On art and politics : exploring the philosophical implications of the creative order of art on the organization of social relations

Abstract

The following chapter takes its cue from Milani’s effort to equip individuals with the ability to question critically the authoritarian forces that turn the world into a more “oppressive, cynical and dangerous” place to live in. Though the Church and the state did not endorse Milani’s notion that one should resist subordination, Milani, himself a priest in exile at Barbiana, continued to insist on the notion that education remains significant if it keeps provoking individuals to live an authentic life. The first part of this chapter explores two paintings, Guernica, by Pablo Picasso, and Judith beheading Holifernes by Jamie Miller. I intend to situate the context of these paintings, the Gernika bombing and the Abu Ghraib tortures, in a larger framework so as to question the effect of authoritarian politics on peoples’ freedom. It appears that such politics by its logic of war and abuse tends to reduce any opening for freedom. This chapter suggests that art, in its seeking of alternative routes of how to connect its various elements, can turn out to be an enterprise of imagination, which promotes an expression of freedom. The second part of this chapter focuses on the artist’s role in the world and on how art’s creative aggregation of its parts can serve politics to find other means of regulation besides the limited one of the might of the fittest