Dr. Alice C. Linsley
History suggests that nations rise and fall because of leaders who put their own interests ahead of the welfare of the people they are supposed to serve.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
History suggests that nations rise and fall because of leaders who put their own interests ahead of the welfare of the people they are supposed to serve.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
Before the first civilizations appeared in the Nile Valley, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley, human populations were drawn to ancient water systems. Rivers and lakes came under the control of local chiefs. The water systems were a source of wealth for these early lords, and places where religious rites were performed. Water came to be regarded as a substance of life, healing, fertility, and cleansing.
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
In this series on aesthetics, we have been exploring impressions of beauty. Is it true that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or is it possible to speak of an absolute, universal perception of beauty? Clearly, the perception of beauty is subjective and grounded in the individual's sentiments, personal history, and values. Yet the very fact that aesthetics is effectively used instrumentally suggests that humans recognize beauty has value in itself. That may be the truest statement to touch on the universal appreciation of aesthetics.
Arthur Schopenhauer believed that exposure to beauty can help humans overcome misery. It is an antidote to the depression we face as mortals. In his book The Beginning of Wisdom, Leon Kass offers this insight: "Death is the mother of the love of glory, of a beautiful name for splendid deeds. Death is also - and similarly - the mother of beauty, of a concern with the beautification of an ugly world, fated to decay, rife with death." (p. 155)St. Paul urged the early Christians to dwell on the good and the lovely. He wrote, "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:8) Thoughts are elevated when we ponder the good and the lovely.
In the great world religions, we find beauty is associated with spiritual elevation. Hinduism urges its adherents to "think of all beautiful things" and God is recognized as the source of goodness, truth, and beauty. (Rig Veda 5.82.5-7)
In Judaism, beauty is a fleeting reminder of God's goodness.
Islam asserts "God is beautiful and loves beauty." (Hadith of Muslim)
In Confucianism, we find the instrumental claim that a neighborhood is made beautiful by Goodness (Analects 4:1).
The arts can never be a replacement for religion. In his book What Good are the Arts?, John Carey writes, “Turning art into a religion often carries with it the assumption that there is a higher morality of art, distinct from conventional morality.” (p.136) That is the position of Aestheticism, the opposite of aesthetic instrumentalism. Aestheticism asserts that art belongs autonomously to the realm of the aesthetic. It has no interest in the application of the arts to religion or emotional or spiritual elevation.
Related reading: A First Look at Aesthetics; Beauty as the Good; Symbols of Beauty; Aesthetic Instrumentalism
Dr. Alice C. Linsley
Judging beauty is likely to stir controversy. It is difficult to escape the impression that the discernment of beauty is highly subjective. Many philosophers and poets agree on that point. The Irish poet Oscar Wilde wrote, "Beauty has as many meanings as man has moods. Beauty is the symbol of symbols. Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing. When it shows us itself, it shows us the whole fiery-coloured world."
Likewise, David Hume believed that beauty is a matter of one's mental disposition. He wrote, "Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others." (Hume 1757, 136)
Immanuel Kant believed that beauty is known by the pleasure it gives to the viewer. He wrote, "The judgment of taste is therefore not a judgment of cognition, and is consequently not logical but aesthetical, by which we understand that whose determining ground can be no other than subjective. Every reference of representations, even that of sensations, may be objective (and then it signifies the real [element] of an empirical representation), save only the reference to the feeling of pleasure and pain, by which nothing in the object is signified, but through which there is a feeling in the subject as it is affected by the representation." (Kant 1790, The Critique of Judgment, Third Critique, section 1)
Hume and Kant perceived that when beauty is treated as a subjective state, it is no longer recognizable as a universal value. Beauty cannot hold a place among the universal forms of Truth, Goodness, and Order. Beauty subjectively judged is fleeting. Such beauty cannot be an eternal form.
In the East, beauty has been recognized through the contemplation of icons. Icons give pleasure and spiritual attunement. They speak of luminosity and numinosity at the same time. They are designed to mediate the presence of God through beauty. Eastern Orthodox churches are adorned with icons usually on every wall and the ceiling. The colors are vibrant, and the gold reflects light so that one seems to be standing inside a jewel box.
Following the thought of Plato, perfect beauty exists only in the eternal Form of beauty (Platonic epistemology). He believed that the love of beauty in the material sphere can lead to the love of the Ultimate Beauty. Icons are vehicles for apprehending the Ultimate Beauty of God. They are like windows through which something of the eternal can be seen. In this sense, icons are symbols of beauty.
The Rights of Kings
In the ancient world, it
was understood that a king had the right to control trade through his kingdom
and to be treated with honor. Emissaries arrived with gifts. Subjects came
before the King with tribute.
In April 1892, the New
York Times reported on the refusal of the King of Jebu to allow cargo to pass
through his independent country which was the only access to the interior of
Africa from Lagos. After an unfriendly meeting between the King and the acting
British governor of Lagos, the trade route was closed. The British then formed
a treaty with the King of Jebu that included payment of £500 to keep the roads
and rivers of his country open. However, the British overstepped in requiring
the King to forgo his royal right to assess tolls and taxes on the merchants
traveling through his kingdom. Eventually, the treaty was broken. The situation
became tense when the King threatened to attack Lagos, then the capital of
Nigeria.
In the context of the
rights of ancient kings, the £500 would have been regarded as a token of honor.
However, to deny the King his right to control commerce through his territory
was a tragic misstep on the part of the British. It was a diminishment of the
King’s authority. Further, that was taken as disrespect of the High God from
whom his authority was derived.
Take freedom or property
from the average person and you diminish his humanity. Take away the rights of
a king and you have cause for war.