Philosophy of education 9:2

CD/mp3 208, second part of ninth Cincinnati lecture on philosophy of education. Corresponds to CWL 10: 221-32. Sponsored by Rev. Raymond B. Kemp. After affirming that art has a possible though not necessary ulterior interpretative significance, Lonergan moves to different art forms. He begins with art as concerned with space in the picture, the statue, the work of architecture. The photograph gives the visual reproduction of what is there to be seen, while the picture 'puts there' to be seen, a merely visual space that pulls the subject out of a ready-made world and presents one with another space that is only for sight. The meaning of the statue lies in the fact that the body is a piece of space that feels. The statue is the visual presentation of the space that feels. The statue makes visible the subject that feels, the prior presence of me to myself. Architecture is the objectified space, the expression of the center of one's world or of the group's world. It draws a basic line about which all objects in space are organized. The orientation in space need not be a fixed place. Then there is the relation of art and time, as in music. Music is the objectification of the basic time that is the 'now' of a being that changes. It is a time in which many things are going forward at once. Its nonspatial shape corresponds to the way in which feelings multiply and change. Next, poetry. Words have not only their proper meanings but also a resonance in our consciousness, a retinue of associations. Poetry and fiction introduce us to the world of human potentiality and reveal the many dimensions of experience as experienced by the subject. Poetry is the living memory of the group, especially in narrative, constituting a group potentiality on the aesthetic level. The discussion concludes with drama and lyric. Poetry as drama is the image of destiny. The lyric stands to drama as the statue to architecture. It is the expression of the subject, while the drama is the expression of destiny in group action.