Ethics Forum: beauty

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Beauty as Spiritual Therapy

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and the creation and appreciation of beauty.

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)

Clinical psychologists use beauty therapy to elevate mood. Children struggling with difficult life issues often find an emotional outlet through art. In this instrumental view, beauty, art and music are a means to an end. They are tools for building a better future, moral improvement, or bringing a greater measure of health.

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.

Friday, February 17, 2023

Beauty as the Good

Bellinzona, Switzerland is a place of extraordinary beauty.

Alice C. Linsley

What follows is a general consideration of beauty as the Good. The topic is addressed from different cultural perspectives and time periods. Doubtless, the reader will decide whether the concept of “beauty as the Good” is important, substantial, and valuable. Richard Hooker, a bright light of the English Renaissance, holds our human reasoning in high regard. He wrote, "Of things created, the noblest and most resembling God, are creatures indued with the admirable guifte of understanding." (The Dublin Fragments; V: The creation and governance of the world not yet considered as being evill. And touching the first beginning of evill in the World.) It is hoped that the reader will employ that admirable gift.

Is beauty simply a physical attribute? Or is there a spiritual dimension to beauty that is perceived as good? Can the arts: poetry, painting, sculpture, etc. fully capture the essence of beauty?

Around 600 B.C., the Greek poet Sappho asserted that “what is beautiful is good” but Plato argued that poetry is inferior to Beauty as a Form. The German poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) wrote that “physical beauty is the sign of an interior beauty, a spiritual and moral beauty.” Yet as history proves many physically attractive people have shown themselves to be quite evil.

When Plato speaks of beauty, he is not referring to that which is physically appealing or attractive. He is speaking of an Ideal or a Form. The Form is eternal and unchanging. Therefore, beauty is not subjective or dependent upon cultural norms. It is something other, and a testimony to eternal realities.

Plato conceives of rational inquiry into the truth and the good as superior to the arts. Sculpture and poetry are good in a much as they have the potential to point to eternal realities. Plato encourages consideration of beautiful things because such contemplation can point to the soul’s eternal nature, a very Greek concept. For Plato, there is pleasure in such contemplation of the eternal.

The Hebrew mindset also finds pleasure in the contemplation of beauty. In the Hebrew Scriptures beauty is equated with glory, purity, honor, and pleasantness. In the Bible, beauty has a direct reference to God. The Hebrew delight in the “beauty of holiness”.

Clearly, there is a cultural difference between the Greek and the Hebrew understandings of beauty. For the Greek, beauty is the preoccupation of the soul. For the Hebrew, beauty is righteousness. Both conceptions are well defined within their immediate cultural contexts. Both generally agree that beauty has certain qualities: balance, symmetry, harmony, luminosity, etc.; qualities which are also ascribed to Goodness.

Christian theology contributes to this discussion by asserting that all truth is God's truth; all goodness is God's goodness, and all beauty is God's beauty. In this view, truth, goodness, and beauty have God as the point of reference. This cannot be proven by empirical observation. Further, there is the danger of slipping into pantheism or panentheism.

For the modern person there is no aesthetic value in the soul or in righteousness. Instead, aesthetic value is linked to what gives the individual pleasure or satisfaction and therefore is highly subjective. It becomes freedom from moral constraints and duty, as Friedrich Schiller claimed. Or in the thinking of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) the value lays in art as an instrument for improvement of the self or society.