I asked myself, why do I love, and what is the power of beauty, and I understood
that each and every instance of beauty is a promise and example, in miniature, of
life that can end in balance, with symmetry, purpose, and hope—even if without explanation. Beauty has no explanation, but its right perfection elicits love.
From A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
This lovely quote captures my concern with philosophical aesthetics. Aesthetics is rational-intellectual in nature. While often helpful, it suffers from the assumption that reason, or perhaps more specifically logic, is capable of answering an important concern with beauty. This is error, however, as noted by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein. First, logic is a tool, not an end in itself. There never has been, nor will there ever be a conclusion on any important subject obtained by logic alone. Beauty by definition is poorly suited to the strictures of logic; it’s like asking what is the smell of red?
Alessandro Giuliani, the protagonist in A Soldier of the Great War, gains an understanding of life that is both complex and simple. Life is a tapestry composed of many threads and many colors, and it can be beautiful even in war. This fact is inexplicable if analyzed, but natural if experienced; it is a promise that life, properly considered, has a beauty that cannot be explained, but it can be justified because it elicits love. The book ends, not with a soliloquy on beauty, but with an example of beauty: soaring swallows whose beauty is enhanced by the fact that a hunter downs many of them. This intensification of the beauty by pointing out its ephemeral nature is quite Japanese, and regardless of the tradition, it is a point well-taken.
Blog No. 78: Beauty has no explanation
I asked myself, why do I love, and what is the power of beauty, and I understood
that each and every instance of beauty is a promise and example, in miniature, of
life that can end in balance, with symmetry, purpose, and hope—even if without explanation. Beauty has no explanation, but its right perfection elicits love.
From A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin
This lovely quote captures my concern with philosophical aesthetics. Aesthetics is rational-intellectual in nature. While often helpful, it suffers from the assumption that reason, or perhaps more specifically logic, is capable of answering an important concern with beauty. This is error, however, as noted by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein. First, logic is a tool, not an end in itself. There never has been, nor will there ever be a conclusion on any important subject obtained by logic alone. Beauty by definition is poorly suited to the strictures of logic; it’s like asking what is the smell of red?
Alessandro Giuliani, the protagonist in A Soldier of the Great War, gains an understanding of life that is both complex and simple. Life is a tapestry composed of many threads and many colors, and it can be beautiful even in war. This fact is inexplicable if analyzed, but natural if experienced; it is a promise that life, properly considered, has a beauty that cannot be explained, but it can be justified because it elicits love. The book ends, not with a soliloquy on beauty, but with an example of beauty: soaring swallows whose beauty is enhanced by the fact that a hunter downs many of them. This intensification of the beauty by pointing out its ephemeral nature is quite Japanese, and regardless of the tradition, it is a point well-taken.