Hint: As their name suggests, newly emerging jurists do not have much history. Of course, some of their issues may be old, but the titles of these chapters are new. This has caused the exact meaning of these titles and their exact difference with similar chapters to be unclear. One of these chapters is “Jurisprudence of Art”. For a precise understanding of the meaning of art jurisprudence, it must first be clarified its difference with similar chapters, such as “media jurisprudence”, “communication jurisprudence”, “virtual space jurisprudence” and “culture jurisprudence”. Hojjat al-Islam, Dr. Mohammad Reza Fallah Tafti, the former director of the Media Jurisprudence Department of the General Directorate of Islamic Media Research and the current secretary of the Department of “Culture, Art and Media Jurisprudence” of the Contemporary Jurisprudence Research Institute, tries to address this issue in this note.
Culture, art, media, communication and virtual space are words that are heard much more these days than in the past, and at the same time, it is believed that these words are conceptually unambiguous and their relation to each other is clear, but in terms of analysis and scientific explanation, serious discussions have taken place to identify the nature of these concepts and questions have been raised that have not yet been answered, or the answers are so diverse and numerous that the audience remains confused among the multitude of discussions and answers. And at the same time, it is inevitable to accept some of these opinions and ideas; Because these concepts have been connected with many other fields of work.
For example, according to the regulations and notes related to Article 139 of the Direct Taxes Law, cultural and artistic activities licensed by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance are 100% exempt from paying taxes. Therefore, it is natural that the task of culture and art should be specified somewhere so that an activity that has a cultural or artistic characteristic can use this opportunity, and if this does not happen, even the manufacturers of the toilet bowl may claim that because the toilet fountain of Marcel Duchamp [1] It is known as a work of art and even the most influential work of modern art, so their products are also works of art and exempt from taxes.
Ambiguity in these concepts, in addition to this legal effect, which may be a small effect, has more serious effects and consequences; For example, when these concepts enter the field of science and are supposed to be effective in the formation of a scientific branch and come in the structure of a science, the researchers of that science face serious challenges. [2] Challenges such as ambiguity In determining its place in the structure of science, ambiguity in determining the appropriate method and framework for solving problems related to it, ambiguity in determining scientific prerequisites for solving problems, etc. are examples of these challenges, and the existence of these challenges makes researchers less willing to enter have problems in these areas.
Based on the mentioned points, it is now possible to better understand why the issues related to culture, art, media, communication and virtual space, despite the vastness and great need of the society, have not yet found their place in jurisprudence, and in the existing structure of jurisprudence, jurisprudence chapters There is no related to these domains.
The common belief among religious scholars is that jurisprudence is responsible for determining the practical and behavioral duties of the obligees, and considering that the range of behavior of the obligees in the mentioned fields, including culture, art, communication, etc., is very wide and is one of the most secret and private. The moments and behaviors of the obligee include his most general behavior, it is necessary that the knowledge of jurisprudence has a suitable structure so that the obligees can refer to this knowledge and receive answers according to their needs in the mentioned areas.
But on the other hand, it is also accepted that the proper structure for jurisprudence is a structure that is based on a logical structure and has a logical justification, and in other words, this structure is based on a logical criterion. 2- It can easily accommodate all the examples and subsets of the behavior of the obligees and 3- Appropriate topics are placed next to each other; Therefore, if jurisprudence chapters corresponding to the mentioned fields are not available in jurisprudence, it is not because the field has been indifferent to these issues; Rather, due to the ambiguities in these concepts, it has even been suggested that Islamic art philosophy should be established and developed before the field enters the field of art jurisprudence, and it is even mentioned as a must before dealing with art jurisprudence. It has been stated: Since art jurisprudence and the study of art jurisprudence are based on the philosophy and foundations of art, until scientific work is done in this area and the necessary scientific literature is not produced, dealing with art jurisprudence will not be very fruitful, but it will not be possible. [3]
With these explanations, it may not be possible to provide a precise definition of jurisprudence of culture, jurisprudence of art, jurisprudence of media, jurisprudence of communication and jurisprudence of virtual space, and perhaps if we want to name these chapters in accordance with the common jurisprudence chapters that refer to obligatory acts, it would be more appropriate to For example, instead of the jurisprudence of art, we use the combination of the jurisprudence of artistic activities, but in summary, we can say that since art is a part of culture, naturally, in the jurisprudence of culture, the generality of culture should be addressed; But in jurisprudence of art, he specialized in art itself and what the name of art refers to. Also, in media jurisprudence, one should pay attention to the message transmission process and the effective factors in message transmission. Naturally, the responsibility of spreading art lies with the media; But the media does not necessarily publish works of art and does not deliver them to the audience; Rather, the work of the media (both video and audio media) is to create communication, and this point causes the difference between media jurisprudence and art jurisprudence. Also, since the media is the cause of communication and not the communication itself, communication jurisprudence can be an independent jurisprudence. In contemporary times, the virtual space, which is both a platform for producing works of art and a tool for transmission and a place for communication, can be independently noticed by scholars as one of the effective factors in creating culture. In addition, the functions of virtual space are not exclusive to cultural activities and have overshadowed other aspects of human life and require special attention.
With the theory of the sum of the mentioned points, it is suggested that due to the wide connection that exists between these concepts, at least in the field of research, jurisprudence, culture, art and communication, and media and virtual space, they should have a unified identity in research so that the concepts related to these fields can be understood. Discussed properly.
This note is a part of the electronic magazine “Fundamentals of Art Jurisprudence” which was produced in collaboration with the School of Jurisprudence of Art and the Ijtihad Network website.
Footnotes
1. “Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp, a French painter and sculptor, was actually a toilet that Duchamp presented as a work of art in 1917 under the pseudonym of another person, and now one of its copies is in the Tate Art Museum, one of the most prestigious museums in the world. The world is maintained. According to an art poll, Marcel Duchamp’s toilet bowl has been named the world’s most influential modern artwork of all time. [⤤]
2. For example, Dr. Azam Rawdrad, a member of the faculty of Tehran University, in the conference on the sociology of art in Iran, considered one of the most important problems in the field of sociology of art to be the lack of a specific definition of the concept of art from a sociological perspective, and said: We have many definitions of art in books, but this definition is more cognitive, it has a philosophical aspect, and since this philosophical definition is abstract and, in my opinion, it moves in the sky, it does not give us on earth an objective standard to know art and artist. As a result, in the field of sociology, we cannot examine it objectively and concretely. Source: https://vista.ir/w/a/16/c5sut [⤤]
3. Ali Akbar Rashad, the list of requirements of “Fiqh Honar”, Ijtihad site. [⤤]