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.Manyinterpretive illustrations function very much like the comment on the hat.Thiscomment is, in effect, an instance of correlation, so we should not be surprisedthat some works of art perform a similar function.When metaphors, similes andvisual allusions (such as Goya s comparison of Christ and the Spanish patriot)correlate objects, the attention of an audience is drawn to similarities anddifferences.The very act of making someone aware of a similarity candemonstrate the rightness of a perspective on the relationship between two (ormore) objects.86ART AS INQUIRYThe use of juxtaposition can similarly demonstrate the rightness of aperspective.It can assist audiences in comparing and contrasting representedobjects.This can aid in the understanding of the objects.As used by Jane Austen,for example, juxtaposition gives readers the opportunity to understand charactersmore fully and to estimate more accurately their relative values.When, forexample, Wickham and Darcy are juxtaposed, readers are in a position to seeclearly the failings of the one sort of character and the true merits of the other.That is, readers are presented with a perspective on certain types of characters.Similarly, Sophocles presents viewers with a moral perspective.When Oedipusand Polyneices are juxtaposed, an audience can see clearly what makes oneinnocent and the other culpable.Representational techniques such as amplification and simplification can alsoplay a role in illustrative demonstration.In Catch-22, Heller amplifies theinefficiency and perversity of the US Air Force administration and similarbureaucracies (think of the various catch-22s).The excesses of chest-thumpingnationalism (the loyalty oaths) and the pretensions of free enterprise (Milo sprofiteering) are similarly exaggerated.Heller s readers are prodded into lookingagain at institutions and practices which may previously have beenunquestioningly accepted.From the viewpoint to which Heller leads them, theyare in a position to see things which may have hitherto escaped their observation.Something similar happens as a result of Owen s use of simplification.In hispoems, readers see only a small part of the First World War.As it is represented,only the brutality and horror of war appear.Owen places readers in a positionfrom which the horror is readily apparent.Even someone inclined to believe thatdulce et decorum est pro patria mori cannot, while reading Owen, ignore thishorror.To be placed where Owen places readers is to be provided with ademonstration of the rightness of a perspective on modern war.Consider now the use of the technique of connection in illustrativedemonstration.Let us begin by considering again the use of connection in TheRepublic.Notice that, in the passage considered above, Socrates does not providea rational demonstration of the falsehood of Cephalus position on justice.Rather,he puts readers in a position to note the consequences connected with aperspective on justice.Once readers see that Cephalus views lead to palpableinjustice, they recognise that his is the wrong perspective on human action.Something very similar takes place in Oedipus at Colonus.Theatre-goers areplaced in a position from which they can see a connection that they mightotherwise have overlooked.They can recognise that holding people responsiblefor unintended and unforeseeable consequences of their actions is connected withunfairness.Oedipus has plainly suffered enough.Having recognised this, it isclear that the right moral perspective is sensitive to factors such as intent and what87ART AND KNOWLEDGEis reasonably foreseeable.Again, Sophocles does not argue that this perspectiveis right.Rather, by means of interpretive illustration, he puts audiences in aposition to recognise the unacceptable consequences connected with thealternative perspective.The claim that Dickens s use of interpretive illustration demonstratessomething is more controversial.The connection Dickens represents between anunsentimental society and human suffering is a causal connection.In this respectthe case from Hard Times differs from the other cases just discussed.In thesecases, the connection was conceptual.The very concept of justice demands that ajust act ought not to result in avoidable or uncompensated harm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]