Extract
[...] Dupont-Roc and J. Lallot, Paris, Le Seuil, 1980. COMPTE-SPONVILLE Philosophical Dictionary, Paris, PUF, 2001. HEGEL Introduction to Aesthetics, Trad. S. Jankélévitch, Paris, Aubier, 1958. LALANDE Vocabulaire technique et critique de la philosophie, Paris, PUF, Quadrige, 2006. [...]
[...] The theory of the dialectic of the master and the slave is a perfect illustration of liberating and even therapeutic work, when it is well done. Therefore, one must always work like an artist, that is, with method and pleasure, with beauty in the sense that one would say of a work that it is good or that it is beautiful. The artistic pleasure being inseparable from the pleasure that a humanly, qualitatively, and less laboriously executed work would provide. [...]
[...] It is this that the present text miniaturized aims to examine to show, indeed, that the impassability of the boundaries between art and work, in the spirit and for the major purpose they have in common, remains unthinkable. Would it not be intelligent, to convince oneself, to examine their specificities, their points of divergence and their points of convergence? Of the specificity of art Of its Latin etymology Ars or Greek teknè, l'art refers to a technique, or according to André Lalande, to a « set of procedures serving to produce a result. 1» The art would in this case be indistinguishable from the activity of the craftsman, the technician or the mechanic, and even from science. [...]
[...] First, because work is not its own end. Then, because it is thought out with a view to a pecuniary, material or intellectual interest, in relation to art which is its own end. This end which is disinterested, because linked to the sole search and production of beauty. And as contrary to art, it is always done according to the desired results and not for its own sake: a salary, a work, a progress?, then, as André Comte-Sponville writes: « Work is therefore not an end in itself, it is only a means5. » According to the same author, « Work is not a valuer6 (morale). [...]
[...] Through art and work, in fact, man frees himself from nature through culture and civilization, as well as from any form of physical or psychological pathology, ignorance, boredom, and poverty. It is in this sense that it is important to recall for memory this powerful affirmation of Voltaire in Candide, who recommends to each one to « to cultivate his garden » in reminding that : « Work removes from us three great evils: vice, boredom, and need ». In this sense, the true purpose of work is liberation, flourishing, freedom, and the realization of man. [...]
