My son is an artist and I awoke yesterday thinking about him and about art. The arts are activities that require specific knowledge and skill. Some require what we call ‘common sense’ knowledge; others such as the art of engineering or medicine require an extensive body of theoretical knowledge. If I want to build a tall building I must build it according to certain principles of physics. It seems to me in ‘all arts’ a system of objectively valid norms is required. While there may be different ways of achieving excellent results in any art, norms are by no means arbitrary; their violation is penalized by poor results or even by complete failure to accomplish the desired end.
But not only medicine, engineering, and ceramics are arts; living itself is an art. It seems to me that this art is the most important and the most difficult and complex art to be practiced by we humans. There is an ‘object’ to all art and in living, the object is to develop, via a process, into that which one is potentially. The art of living is a paradox. We are both the artist and the object of our art; we are the sculptor and the marble; we are the clay and the pot; we are the physician and the patient; we are the gardener and the garden.
One way of looking at living as an art is to view it through the lens of humanistic ethics. Humanistic ethics, for which ‘good’ is synonymous with ‘good for man’ and ‘bad’ with ‘bad for man,’ proposes that in order to know what is good for man we have to know his nature. In the art of living, as in the other arts, the excellence of one’s achievement is related to the knowledge one has of the ‘science of man’ and to one’s skill and practice. Activities are chosen in relation to aims desired. For example in medical science it is desirable to cure and heal. The activities of the doctor are (should be?) directly connected with the desired outcome. The desired outcome for man is life. The drive to life is inherent in every organism, and so man cannot help wanting to live regardless of what he would want to think about it. Consider that the choice between life and death is more apparent than real. When it comes to the art of living the real choice is that between living a ‘good’ life and living a ‘bad’ life.
Why have we lost this concept of life is an art? We seem to believe that reading and writing are arts to be learned; that to become a ceramicist, or a physician or a skilled wood worker requires considerable study and practice, but that living is something so simple that no particular effort is required; we can all do it. In fact, we see ourselves as experts. Even with the emphasis we put on happiness and individuality (especially in our culture), and self-interest we continue to learn that the aim (the desired outcome) of life is not ‘happiness’ (or ‘salvation’) but is success, money, prestige, power. It seems that everything has become important to us except our life and the art of living. As Eric Fromm notes, man is for everything except himself.
All organisms have an inherent tendency to actualize their specific potentialities. While I share the core of human qualities with all other humans, I am also an individual; I am a unique being. I affirm my ‘human potential’ by realizing my individuality. I have an obligation to live and I have an obligation to become the person I am meant to be. The question is: How will I prepare myself to be the artist of my own life? And once I am prepared: How will I use my knowledge and skill so that I can become my potential?