Philosophers as Artists of Life
Hello and welcome to Rewilding Philosophy, a newsletter about practical (eco-) philosophy in the Anthropocene. I trust you are doing well. Lately, I've been immersed in theoretical writing, but today's piece takes a more personal turn. While theory development is integral to practical (eco)philosophy, it shouldn't stop there. Otherwise, we risk confining philosophy to academic jargon and abstract ideas. My aim with this newsletter is to strike a balance and demonstrate how philosophy can be put into practice. As always, a warm welcome to new subscribers—I'm delighted you've joined us.
I was captivated. Each morning I would open my instagram and see what she was up to. Her paintings wouldn’t mean much to me if I had seen them just hanging on the wall. But I saw them through her, embedded into her life, giving them life. I would see her creating those paintings. She would describe her process, what colours she chose and why. Sometimes she would post a video of herself painting while The Spirit of the Golden Juice by F.J. MCMahon was playing in the background. She made me want to become an artist.
However, there was a significant hurdle: I lacked a specific artistic talent or inclination. Additionally, I harbored mixed feelings about art. It often seemed disconnected from the world, possessions to be bought and sold, crafted from materials that would inevitably become waste. While I found art museums good places to show my sophistication, I also felt a sense of estrangement within them - a disconnect to my life: I walk into what is usually a massive and impressive building with high ceilings, something out of place and time, and while flaneuring through the halls, I look at hundreds of pictures of people I mostly know nothing about.
Yet, I find art incredibly compelling. It’s the antidote to control and dissonance.
“Art is a testimony of the human condition. It encompasses all of our hardships, emotions, questions, decisions, perceptions. Love, hatred, life, death. Essentially the way in which we perceive our world, every aspect of humanity can be expressed through art.” Sevdaliza
Why did I want to become an artist?
I realized it wasn’t the art that I longed to create. It was the life of an artist I wanted to emulate. I wanted to live like an artist. I yearned for a life dedicated to the pursuit of beauty in the seemingly mundane aspects of existence —something that stood in contrast to my mechanistic and efficiency-driven mindset. I craved a life of beauty, to live beautifully.
The authenticity in a painting or a piece of music is felt universally, because it taps into the same essential essence present in both the creator and the creation. Like a magician, the artist serves as a conduit for channeling universal truths. Artists create what’s asked of them to create. As Michelangelo supposedly said “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” I want life to discover life through me.
I don’t just want be an artist, I want to be art, I want to be art-ing. I want to be a creation and a craft that resonates with the universal truth of this world.
I want to live in the place where the artist and the philosopher converge.
The life of the artist is as much as truth, as the life of the philosopher is about beauty.
The life of a philosopher traditionally revolves around the pursuit of wisdom, the incorporation of beauty is less evident. Yet, it is this trinity of truth, beauty, and goodness that, as I understand it, constitutes a life well-lived.
I want to exist where the good, the true and the beautiful merge —a space where philosophy is not merely an intellectual pursuit but a way of being, thinking, and acting in the world. Practical (eco)philosophy, I believe, embodies this ethos.
Art is not a noun. Beauty is not a noun. Wisdom is not a noun.
What if they are not things to possess but ways of being in the world?
Truth, beauty and goodness are ways of knowing, being and acting in the world. Practical (eco)philosophy is a way of being, thinking and acting in the world, a practice, a living.
Living (eco)philosophically encompasses a dedication not just to truth and goodness, but also to beauty. A piece of art that is life.
“I want people to desire to be a philosopher as people today desire to be an entrepreneur. I want the role of the philosopher to be as ubiquitous as the role of the employee. I want people to be employed towards doing philosophy as a way of life, becoming what Hadot views real philosophers as - artists of life, who beautify life, by treating life as their art.” Peter Limberg
Life as art is such a cliche thing to say. And I wish it wasn’t because I have a deep resonance with the idea and a strong dissonance with being a cliché.
Beauty is life. Life creating conditions conductive to its own flourishing.
Art doesn’t follow prescriptive tools or skills. It’s contextual and relational, an individual expression of a greater sentience.
I have recently participated in several discussions debating the relative importance of philosophy versus art in effecting systems change. The discussion was fruitless, because it is neither one or the other.
The practical (eco)philosopher, or philosopher-artist-queen, devotes her life to creating her life as a piece of art. Practical (eco)philosophy is her craft.
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