Reasonable Emotions In Art

Humans reason; we are rational. We involve both our intellects and our emotions in reasonable activities like science, philosophy, art and religion. Science and philosophy recognizably use reason, but art and religion also use it—emotional reason. Emotions can be reasonable.

 

Rationality is consciousness, or awareness of ourselves standing apart from things around us, from things that are not us. We think reasonable thoughts when those thoughts relate to the outside world, when the thoughts are consistent and when they correspond to reality. Our emotions, too, relate to the outside world, and in the same way they must also be consistent and correspond to reality.

 

This is not always the case. We sometimes think things that aren’t true. We also have feelings that are false, sometimes our emotions are inconsistent or don’t correspond to reality. It makes no sense, for example, that someone might be afraid of a mouse, or feel angry toward a friend for no reason.

 

Further, not only can we be wrong in our thinking and feeling, we can also falsify things or express them inaccurately. We can tell lies or act inappropriately. Humans are often irrational or unreasonable in these ways. We’ve got it in our minds that feelings are just felt. Even when impulsive, we think every emotion is legitimate, and we often demand validation.

 

Feelings that fail to get outside of ourselves, that don’t correspond to the world around us, however, are indulgent. We regularly wallow in our emotions.

 

Art is often made up of these indulgent expressions. Rarely do these artworks correspond to reality; they are closer to animal instinct than human reason. Much of contemporary art, unfortunately, is irrational, and therefore, untrue—false.