EDITOR’S NOTE

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ETHICS IN THE THEATRE

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This paper aims to define and explore the importance of ethics in the theatre. The theoretical starting point of the work is based on Aristotle’s and Plato’s definitions of ethics and their observations of arts. For both Aristotle and Plato, art is an activity that inspires creation of virtues in the man. The second part brings the study of ethics in the works of Shakespeare and Sara Bernard, while the central part focuses on the theory of ethics in the theatre “poetics” of Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavsky. In his works, The System, My Life in Art and Ethics he laid the foundations of modern, naturalistic and professional theatre. Stanislavski wanted rules in theatre and beautiful relationships, goodness. He felt that the actors should be fully committed to their role and work in rehearsals. The concept of ethics in the theatre was examined from the perspective of a multi-disciplinary theatre and syncretic art. Arts should encourage positive emotions and traits in humans.

MORAL EDUCATION AND THE AESTHETIC FORM OF MUSIC IN PLATO’S REPUBLIC AND ARISTOTLE’S POLITICS

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This paper examines Plato’s and Aristotle’s views on the role of music in moral education, with special emphasis on the chapters of Republic and Politics dealing with musical harmony and musical scales, regarded as formal aspects of music as an art form. Comparing these two philosophers’ positions their approach to the art of music appears to be different, which seems to have consequences in terms of both their conceptions of education and their aesthetics. Pointing out the differences in their choice of musical scales and instruments suitable for education, the paper discusses whether the reasons why these differences exist are to be found in their own philosophical doctrines or in the conventionally established musicianship of their epoch to which both these authors refer but reach different conclusions.

MARCUSE’S CRITIQUE OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE AND ART

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According to Marcuse, contemporary culture is becoming one-dimensional. This means that we are witnessing an abolishment of differences between various cultural strata where everyone becomes a consumer of such (contemporary) art. However, the differences among real economic strata of society remain large. For these reasons Marcuse determinates modern society as irrational. When discussing the question of culture, Marcuse is discussing it in its broader sense where culture incorporates politics, education, art, religion and philosophy. Art, philosophy and religion serve as means to maintain the existing social order, according to Marcuse, where an individual is free to think but only within the confinements of patterns previously set out by society. As a consequence, education is set out to prepare an individual to manage within the confinements set up by the existing free market and it is focused primarily on positive science while leaving the question of social changes aside. As a consequence, an individual is less and less interested in political developments. Thus, Marcuse emphasizes that the criticism of the existing culture must be based on real social and economic processes, approaching the view of German idealism but also the view later expressed by Marx in his criticism of contemporary culture.

AN ETHICAL READING OF VISUAL SYMBOLS OF ARCHITECT BOGDAN BOGDANOVIĆ

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Analyzing various interviews given by the architect Bogdan Bogdanović, which were compiled in a book Glib i krv (Mud and Blood), we could discern two different images of Belgrade that he cherished in his mind. One was an image of a mythical city of old Celtic civilization, raised between the two rivers – the Danube and the Sava as male and the female symbols – which was a mixture of a futuristic modernism and prehistoric necropolis and settlements. The other image was imprinted with rough changes that the Yugoslav society underwent after 1983, which he had anticipated saying that almost all Balkan cities would end up like archeological sites, buried under ruins of a culture and history of many nations. This paper will also analyze the first monument raised in Belgrade in honour of the Jewish victims to fascism, and will try to discover a universal symbolic of the memorial monument this eminent architect built from 1960-1980. The intent is to offer an ethical reading of the almost forgotten language of symbols, visual signs and arts which partially justifies the nature of Man/Builder and Man/Destroyer found in all of us.

GRAFFITTI: CONSTRUCTING A THEORY FROM ARTISTS’ ACCOUNTS AND SOME RESERVATIONS

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This paper analyses certain artists’ personal accounts on their own works and artistic beliefs shaped into broad, general judgements on arts. These accounts have become theoretic formulations applicable to a much wider range of artwork, including more radical artistic practices. A question arises who to hold accountable for these: the artists or the art historians who use their standpoints as reference.

PLATO’S MORAL ARGUMENT AGAINST POETRY

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The aim of this study is in attempt to demonstrate Plato’s appropriation of poetry into the corpus of educational practices in the ideal state. Taking into account some of Plato’s claims in Ion, the author draws attention to the possibility of Plato’s positive evaluation of poetry in the moral sense, given the poetic production. In addition, the author defends the thesis that poetry can have an extremely important role in the moral education of the individual, bearing in mind Plato’s views on poetic reception from Republic. In the end, the author concludes that, in a moral sense, good poetry is one of the conditions for achieving an ideal state.

POPULAR CULTURE AND ETHICS – CASE STUDIES OF THE TV SHOWS THE WIRE AND TREME

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Thanks to a specific form of distribution, popular culture has potential to present complicated and ethically relevant issues to the widest audience. When someone like David Simon appears in the field of popular culture, and through an artistically challenging process asks essential questions regarding inequality and social justice, claiming collective moral responsibility of the public institutions, we see that this narrative opens many different issues. By telling stories about the contemporary American society and its flaws, Simon claims collective institutional responsibility. Based on an analysis of two TV shows, The Wire and Treme, we will discuss ethics of the institutions, individuals and policies.

ΚΑΛΟΚΑΓΑΘΙΑ ΑND THE AESTHETIC NORMS OF CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD

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The author examines the intertwining notions of “beautiful” and “good” by analyzing the aesthetic and moral standards of contemporary popular culture, represented by the general cultural paradigm of “Hollywood”, understood not only as a filmmaking school, but also as a symbol of global commercial values and aesthetics in general. Hollywood is perceived as conservative regarding the modernist (and contemporary) trend of “separating aesthetics from morals”, insisting on a strong parallelism and correlation between the physical beauty of the protagonist and the morality of his/her actions. This correlation and its applications are actively used in political and ideological propaganda, usually serving the imperialist interests of the American economic and political oligarchy, but is also – especially in the case of artistically best and critically most acclaimed films – often openly subversive toward the values and the political ideology of the USA and Western society in general. The author examines a few examples of moral controversies stemming from the Hollywood paradigms of beauty, as seen in the Game of Thrones TV series, while maintaining that Hollywood aesthetics seems to be more permanent and immutable than the Hollywood ethics, confirming the ancient philosophical paradigm of καλοκαγαθία.

ТΗΕ ETHICAL FUNCTION OF POETRY IN LYCURGUS’ SPEECH AGAINST LEOCRATES

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In this paper, on the example of Lycurgus’ speech Against Leocrates, we shall discuss the role and the function of quotations from Greek poetry in his forensic oratory. According to some contemporary critics of Lycurgus’ work, his rhetoric is a kind of anthology of patriotic attitudes, in which a large part of his defense is based on emphasizing his moral principles rather than presenting precise and formed legal arguments. The basic hypothesis of this research is that Lycurgus’ selection of passages chosen from Greek poets were mostly reflection of his own patriotic zeal and true moral beliefs. The aim of our paper is also to inquire into the use of poetry in the orator’s education and training but also into his knowledge and appreciation of the rhetoricians and their audience in the polis of Athens.