Art and the Vulnerability of Subjectivity

Abstract

We may compare art with science, but must not understand it as science. In my view, modern science brought subjectivity into trouble, whereas art itself has the subjective as its main motivating force. For one, narrative arts tell stories, and are acclaimed for conveying the subjective aspect of events. Artistic creativity aims at regulating the appreciative experience. Lastly, to assess a work's artistic merit is to look for the artist's achievement, which involves looking for the way they realised their intentions with their audiences. It is thus that one wants to say that art is concerned with the subjective, and that one wants to distinguish it sharply from how sciences treat their subject matters: aiming for quantification and universalisation, applying objectivist methodologies, and conveying the thought that all knowledge hangs together---and that it be objectivist.