Theory of Knowledge - Arts

International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge

Theory of Knowledge – Essay 2

The Arts

Does art, or can art, tell the truth? What kinds of truth does art deal with? Choose one form of art (visual art, literature or music) and discuss the nature of this art and its links to truth. Make sure you consider counter claims and explore the implications of your statements.

Since biblical times when Pilate asked Jesus ‘What is truth?’ (St. John xviii. 37) the human race has been curious about the term truth. We, with our blind curiosity, always seek to find answers and the so called ‘truth’. Art is a vehicle that can be used to express ourselves and in turn, these ‘truths’. Although the knowledge issues we encounter is; how do we know if something is telling the truth? What aspects incorporate telling the truth? The implications of this have an enormous effect because it could jeopardize strengths of the knowledge. For example, in the poem ‘Salad’ by the South African poet, Antjie Krog, the speaker reminisces about a sexual encounter while at a formal gathering, she could be telling the truth of an affair, or not. The richness with how she describes it could lead a reader to believe its true, although the richness could be mistaken for a hyperbole therefore making it not the truth.

The first aspect that will be discussed in this paper will be the attention to detail paid by the artist. The attention to detail gives more insight to a reader or audience and has the implication of making something more believable. For example, when I broke my arm, I could describe every excruciating detail of how I fell, why I fell, what I was doing when I fell. If all the details are there, the listener of my story would be more then inclined that I was telling the truth. In addition, Shakespeare’s Macbeth could be to show the attention to detail aspect. Macbeth is a play about a man who kills the king of his country, and lives with the burden of high treason. One of the most memorable images in the play is the idea of blood on Macbeth hands. Shakespeare’s emphasis on the imagery, even when reading the play, portrays the attention to detail. This attention to detail portrays the truth of Macbeth’s character as a poetic tragedy, as a tragedy of moral order. Although it could be argued that modern society has influenced this interpretation.

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The term prose is distinguished from poetry by a closer resemblance to everyday speech and tends to have more rhythm. ‘Poetry is considered to be artificially developed ("The best words in the best order"), whereas prose is thought to be less constructed and more reflective of ordinary speech’ (Wikipedia). The second aspect that is going to be explored is the choice of words used in literature to communicate a message. The use of prose in fiction novels such as ‘The Color of Law’ by Mark Gimenez (a book about a lawyer who gets caught up in a high stakes criminal case) is altered quite dramatically through the course of the plot. The sentences used are sharp and witty in the beginning and get slower after the case is over. This use of sharp, witty sentences would make this story of a lawyer believable and more gripping. If a story has the ability to transfix a reader, even though it’s a story, the author would con the reader into believing that it is true, that the story is non-fiction. So the way a piece of literature is phrased, it could apply to an audience for effectively, and in turn, making them believe it’s true. The terminology used to explain a situation is a way of knowing of revealing the truth of a plot in literature.

The level of believability of a piece of literature is an equally important aspect incorporated in truth telling. If there was an aspect, that was completely and utterly not plausible that cropped up into a book, one would not believe it. For example, let’s take another of Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. This play revolves around a ‘star-struck’ relationship between Romeo and Juliet who are madly in love but cannot be together because of an old family feud and ultimately results in the death of both the protagonists. The major theme in this play is love at first sight, if the story resulted in Romeo cheating on Juliet with a MAN, it would be so unbelievable that it would rob the audience of the true essence of Romeos character. So for a piece of literature to tell the truth it has to be believable. A possible counter claim against this premise could be it could have been the authors/play writer’s intention to have a twist in the tale. In rebuttal, why would an author, after having spent so much time emphasizing certain motives of heterosexual love, put such an unexpected twist in the plot? The limitation of this way of knowing is that, an author’s story would hardly ever come into question as they are the artist, it is their story and they have the right to create as many twists, unexpected changes as they please.

You are what people think of you. The reputation that a certain poet/author has has major implications over what people think, say, do around them. The credibility of the poet is a vital element to convey truth in their literature. For example, the controversial poet ‘Sarah Jones’ with her views on female degradation in the hip-hop industry voiced her opinions and has caused a lot of media ruckus. A poet with credentials from potentially biased sources could have a negative impact on the audience who were meant to receive her poem ‘Your Revolution’. These could be misinterpreted and therefore the truth would be molded into something that it is not. A limitation in this aspect of truth telling is that, most of it is only potential and her media publicity could possibly increase her fame and get her views across more forcefully. A possible counter claim to the aspect of credibility is that it cannot really be tested and therefore cannot be proven to a certain extent

In conclusion, art can and does tell the truth in many situations. The ways we can identify that it does this is by the attention to detail given, the prose and choice of words used, the level of credibility, and the credibility of the poet/author him/herself. The truth has many forms, only some of which were explored in this paper, but literature in particular deals with the truth of the message given. To further explore the horizons made viewable by the question, we could look into the possibility of defining truth itself and truth in different areas such as mathematics, natural sciences and so on an so forth. We could try and give the answer to Pilate’s question, ‘What is truth?’

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1297 Words

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