About the “Childish” and “Artistic” Attitude to the World

Background. A certain similarity in the attitude to the world inherent both in a child and an artist has long been noted, but the psychological essence of this similarity has not been sufficiently understood. Objective. The study had its purpose to approximate understanding the phenomenon of similarity in the “childish” and “artistic” attitude to the world, which is significant for both the psychology of creativity and the pedagogy of art. Methods. Analysis of literature on the problem and the author’s experimental research data. Results. It is shown that for children, as well as for artists, a significant basis for generalization is the emotional-evaluative attitude to objects, conditioned by the perception of their specific sensuous appearance. From this point of view, the features of a child’s complex thinking act as favorable prerequisites for artistic development. The study highlighted the importance of children’s animism as a prerequisite for the artist’s ability to comprehend the internal unity of phenomena and his own complicity to them. In the context of the problems under discussion, the analysis considers understanding of the types of human attitude to the world in the works of I.P. Pavlov and priest Pavel Florensky. Conclusions. The similarity between the psychological essence of a child and an artist is rooted in a sense of unity with the world and the kinship of all phenomena among themselves.