Introduction

In the triadic model of the human person, three distinct but inseparable domains define what it means to be human:

1. Sensation — embodied experience
2. Intellect — symbolic reasoning
3. Volition — the inner self capable of intention, meaning, and moral choice

Animals possess only sensation.
Artificial intelligence exhibits only intellect.
Spiritual beings exist as pure volition.
Humans alone integrate all three.

This framework reveals something profound about art:
art exists only where these three domains intersect.

AI may generate images or music, and animals may produce sounds or markings, but neither creates art in the human sense. Art is the uniquely human expression of the whole person.

This paper explains why.

1. Art Requires Sensation: The Embodied Foundation

All art begins in the body.

• Musical tones vibrate in the air.
• Colors strike the retina.
• Rhythm entrains the nervous system.
• Texture, form, and gesture engage the senses.

Sensation is the medium through which art enters the world.
Without the body, there is no canvas, no sound, no movement.

But sensation alone is not enough.
Animals also have sensation, yet animals do not create art.

Art requires form, structure, and symbolic meaning—elements belonging to the next domain.

2. Art Requires Intellect: Pattern, Form, Symbol

Art is not random sensation.
It is sensation organized by intellect.

• Harmony and counterpoint
• Proportion and composition
• Story and metaphor
• Rhythm and meter
• Geometry in architecture
• Symbol in painting and poetry

These reflect intellectual intentionality.

The artist uses intellect to shape sensory material into structured form.
This is why AI can produce convincing images or music—it has access to pattern.

But pattern is not the essence of art.
Humans recognize immediately that AI-generated works lack something essential.

What is missing?

3. Art Requires Volition: The Presence of a Person

Volition is the domain of:

• intention
• meaning
• orientation toward truth
• inner struggle or longing
• moral stance
• lived experience
• the “voice” behind the work

In art, volition is not the technique; it is the self made visible.

A human artwork carries:

• the artist’s desire to communicate
• the weight of their lived experience
• their moral orientation
• their response to truth, beauty, suffering, or joy

In every act of art, the human spirit steps forward and says:

“This is what I see. This is what I feel. This is what I mean.”

AI cannot do this.
AI has no volition.
AI has no inner life.
AI has no “self” to reveal.

Thus AI-generated art may look correct, but feels empty—because it contains intellect without volition.

4. Why Humans Respond to the Artist Behind the Art

A common objection is:

“If the artwork looks good, why does it matter who made it?”

Because art is not merely the arrangement of sensory or intellectual elements.
Art is the externalization of a person.

Humans instinctively respond to:

• the story of the artist
• the circumstances of the work’s creation
• the suffering or joy behind it
• the intention embedded in form
• the authenticity of moral struggle
• the courage or vulnerability expressed

We do not value Van Gogh because his brushstrokes are mathematically superior.
We value Van Gogh because his soul is visible in the work.

The “value” of art is the presence of volition-in-form.

AI can imitate form, but cannot generate presence.

5. Why AI Art Feels Synthetic

AI art contains:

• Intellect → structure, pattern, style
• Sensation output → sound or imagery

But lacks:

• Volition → intention, meaning, selfhood

The result is art without soul.
It is technically impressive but existentially hollow.

Humans sense this immediately, even if they cannot articulate why.

The triadic model explains it with precision:

Art = Sensation + Intellect + Volition
AI = Sensation + Intellect – Volition

Without volition, the work may stimulate the senses and engage the mind,
but it cannot speak to the heart.

6. Why Art Is a Unique Expression of the Image of God

In the triadic structure:

• Sensation grounds us in the world.
• Intellect allows us to shape the world.
• Volition allows us to interpret and respond to truth.

Art is the fusion of all three:

Art is volition expressed through intellectual form into sensory manifestation.

This is why:

• Animals cannot make art (no intellect or volition).
• Angels cannot make human art (no sensation).
• AI cannot make art (no volition).

Only humans, bearing the integrated image of God,
can turn their inner life into external beauty.

7. Conclusion

Art is not reducible to:

• pattern (intellect),
• pleasure (sensation), or
• instinct (animality).

It is the outward expression of volition grounded in intellect and mediated through sensation.

This is why:

• AI art is hollow,
• animal sound is not music,
• and human art is endlessly meaningful.

Art is the place where the whole human triad becomes visible—
the body, the mind, and the spirit united in a single act.

Art is the signature of the integrated human being.
It exists nowhere else in creation.