Lecture XXIII (Nr. 0297)

[293] Then art has a third function, an anticipatory one, in terms of anticipation, solutions of the problems of existence which in actual existence are not solved. Out of this function the more idealistic forms of art come. Out of the expressive function the more expressive and naturalistic forms of art come, and out of the former, the more naturalistic forms of art come. This gives you an insight into the immense significance of art, the element of grasping reality which is not the cognitive dimension, but which has cognitive elements in it indirectly.

Secondly the expressive function of art, expressing even the most disrupted state of reality, [such] as our present recent art since the beginning of the 20th century does. Then the third, the anticipatory, function of art, in which imagination---one of the great powers of human freedom---can transcend the given reality. In these three functions we will look at the artistic realm not only in terms of the visual arts, although my main examples will come from it, because that is my hobby, but I will also refer, as far as I am able, to the other arts.