Background on Plato’s, Aristotle’s, and Tolstoy’s philosophies of art

EXCERPT AND SAMPLE ASSESSMENT

The importance of art has been a topic of discussion and debate for many centuries. Aristotle had major differences with his famous teacher, Plato, regarding the purpose and importance of art…

Plato also contends that art appeals to and/or evokes emotions that are detrimental to man’s acquisition of knowledge and truth. Art, therefore, was not good for man to pursue, and should be excluded from a culture.

Aristotle disagreed … He believed that poetry, music, and the arts serve to communicate universal themes and ideas that are beneficial to man… Aristotle praised man’s creation and appreciation of art and defended it as a significant contribution to culture. ..

The focus of Moving to Higher Ground is jazz, but Marsalis extends his ideas about jazz to all art forms and art in general. He calls art ‘the collective wisdom of a culture’ and discusses the role of art in the world, in a culture, and in an individual…

In the book What Is Art?, Leo Tolstoy says, “To evoke in oneself a feeling one has experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling, that is the activity of art.” The “activity of art” then, as expressed in this quote, comes in three phases: inspiration, expression, and distribution.

Analysis Questions

1. (Standards RI 5, 6, 7; ELA 5, 6; CC 4, 6, 8) Find references in Moving to Higher Ground that relate to the importance of art in a culture. According to Marsalis, what role does or should art have in a culture? What role does Marsalis think art currently has in American culture? What does he add to Aristotle’s ideas about art?

2. (Standards W 1, 2) Which philosopher do you agree with regarding art (remember, art includes music, literature, painting, sculpting, etc.)? Write a letter to a school board member or congressperson, persuading him or her to keep funding for arts in the schools. Support your opinion using logos, pathos, and ethos.

3. (Standards RI 1, 7) Discuss how Tolstoy’s three phases of art relate to Marsalis’s comments about the blues, jazz, or art in general.

Moving To Higher Ground

“Wynton Marsalis is absolutely the one to write this book. Here he is as young as morning, as fresh as dew, and already called one of the jazz greats. He is not only a seer and an exemplary musician, but a poet as well. He informs us that jazz was created, among other things, to expose the hypocrisy and absurdity of racism and other ignorances in our country. Poetry was given to human beings for the same reason – [This book] is an absolute joy to read.”
– Maya Angelou

Contents (174 pages)

Introduction: Now, that's jazz
Chapter 1: Discovering the joy of swinging
Chapter 2: Speaking the language of jazz
Chapter 3: Everybody's music: the blues
Chapter 4: What it takes – and how it feels – to play
Chapter 5: The great coming together
Chapter 6: Lessons from the masters
Chapter 7: That thing with no name
Afterword: Conversation between Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Wynton Marsalis

ISBN: 978-0-8129-6908-5

Arts, Rhetoric, and Swing

“This beautifully written teachers' guide provides ready-to-use discussion points and essay questions along with clearly identified standards and terms. It makes me wish I were a student once again, learning the incredible connections between the arts, coming alive for the first time to the pulse of life in jazz and the written word.”
–Nancy Nestor-Baker PhD
The Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology

Contents of Teacher's Edition (80 pages)

Language Arts Standards Alignment
Essential Questions
Unit and Lesson Plans
Bloom's Taxonomy Objectives
Biographical Information
Synopsis of Text
Chapter by Chapter Summary and Analysis
Persuasion and Rhetoric
Aristotelian Triad
Aristotle's Three Appeals
Studying Moving to Higher Ground through Philosophy of Art
Assessments
Video and Audio Supplements
Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms

ISBN (Student Edition):
978-0-9887358-1-1
ISBN (Teacher Edition):
978-0-9887358-0-4

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