Remarks on Art and Truth

Tom Rockmore

Peking University

pp. 45-51

in: Andrea Baldini, Feng Peng, Hae-Wan Lee & Peter Cheyne (eds), The Definition of Art and the Legacy of Joseph Margolis, East Asian Journal of Philosophy 2 (2), 2023.

Abstract

The importance of Parmenides for the ensuing debate is often overlooked, in part no doubt because of the difficulty of formulating an acceptable interpretation, which overlooks the importance of his position. Joseph Margolis takes a starkly negative view. He suggests the meager outcome of the classical phase ofWestern philosophy lies in abandoning what he describes as Parmenides’ constraint. A number of observers think the Eleatic is the father of Western philosophy. I have suggested, on the contrary, that Plato’s rejection of the view that non-philosophical art is true gave rise to a debate later traversing the entire Western aesthetic tradition. I have further suggested that the post-Platonic Western aesthetic tradition can be reconstructed as an effort by many hands to come to grips with and if possible overturn the Platonic judgment. I have finally suggested that Hegel, in disagreeing with both Kant and Plato, presents an interesting anti- Platonic argument useful for reforging as it were the ancient link between art and truth. For in the final analysis, art, or at least some kinds of art, is not only beautiful but also in a deep sense true.