Philosophy of the Arts: Aesthetic Foundations of Creativity and Performance

Abstract

This research explores the philosophical foundations that underlie artistic creativity and performance. It examines how aesthetic theory, as a branch of philosophy, provides a framework for understanding art as a mode of knowing, expressing, and creating meaning. Through an analysis of creativity as both an ontological and phenomenological process, the chapter situates performance within the continuum of aesthetic experience, ethics, and social meaning. Drawing from traditional Igbo Worldview and on Western thinkers such as Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Dewey, and contemporary theorists of embodiment and process philosophy, it argues that art is not merely a product of imagination but a living dialogue between the artist, the audience, and the world.