Trigger words: useful
Indicator sentences: This is impossible to talk about unless you first grant us a rigorous definition of "useful".
Negotiation parts: Should've thought about this, my bad. What I mean by "useful" is that it benifits directly to society. ie: the engineer designs the bridge so it won't fall, everyone likes that. The bridge builder man builds the bridge correctly, so it doesnn't fall, everybody likes that. An artist, how I see it, doesn't directly ontribute to society, but neither do pro-gamers or musician, and yet I praise the later, and not the artist. Maybe you could say the artist can help the engineer wind down, making him more focus next-day at work, so he designs a better bridge? Seems weird to me... Well then how do you decide if something directly benefits society? The way I see it, artistic (i.e., music, visual art, literature, games, film &c.) and scientific (not *practical*, but frontier) endeavour is The Point. That bridge the engineer designed is only meaningful insofar as it facilitates those other things; it is valueless on its own. I suppose a simple way to put it is that things like engineering and computer and medical science make modern life possible, but the arts make it worth living. Not to mention that many engineers don't provide much of value even in practical terms. The artist can make the bridge look pretty. Society doesn't *need* pretty bridges, but if we only had bland bridges we'd look like North Korea. On a more serious note, I find culture very useful to society. It separates us from other cultures and induces a sort of pride in our country. Artists are one channel to culture. Sure, their job isn't very profitable but many do it out of great interest or hopes that one day their art would become profitable. I mean, look at the famous artists we have today, they're loaded as fuck. Some artists market their talents to something very profitable, like video game design or music video production. Sure society doesn't *need* these things, but we hold them in high regard.
Trigger words: art (2)
Indicator sentences: What is Art? Now consider how you use the word "art" and "artist". You linked the word primarily to visual arts. But what you really need to better understand is the question, **"What is art?"**
Negotiation parts: Let's start with the traditional concepts of art, like painting, sculpture, and music. Art is what we do when we manipulate stuff to change it's appearance, and then get "good at it"; that is, we can repeat the performance of manipulating stuff and arrive at similar results. **This creates interesting patterns of stuff that is either useful for a purpose or not useful for any purpose.** So a skilled primitive woman creates a clay bowl. That bowl is useful. She gets good at making bowls. She likes making bowls. People like bowls. They like them because they are useful. People generally like things that they are good at doing, and in general, humans like seeing recognizable patterns. (The brain is a pattern-matching computer.) So not only do the people like the bowls because they are useful, but they like them because they are recognizable. **In a sense, beauty = recognizable.** This is why, for example, that a person likes a particular game the more they play it, or a particular band the more they listen to it. The brain develops neural pathways that allows them to recognize finer and finer details (aka patterns) of the game/band. From an evolutionary point of view, this helps guarantee animals survival: being able to recognize places, friends, foes, food, the sound of a snake, etc. But with the advent of culture and language, humans have tapped into this pattern-matching survival function of the brain, and tricked it into delivering the same feel good neurochemicals that were previously required for survival. Back to the example of the bowl. A person might start putting designs on the bowls, and other people prefer to have the bowls with designs on them instead of the plain bowls. **That's not functionality, that's form. That's not usefulness, that's art.** We have a psychological/cognitive preference for beauty. That's human. #What is society? (What is it good for? What is good for it?) Now let's address another question. **"What does *useful to society* mean?"** There are individuals/people. There are groups of people. And bigger groups of people. But to ask what is useful to society, one has to at least *consider* **"What is useful to a single person?"** People like to be happy. To enjoy life. To have a good life. That certainly includes things like food and shelter and helpful technology. But it also includes enjoyment of things. You know, like whatever floats your boat, like games or music or art. Think of a society without any kind of art whatsoever. Everyone just working on something scientific or making some part in a factory. Never listening to any music. Never playing any games. Never drawing. Never dancing. Never writing stories or reading for enjoyment. That would be a pretty bleak "society" would it not? So "good for society" is not just advancement of science and production of products. Society is made of people, and people don't want to just have technological advancement and useful products and industry and money. **Good for society" includes enhancement of the quality of life for every individual within that society. People want to enjoy life, and art is part of the enjoyment of life.** It'a a matter of balance. A society that is all art and no science or production would die in a matter of weeks because nobody would be doing anything but painting. On the other hand, a society that is all science and production, and no enjoyment wouldn't be a sustainable society: that would devolve back into the animal form in which the only thing of value is survival. #Conclusion First, your view of things is limited and not 100% corresponding to reality. That's something that is always true for everyone, but it takes time and effort to expand ones view and understand that each of us creates our own reality, and we constantly need to transcend that to see better. The fact that you recognized that and are searching for expansion is evidence your going to succeed on that point. Secondly, at the root of things, survival is a matter of science/function. One needs to capture food, cook it, and build things to protect themselves in order to survive. Art is the ability to trick our brains into pleasure by creating recognizable forms (of sight, sound, taste). Art doesn't feed us or help us grow things, but it does help us feel good. Society is a form of mass culture that separates us from animals. The benefit of society is not just survival, but enhanced quality of life by triggering those goal driving and feel-good chemicals that were once necessary for primitive survival. Without art, there is no sense in having society and, in fact, society is not sustainable (or at least not of any value) without art.