January 23, 2020
It is the essence of existence that reveals itself to us, and in nature this is done primarily through beauty.
Aquinas lists brilliance, transparency, and symmetry as the three criteria of beauty. Just as beauty reveals the richness of the relationships between all things, proportion is perhaps the most important expression of existence. That is, the relationship between the parts of an object and the whole beyond it, the relationship between the object as a whole and everything else, and to its creator.
This is the second part of a three-part interview with poet and philosopher James Matthew Wilson about his book. vision of the soul.
[3:10] The nihilistic disillusioning power of rationalism and its penetration into Catholic thought
[10:47] Beauty as the transcendental quality of being and the “synthesis of all transcendental things”
[18:50] Theodor Adorno talks about reason and beauty
[22:53] Aquinas’s formulation of the three elements of beauty (brilliance, clarity, and proportion) reveals the old definition of beauty as splendor of form. Argument that ratio is most important
[30:13] The pitfalls of Maritain emphasizing shine and transparency over proportions
[35:31] A modernist experiment that examines the extent to which beauty can eschew comfortable surfaces and still remain beautiful.
[40:29] Modernism as a movement of metaphysical realism in art
link
James Matthew Wilson: https://www.jamesmatthewwilson.com/
JMW Twitter: https://twitter.com/JMWSPT
vision of the soul:
https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Soul Goodness-Western-Tradition/dp/0813229286
Some works of art mentioned by James:
dying gaul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Gaul
A poem inspired by Seamus Heaney’s The Dying Gauls https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57044/the-graubale-man
Laocoön and his sons https://mymodernmet.com/laocoon-and-his-sons-statue/
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