SPECIES SPECIFICITY OF ART: CREATIVE POTENTIAL OF EMPATHY (THROUGH THE EXAMPLE OF TRADITIONAL ARTS)

Abstract

Among the problems of the modern aesthe tic theory the arts problem takes a special place because it is not always included in the context of the theory or remains on the sidelines of the main directions of its development. For some time this problem was related to art rather than aesthetics. Currently, the fundamental changes that the art has undergone on the verge of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and during the first decades of the last century, convincingly demonstrated their aesthetic character and contributed to the formation of interscientific approach, «lining up» the parity between art history, aesthetics and psychology. One of the most important tasks is to develop a new theory and systematize the existing conceptual-categorical apparatus study on the species specificity of art. Empathy is referred exactly to these categories. Art is a real form of artistic and creative activity that first of all differs in a way of realization of artistic content and specific artistic image creation. For example, if the word appears as a source material for creating an artistic image in literature, in music art image is formed through the sound and in art by means of volumetric plastic forms. Variety of arts makes it possible to explore the world aesthetically in all its complexity and richness. There are no major and minor arts as each of them has its own characteristics and advantages and undoubtedly everyone is interfused with empathic dimension. Taking into account different types of art, the present article is going to consider the role of empathy through the example of several traditional arts forms such as poetry, painting and music. It should be noted that in the art by means of empathy the person humanizes oneself and perfectly affirms in the spiritual realm. Creating and perceiving works of art, during the process of empathy the person immerses in sensual atmosphere condensed in the form of art that allows to include a subject of artistic perception in the system of personal values and benchmarks as a real part of one’s being. As a «toolkit» of art, empathy is its basis and fills it with emotions. Thus, empathy refers to the intrinsic properties of art, the main feature of which is: the spiritual and aesthetic experience of man and his cultural and purposeful activity. Due to empathy the art penetrates the depths of human soul through external forms of life, which are endowed with human energy of world order, urges to comprehend and transform the world and attaches to the process of spirit exaltation and enhancement of inner world of the individual. Thus, it is the empathy that makes the art the very harmonious part of the spiritual wealth that develops truly human emotions in the person, namely: aesthetic, intellectual and moral ones.