Yew Chung International School of Beijing
IBDP Theory of Knowledge Essay
2010-2011
-Essay Prompt No. 8: Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso).
Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature,
theatre).
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Word Count: 1589
Essay Prompt No. 8: Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso).
Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature,
theatre).
The relationship between art and truth is an elusive one, putting into account the purpose
of art and the nature of artistic truths. An assumption is made concerning the first account by
giving art an inherent purpose – “brings us nearer to the truth.” A second assumption addressing
the latter account is that truth itself can exist in a lie, creating a paradox of fiction. More
importantly, if the second assumption is correct – why must it be so? Why did Shakespeare
impart a fundamental truth about the human condition through the fictitious claims about
Macbeth, who never existed? And why, for centuries, has it spoken so truly to his readers? Using
emotion as the primary way of knowing, this essay attempts to explore the implications of the
first and second assumption, and in the process, hopes to dissect the relationship between art,
emotion, lies, and truths.
Whenever I read texts from A1 English, it is not the search for knowledge that appeals to
me, but the experience - that somehow my emotions are evoked by people I know do not exist,
by events that never took place, written by a person whose life has never touched mine. This
leads me to question whether literature is necessarily qualified by knowledge, and whether
“learning, knowledge, and truth [is projected] into an area of human experience where it has no
natural or necessary place.” (Alchin, 44) Taking into account the first assumption, it is therefore
essential to question whether art’s purpose is fundamentally linked to truth and knowledge. Leo
Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is 1,475 pages long, and took me four months to finish reading.
Disregarding my pace of reading, it is sensible to say that if art’s inherent purpose is to convey a
truth, it is not a particularly swift medium. Furthermore, literature can be said to be measured
against arbitrary standards, where a reader subjectively interprets texts according to his or her
own experiences and knowledge, and whether or not a specific truth is realised is dependent on
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Essay Prompt No. 8: Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso).
Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature,
theatre).
the aforementioned factors. Hence, even if it cannot be argued that literature is not a vessel for a
truth, it can at least be established it is not an entirely effective one. As Samuel Goldwyn once
famously said, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.”
But what specific truths are we speaking of when we speak of truth in the context of
literature? Franz Kafka wrote of Gregor Samsa’s transformation into “a monstrous vermin”, did
he mean it literally? We have “tacitly assumed that by ‘truth’ we mean literal truth, or scientific
truth - one that is verifiable in some sense – when artistic truth is more appropriate” (Alchin, 41).
While scientific truths are principally obtained with reason and perception as ways of knowing,
artistic truths are experienced – with emotion as the principal way of knowing. It is this
emotional experience that draws me into a piece of literature, and it is perhaps why Tolstoy
needed 1,475 pages – to garner a sufficient emotional response. Even so, I believe it is not
inherent within literature to convey a truth, scientific or artistic; because when I too transform
into a vermin, and I too burn as Moscow burns, I find it decidedly trite/banal to reduce
“Metamorphosis” and “War and Peace” into a string of knowledge or a series of truths. Artistic
truths may happen to emerge from literary experiences, but I believe the only purpose inherent
within literature is the experience itself. Perhaps we can then say “Art is a lie that happens to
bring us nearer to the truth.”
While exploring the first assumption, a common ground between literary experience and
artistic truth emerged– emotion. Emotion is what distinguishes artistic truths from the scientific,
and it is with this way of knowing we explore the second assumption. Truth can be understood as
a recurring agreement to features of the human condition, and in art, is principally conveyed
through the medium of emotion. How a lie could possibly bring us nearer to the truth can be
explained by dissecting the nature of emotion.
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Essay Prompt No. 8: Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso).
Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature,
theatre).
I was two years old when I had my first emotional response to a work of art. Mufasa had
just sacrificed his life for Simba, and I promptly rushed into my father’s arms, fearing his death.
Engrossed as I was, even at two years old, I knew The Lion King was a work of fiction - a lie. A
psychological study made in Nottingham Trent University created virtual environments for
subjects and observed their emotional responses in accordance to the Thought Theory, which
deny “that [verifiable] existence beliefs are a necessary condition of emotional
response.”(Schneider) The study found that even if we do base our emotional responses on
verifiable existences in reality, it is simultaneously possible to project these emotional responses
into fictional existences. A man with arachnophobia will experience genuine fear of a harmless
spider when there is no verifiable existence of danger. I felt genuine grief and fear at the
possibility of my father’s death when provoked by the fictitious event of Mufasa’s sacrifice. This
leads us to answer the second assumption, the possibility of a paradox of fiction – the
paradoxical event in which a work of fiction leads to the acquiring of truth. This possibility is
less outlandish once we take into account the nature of the medium in which the truth is possibly
acquired – emotion, where in aforementioned conditions have shown it capable of paradoxical
qualities.
However, as emotion seems to play a great role in literature, its merit deserves a
review. After all, emotions are often portrayed as the antithesis of a reasonable, scientific
response and the irrationality associated with it is known to preclude sound judgment. If a man
knows a spider is harmless, he who fears it must be irrational. If a person reacts to a fictitious
account he knows is a lie, he who emotionally responds to it must be irrational. But these
paradoxical qualities are not necessarily irrational. The actual existence of harmful spiders
constitutes the root of all emotional responses to spiders in general. Hence, when a representation
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Essay Prompt No. 8: Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso).
Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature,
theatre).
of a harmful arachnid comes to existence, albeit being harmless, an emotional response based on
the knowledge of harmful spiders is released. Emotions and reason, artistic truths and scientific
truths, are thus linked. Whether they counteract or complement each other is another matter.
If we see emotions as precluding judgment, then perhaps we can see literature as a means
of removing emotions as an obstacle to truth, thereby nearing us to truth. Playing on our
arachnophobia example, literature can be said to be a harmless spider, weaving a lie to portray
itself as a harmful spider. It garners the emotional response of fear in the reader, the
arachnophobe, and allows a release of this fear. The reader’s realisation that literature is a lie,
and in fact a harmless spider fear allows him to be rationally relieved, and cleanses him of his
fear. In “Poetics”, Aristotle called this catharsis, and in this way the “soul is purged of its
excessive passions.” (Lucas, 24) Literature is an outlet for emotions, and through it we are less
controlled by our emotions, leaving us more vulnerable to the truth.
Unlike the above claim, I believe that emotion and reason complement each other, and
that emotion, far from being an obstacle, is indeed a valid way of knowing. With the
arachnophobe, his fear amplifies the root of this fear - the actual existence of harmful spiders.
In literature, literary devices and writers’ virtuosity illustrate a fictional account that we
“mentally represent” (Schneider). This mental representation, like the actual existence of harmful
spiders, is based on our knowledge of reality and reason. Emotion, I believe not only amplifies
the mental representation, but allows it to be relevant to the reader – it directly engages the
reader to the features of the human condition. This is too, why I believe that, while I lament the
generation gap between our parents and myself, a 16th century writer can have a hold on us.
Shakespeare masterfully weaved webs of lies with lustrous language and unleashes a wealth of
emotion that shakes the foundation of our own existence. We love, as Juliet does, we ponder, as
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Essay Prompt No. 8: Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso).
Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature,
theatre).
Hamlet does, and we regret, as Macbeth does. Without such emotion, the truth would not only be
obscured, but perhaps even thought as irrelevant to us – because we have never felt it ourselves.
In this way, emotion excites the emergence of truth from a lie, and more importantly, directly
engages us with the truth. Furthermore, art is perchance the sole platform that certain emotions,
that certain truths could possibly be engaged - “Art gives liberty of action to forces and
possibilities to which life does not grant the chance of coming into their rights."(Johnston)
Perhaps this is what Picasso meant by “nearer to the truth”, by emotionally engaging readers a
truth in literature, a truth that would not have been relevant, or even possible to us otherwise in
life, we are a step closer to understanding it.
Through the study of emotion, we have seen how truths could possibly exist in the lie that
is literature, and why it has captivated its readers for centuries, and centuries to come. Though
this essay was a modest attempt at dissecting the relationship between art, emotion, lies, and
truth, I believe its paradoxical qualities has still yet to be fully understood.
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Essay Prompt No. 8: Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth” (Pablo Picasso).
Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature,
theatre).
Works cited:
Alchin, Nicholas. Theory of Knowledge. London: Hodder Education, 2003. Print. Aristotle.
Poetics. New York: Cosimo, Inc., 2008. Print.
Jonhston, Brian. An observation on the ‘game’ of realist drama. 12 December 2008. Voyages in
Drama with Ibsen. Web. January 2 2011.
<http://www.ibsenvoyages.com/e-texts/doll/II.html>
Lucas, Frank Laurence. Tragedy in Relation to Aristotle's Poetics. London: Hogarth Press, 1927.
Print.
Schneider, Steven. “Thought Theory,” Paradox of Fiction. 9 June 2009. Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. Web. January 2 2011.
< http://www.iep.utm.edu/fict-par//>
Word Count: 1589
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