The Arts and Cognition ed. by David Perkins and Barbara Leondar (review)

250 Books such a project, should it be enacted. He deserves to be praised for his diligence in assembling the pertinent records contained in this book. A Sense of What Is Real: The Arts and Existential Man. Philip Pacey. Brentham Press, London, 1977. 120 pp., illus. £3.50. Reviewed by Peter Y. Windt* This book presents a view of the art and aesthetic experience as a source of knowledge about metaphysical reality and human nature. The view is complex, involving claims about the characteristics of the universe, of humans, of art, of knowledge and of social structures. In this short work Pacey attempts only to sketch the view, with the hope that interested readers will pursue it, perhaps with the aid of the supplementary readings listed at the end of each chapter. He begins by considering the existentialist confrontation with the apparent meaninglessness of human existence, which he presents as the result of the failure of reason to disco.ver any such meaning. He then presents an account of reality that would, if true, provide the meaning that reason fails to discover. In this account, the universe is seen as a unity, a product/process arising from the self-realization of a single Being or Force. In humankind one finds the emergence of awareness and self-awareness by this Being; and the meaning of human life, as with any other thing and event, is to be found in the contribution of that life (thing, event) to the cosmic process of development. In this scheme, the role of art is two-fold. First, artworks and aesthetic experiences are themselves parts of the cosmic process and significant in virtue of that fact. But, additionally, they are sources of knowledge about this metaphysical reality and the unity of all. Artworks represent this reality, and aesthetic experiences make one aware of it. Because reason is analytic and categorical in character, one cannot either discover or grasp the underlying unity-of-all by its means. Aesthetic experiences thus are presented as a distinct source of metaphysical knowledge (wherein, literally, one has a sense of what is real). And this knowledge provides meaning and motive for human existence. Finally, Pacey discusses alienation and its social causes, concentrating on ways in which alienation impedes or destroys the aesthetic sense. He concludes with an appeal for social structures that would encourage free, natural expression and, thus, the sense of what is real. The book is well written, and the view is sketched in a pleasing way. Readers interested in giving the view careful scrutiny may find the following considerations useful: (1) Pacey's presentation is rather eclectic. That is not surprising, since he deals with an underlying unity of all things and events, but one should consider carefully whether each of the variety of institutions and individuals he cites can be taken to be illustrating the same truth. (2) It is very difficult to arrive at a fair way of evaluating claims about sources of knowledge that are proposed as alternatives to reason. If one uses reason to test those sources, one seems to beg the question against them, and, if one uses them as their own standard of authenticity , one seems to beg the question in their favor. But how else could one proceed? (3) Views that find human purpose in participation in an all-inclusive process but that also express dissatisfaction with aspects of that process are in danger of inconsistency. If everything is part of the process and derives its value from participation in the process, then there is no ground for discontent with any aspect of the world. Alternatively , if one is sure that some things have negative value, must one not doubt either that everything is part of a single process or that all participation in the process is of positive value? Pacey's regret for the aesthetic blinding of many individuals as a result of their alienation seems to raise just this problem. "Dept. of Philosophy, 338 Orson Spencer Hall, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, U.S.A. The Arts and Cognition. David Perkins and Barbara Leondar, eds. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, 1977. 341 pp., illus. $21.45...