“Art is naturally concerned with man in his existential aspect, not in his scientific aspect.”

— Colin Wilson

Source: The Strength To Dream (1961), p. 214
Context: Art is naturally concerned with man in his existential aspect, not in his scientific aspect. For the scientist, questions about man's stature and significance, suffering and power, are not really scientific questions; consequently he is inclined to regard art as an inferior recreation. Unfortunately, the artist has come to accept the scientist's view of himself. The result, I contend, is that art in the twentieth century — literary art in particular — has ceased to take itself seriously as the primary instrument of existential philosophy. It has ceased to regard itself as an instrument for probing questions of human significance. Art is the science of human destiny. Science is the attempt to discern the order that underlies the chaos of nature; art is the attempt to discern the order that underlies the chaos of man. At its best, it evokes unifying emotions; it makes the reader see the world momentarily as a unity.

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Colin Wilson 192

author 1931–2013

Anselm Kiefer (1945) German painter and sculptor

(1986) n.p.
Structures are no longer valid', in "Ein Gespräch..."

“Man lives, not directly or nakedly in nature like the animals, but within a mythological universe, a body of assumptions and beliefs developed from his existential concerns.”

Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist

Introduction, p. xviii
"Quotes", The Great Code: The Bible and Literature (1982)

“A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.”

Viktor E. Frankl book Man's Search for Meaning

Source: Man's Search for Meaning

“His whole aspect was that of a man who has unexpectedly been struck by lightning.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Eggs, Beans and Crumpets (1940)

“Material, space, and color are the main aspects of visual art. Everyone knows that there is material that can be picked up and sold, but no one sees space and color. Two of the main aspects of art are invisible; the basic nature of art is invisible.”

Donald Judd (1928–1994) artist

1990s
Source: Artforum International. Vol. 32 (1994), p. 38

“Although the drama of games of strategy is strongly linked with the psychological aspects of the conflict, game theory is not concerned with these aspects. Game theory, so to speak, plays the board. It is concerned only with the logical aspects of strategy.”

Anatol Rapoport (1911–2007) Russian-born American mathematical psychologist

Source: 1960s, "The Use and Misuse of Game Theory," 1962, p. 110

“His words placed the teachings of nature as well as of the Bible in a new aspect, and made them a new revelation.”

Ellen G. White book Christ's Object Lessons

Source: Christ's Object Lessons (1900), Ch. 1, p. 19
Context: Not only the things of nature, but the sacrificial service and the Scriptures themselves — all given to reveal God — were so perverted that they became the means of concealing Him.
Christ sought to remove that which obscured the truth. The veil that sin has cast over the face of nature, He came to draw aside, bringing to view the spiritual glory that all things were created to reflect. His words placed the teachings of nature as well as of the Bible in a new aspect, and made them a new revelation.

“Modern man - although a unity of body, mind, and soul - exhibits a changed consciousness: every expression of his life has today a different aspect, that is, an aspect more positively abstract.”

Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) Peintre Néerlandais

1910's, Natural Reality and Abstract Reality', 1919

“Death is the looking-glass of life wherein
Each man may scan the aspect of his deeds.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: Savonarola (1881), Girolamo Savonarola in Act I, sc. iv; p. 49.

“So I read about various aspects of vegetarianism—the scientific aspect, the humane aspect, the ethical aspect, and the economic aspect. The more I studied, the more convinced I became that it was a logical procedure, that it would help humanity, that it would lessen the suffering of the animals, and that it would help this country.”

Gordon Latto (doctor) (1911–1998)

Interview in The Vegetarians by Rynn Berry (Autumn Press, 1979), p. 123.

“Art is naturally concerned with man in his existential aspect, not in his scientific aspect.”

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