[MD] Mountain View

[MarshaV]

Greetings,

A while back I was trying to explain that I thought interpreting the 
Social & Intellectual Levels was so confusing because we are immersed 
in them.  Here is a far better description of what I was trying to 
explain, but pertaining to art.

"On the other hand, all attempts to discover the essential properties 
of art have been carried out through a search for common denominators 
within art itself.  However,when looking for the especially large 
patterns of a particular territory it is sometimes necessary to climb 
to heights much greater than the mountaintops in that 
territory.  Thus, for instance, if we seek to find the common 
denominator of Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, the 
intuitive reply is, "Trouble."  But if this region is viewed from a 
height of several dozen kilometers, it is easily seen that all these 
nations have a common coastline.

Similarly, it is possible that the answer to the questions, "What is 
the common denominator of works of art?" is not so evident at the 
level of the works themselves; instead, we can discover it more 
easily if we look for it from a height that allows us to see art as a 
special case of a broader pattern that includes the other areas of 
culture.  Too many people are still trapped by the idea of the 
importance of the definition of art, ..."
                             (Avital, 'ART versus NONART', p. 258)


The last sentence seems very relevant.

But this is just a reflection of my own confusion.

m