focus people's
attention on alternatives to everything that affects the
integrity of the species and its sense of quality, including the
relation to their environment. When past, present, and future
collapse into the illiterate frenzy of the instant, philosophy
owes to those who question its articulations an honest approach
to the question, "Is there a future?" But as this future takes
shape in the presence of humans partaking in the open world of
networked interactions, banalities will not do.
Art(ifacts) and Aesthetic Processes
Confusing as it is, a snapshot of everything that today goes
under the names art and literature conveys at least a sense of
variety. Forget the never-ending discussions of what qualifies
as art and what does not. And forget the irreconcilable disputes
over taste. What counts are practical experiences of
self-identification as artist or writer, as well as involvement
with artifacts eventually acknowledged within the experience as
art or as literature, i.e., experiences through which the art
public and readership are constituted.
What comes to mind when we think about the art and literature of
the civilization of illiteracy are not illiterate
writers-although they exist-and not illiterate painters,
composers, pianists, dancers, sculptors, or computer artists of
all kinds.
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