Art Without Borders: A Philosophical Exploration of Art and Humanity [Hardcover]

this book did not meet my expectations and, in fact, frustrated me a great deal. The introduction to the book is wonderful. it runs about seventy pages and, afterwards, i was eager to continue. Unfortunately, past the introduction there is nothing worth reading. i am a senior in college about to receive two degrees in art history and psychology and, thereafter, to pursue at least a masters in art history, so the premise of this book had a great appeal for me, but there is nothing in it. past the well structured and interesting first chapter the book consists of platitudes and summarizations of other people's work. if you have only an ardent amateur's knowledge of art history in various cultures and psychology then you will be presented with nothing new. i got the distinct impression that art history is not his field of expertise. in addition, most of the psychology studies that he cites can be found in any psychology and physiology 101 textbook, and he doesn't go into enough depth to make them interesting. i found the book to be marked by a shallowness in the analysis of his points. he presents plenty of info, much of it largely unnecessary, but never brings it together into something new. I really don't mean to be rude, but it seems to me that the author has lost his ability to filter information and decide what is important for his argument and what is not. In reality, the book could have been only 175 pages instead of the 437 that it is. Honestly, i also find it disconcerting that the author himself has reviewed the book on amazon and given himself five-stars. i've noticed that he has done this with others of his books as well. if you are not familiar with the art of africa, china, australia, japan, or india and if you are not educated in psychology then this book might be extremely interesting and fulfilling for you. but if you have a knowledge of these fields and have a genuine interest to study and understand the creative impulse in man and what art means to our species then, like me, you will probably be disappointed. the book is not devoid of its interesting moments, but the banal far outweighs the enlightening. i would recommend trying the authors Denis Dutton and Ellen Dissanayake among others first.

Answer to "Nobody"

As uncomfortable as Nobody's review makes me feel, I can begin my answer with an honest compliment: I believe that he is, in his words, an "ardent amateur" and, like myself, full of curiosity about the subjects that interest him. He must be, as I have been for a lifetime, an incessant reader, and if he goes on, as he plans, to an MA in art history he may become a widely knowledgeable scholar. He intimates that he is already familiar with the art of Africa, China, Australia, Japan, and India. To know all these well at his age he would have to be a genius. To illustrate the reascn for saying this, I will give just one example among very many: In discussing traditional Indian aesthetics I emphasize the importance of two pathbreaking critics, Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta. I see, by the books in my library, that the very basic literature on the two, in English alone, totals at least two thousand often technical pages, the gist of which becomes, in my account, about three quite untechnical ones. Nobody goes on to say that, having been educated in psychology, most of the psychological studies I cite can be found in elementary psychology and physiology textbooks. Since I haven't seen these textbooks, I can't tell if he is right or not, but I do know that I read and was impressed by the well-known researches and speculations of Semir Zeki, who shares my passion and Nobody's for art. In Art without Borders I discuss and in part disagree with Zeki's views. Guided by some hundreds of summaries of researches in art, I of course read the published form of other pertinent experiments. My opinion on such researches is hard-earned and my own.

I don't want to exaggerate the virtues that Nobody exhibits in his complaints. But before I continue my criticism of him, I want explain how I came to review two of my books on Amazon's site. The stimulus for them was, in both cases, Amazon's own invitation. I see nothing wrong in accepting the invitations, in explaining why I wrote the books, and in making it plain that I feel that they are good, original books. When Nobody tells me I should have shortened the book, he is not aware that in 1988, New York University Press published a much shorter version of my views under the title Of Birds, Beasts, and other Artists. This title reminds me that when Nobody says that he wants to understand "what art means to our species," he might profit by reading my book called Prehuman Art: A Study in Interspecies Aesthetics. This (short) book has been published only in Hebrew, but, if he likes, I will gladly send him the English manuscript by e-mail.

Now to continue my criticisms of Nobody's complaints. It never occurs to him that they may be a sign that he was unable to understand the nature and method of Art without Borders and looked in it only for what is not there. He may have been looking for glittering half-truths instead of the my careful, qualified generalizations about empirically complicated problems--generalizations he sees as dull platitudes. What he takes to be irrelevant facts may be uncomfortable exceptions or examples from different cultures to give empirical support to the generalizations. And what he takes to be merely the repetition of statements made by other persons may be quotations from authorities or important sources. I can't be sure what made him such an unperceptive reader because he does not give explicit examples or cite page numbers He seems to be impatient to get rid of intractable problems and does not like them to be discussed patiently instead of vanishing in favor of quick, merely verbal "solutions." Otherwise how can he explain why the author of seventy "wonderful" pages suddenly degenerates on the seventy-first and from then on produces only disorganized banalities, summaries of others' ideas, and useless facts? If his copy of the book still had its jacket he would have to explain why his estimate varies so radically from that of the three eminent persons who endorse it on the jacket's back. One of them, Wilfried van Damme, is a pioneer of the now developing field of world art, who calls the book "the most comprehensive study of art and artists ever written and praises it for its warmth and humanity. Another, Howard Morphy, a specialist in the anthropology of art and a leading authority on the art of the Aboriginals, says "Art without Borders is grand in conception, learned, and well researched--there is no other book like it." He also praises the book's lucidity and engaging style. The third endorser, Hilary Putnam, who is the world's best-known living philosopher, calls it "a masterpiece."

At least one review of the book has been quite critical--Nobody can find it on the Internet. A review by Julian Bell, a painter and author of a book on world art, in The New York Review of Books, praises the book but takes dramatic exception to two of its passages. However, as it turns out, these exceptions are based on too hasty a reading, as Bell acknowledges without reservation in our personal correspondence. My favorite review of my book is much the shortest. It is the only review I've received in my whole life that I take to be too favorable. It is by the widely known Finnish philosopher Esa Saarinen, whose title is Professor of Applied Philosophy and Creative Problem Solving at the Helsinki University of Technology.

Saarinen writes:

"I love this book: An example of what the writing of a philosophy professor can be at its very best. Tremendously learned, wise, and finely-tuned, this volume of radiant beauty is "a philosophical exploration of art and humanity" (quoting the subtitle). The author's breadth of reading, understanding and, perhaps above all, sense for the subtle is just staggering. Scharfstein's spirit of warm wisdom flies in the sky and reaches out beyond borders.

"I can imagine reading this book for years and years, page-to-page and cover-to-cover, and each time gaining new insight.

A gem, a treasure chest, a masterpiece, a significant source of inspiration for any student of the human condition."

That's too good, as I've said, but it's still another reason for being disappointed but not worried by Nobody's disappointment.

Ben-Ami Scharfstein
December 16, 2010

I am currently working my way through Ben-Ami Scharfstein's Art Without Borders, and my impression thus far is that this is one of the most important works in aesthetics to be published in the last fifty years. Scharfstein makes a quite compelling case for what he calls an open aesthetics, or "a view of aesthetics that is in principle relevant to all cultures". Scharfstein's knowledge of the anthropological literature relevant to this theme is quite staggering, and his use of examples of traditional art forms and practices from a wide variety of cultures makes this book indispensable if one is interested in the human meaning of art. Every page is rich with provocative ideas and examples, and Scharfstein skillfully weaves together the anthropological material with a subtle and convincing philosophical aesthetics. I also very much appreciate the careful way in which Scharfstein makes use of interesting recent work in the area of "neuroaesthetics." Scharfstein treats this material as valuable and illuminating, while at the same time avoiding any kind of reductionism.

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