Toxic Jam

Its time for some meta-ethics....

Meta-ethics: involves the understanding of language and terminology within ethics. How words like good, bad, right and wrong are used in an ethical sense. The field of meta-ethics is divided into four main theories, these are, Intuitionism, Emotivism, Absolutism and Relativism.

That was lifted straight out of an essay I wrote roughly 3 years ago. This applies to the topic of 'Goodness makes it good, Badness makes it bad' because the same theories can be applied to 'Goodness' in an artistic and technical sense as in an ethical one. I'm going to write the theories directed particularly towards art for obvious reasons.

I touched on some of this stuff in one of my first year blogs, so it may sound familiar.

Intuitionism is the theory that understanding of the terminology is known intuitively. G E Moore argued that the word 'good' can be defined no better than the colour 'yellow'. We cannot define a colour, but we are able to identify yellow tings, and we know what yellow is. In they same way we know what 'good' is.

Applying this more to art, sometimes our response to art work is very instinctive. When looking at perspective, we can almost instantly say that something is wrong, even if we aren't to sure why. But then again, just because it is wrong, that doesn't necessarily make it bad.

Perspective is a technical thing though, it is either right or wrong, even though this doesn't always determine whether it is good or bad. Technical issues are often more clear cut.

Artistically, the work doesn't always have to be technically correct to be artistically good. It does take very clever artists to use this to its fullest potential.

Escher - Ascending It should be obvious that there is a flaw in the perspective of this image. But, this is what makes Escher's work so 'good'. The wrongness makes it good, he does it wrong so well.

Emotivism is based on the idea that anything beyond the sense-realm of verification was not valid and is therefore meaningless. The realm of art could be considered to be outside of science, therefore meaningless too.

Another way of explaining Emotivism is that only Objective statements are truly valid as they are based on fact, any subjective statements have no meaning.

This would not always apply to the technical side of art. As it can be stated objectively whether a piece of art work is technically wright or wrong. But, artistically things can only be judged subjectively. So, no matter how many reasons are given for the 'goodness' of the art work, it is still just a matter of opinion.

Salvador Dali - Swans Reflecting Elephants You could point out all of the technical flaws within this image. But personally I cannot deny the 'goodness' of it.

Absolutism is based on the idea that 'goodness' is objective. Something is either good or it is bad. There is no in between, it is completely clear cut.

Once again, technically, this is true. Something is either wright or it is wrong, as illustrated to the left.

But, can it be true artistically? If it is true then surely no one has ever produced a good piece of work. There will always be a flaw somewhere.

It is my personal opinion though, that the imperfectness of something can make it perfect.

Opposed to Absolutism is Relativism. Each persons view is relative to there own perspective. While i see value in all the other theories, this is the one i like the most. I'm a strong believer int the statement that' Everyone is different'. Stereotypes and the like really frustrate me. There are millions of factors that could effect your opinion of a piece of art. Which would make the judgment entirely subjective.

Personal experience and tastes, society and culture, all things which can effect your opinion.

Final Fantasy IX
I loved this, the art style rocked. But some of you hated it! didn't you!?

So, studying meta-ethics has helped me out allot in this one. All the theories do seem to apply in one way or another.

I think its for certain that you can't get away with much 'technically'. Its either wright or wrong. If you make it wrong on purpose, it should be for a good purpose and benefit the work 'artistically'.

But, 'Artistically' is the hard one, and I will have to look into in more. But I think its a given that 'goodness' can only come from hard work and an extreme amount of effort.