Wartenberg explains to us that, in Piper’s definition of art, “one way to think about art...is as an attempt to pluck objects from their normal referential frames, to get us to ponder precisely their specialness, their uniqueness.” Although Piper believes that we are stimulated by “the mystery of the object”—the thing that makes them unique—it is not enough to see it in this light; by human nature, we are always going to instinctively compare artworks to other, similar artworks. To Piper, seeing art objects is “a process of searching out and understanding their peculiar logic and structure, and discerning whatever it is that makes them unique.” We tend to treat objects as possessing powers they could never have and expect them to 'speak' to us; but instead, we need to know that art objects cannot speak to us and we need to look for meaning and attend to them.
How do you think one can come to do this more effectively? How are we to forget these instinctive tendencies of human nature to 1.) compare objects to similar objects and 2.) to personify objects and expect them to 'speak' to us? Do you think it is even possible to shake off these tendencies or will they always be an inherent part of our being, forever in the back of every individual's mind?
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