After reading this passage, it was quite interesting to compare to our knowledge of PoMo and Mod. Alot of this passage deals with the ideas of Artistotle and Plato, who had rather definitive rules and regulations for what art is; however, in our post-modernism and modernism texts, such stipulations were thinning and almost non-existent.
I also really enjoyed the Magritte pipe, and the notion that words and images are lost in translation (ie, taking a french classic and translating into English can demystify the original work of art).
Mimesis is something talked about in this piece as well. In Plato's view, perfection and representation were more important than creating something new and fusing your own ideas. Aristotle, however, is not so restricting in his thought. He feels art is not a copy of the real world, but an essence. I agree more with Aristotle, in the sense that more modern art is focused on conceptualism rather than reproduction. And, I feel Aristotle's philosophy is much more creative in nature.
They also discussed how animals build art in nature, but for function only. Humans, however, must learn to create, and then therefore they are able to create more creative pieces.
Finally, I liked how they mentioned that people recognize description based on natural association (I.e., flowing hair reminds us of flowing water--and through this image associated with the word, we can imagine through written word). But, at the same time, as noted in our post-modernism and modern passages, words are merely words that have become accepted and in essence have no meaning until they were put into a context.
