Art and Friendship

If I write to a friend, it is obviously because I love him; but the affection that I have for him does not necessarily mean that I would write to him. There is no absolute link of necessity between the affection that I have for my friend and the letter itself. I know it, and I am fully aware of it as soon as I reflect on the proper character of this activity; writing a letter. One cannot negate the fact that one writes a letter to a friend in order to manifest the love that one has for him; however, one is not able to identify the activity of writing a letter with the deep affection that one has for his friend; this would be to reduce this affection to a contingent fact, it would be to confuse the effect and its proper cause. To write to a friend is therefore distinct from the very exercise of friendship.

When I write a philosophical article, it is obviously after having become interested in a certain problem, but it is also because I feel myself capable of thinking about it in an original and unseen manner that merits to be communicated to those who would give themselves the trouble to read what I have written. I would have been able to content myself with a long meditation on the problem and to exclusively remain within my solitary reflection. What is most essential is it not to seek the truth and grasp it? To compose this article is an activity that therefore appears to presuppose another type of activity (philosophical research) of which it is not the necessary consequence. On the other hand, the composition and writing of this article will require a supplementary effort, entirely different than the one of the research, and which the success of it will depend upon entirely different qualities. This composition and writing properly constitute an activity of production that must be achieved in a finished work. This activity as different as it might appear from philosophical activity properly speaking, can at the same time be an excellent way in which to more completely live of it. Besides, the composition and writing of this article, as well as the fact to sculpt something out of wood or marble, can be done for varied motives: to earn a living, to seek glory or the pleasure to realize something. These motives do no directly intervene in the very act of realization, they do not modify it, but they do modify the one who acts.

br. Marie-Dominique Philippe o.p., La Philosophie de l'Art