The Christian Vanguard

 Sir Roger Scruton presents an argument in his book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction against the transcendental nature of beauty. To be clear, he is only presenting it, not endorsing it. He writes, "Why believe p ? Because it it is true. Why want x ? Because it is good. Why look at y ? Because it is beautiful. In some way, philosophers have argued, those answers are on a par...Someone who asked 'why believe what is true' or 'why want what is good' has failed to understand the nature of reasoning...Does the same go for beauty?...To say as much is to overlook the subversive nature of beauty. Someone charmed by a myth may be tempted to believe it: and in this case beauty is the enemy of truth...A man attracted to a woman may be tempted to condone her vices: and in this case beauty is the enemy of goodness...Goodness and truth never compete...The pursuit of beauty, however, is far more questionable." The argument states that since transcendentals have this qualit...

I had a pleasant restroom experience at school the other day. I was on my way to my professor's office hours, which was on the 9th floor of a building on the south east corner of campus. I walked into the elevator with an older gentleman whom I assume was also a professor. After noticing I hit the 9th floor button, he asked me, "Have you been to the 9th floor before?"  "No, I haven't." I replied.  "Make sure to use the restroom there. You won't regret it." A strange piece of advice, I thought, but, being two guys in an elevator, and understanding guys appreciate toilet humor every now and then, I nodded my head and took him up on it without hesitation. He got off on his floor, and I continued to mine, and found the restroom. When I walked in, the natural lighting delighted me. More than half the wall was just glass (starting at about four feet above the ground to about twelve feet high), and I could see for miles the beach at one end a...

The iconic soup can. What is the big deal? Well, it's not really a big deal, and that might be the point. This paper on Andy Warhol's possible Eastern Christian aesthetic has helped me see that. It's an interesting paper, and I think it's worth a read, especially if you are Catholic or Orthodox. The basic idea is this: the aesthetic style of icons, no context and no space, is present in some of Warhol's work, as evidenced by the soup can, Golden Marilyn Monroe, and Silver Liz. Okay, I see that. I think that's pretty plausible. And I didn't really see that before, but I did have some vague sense of it. I just never really unpacked it because...it's a can of soup. Icons help us encounter a transfigured and holy person. That is why icons lack space and context. Is Warhol trying doing this too? Well, if he is, it doesn't work. Yes, in some sense, all of creation is good, and goodness is convertible with beautiful, so in some sense, all of creation is b...

A lot of smart people I know do not think beauty is objective, while I do. These are not your undergraduate relativists, whom believe that beauty is objective, as well as truth and morality. No, these are people who agree truth and morality is objective, even if sometimes they cannot provide a grounding for it, yet also believe beauty is subjective, or relative. 

  I watched a very strange movie the other day. A Midnight in Paris, written and directed by Woody Allen. I didn’t like it because it was sophisticated. I don’t mean sophisticated in the common use of the word, where it is to distinguish someone with honor. I employ it with the intent to summon the memory of the Greek Sophists, who impressed people with their words and rhetoric, but lacked real substance and rigorous argumentation. We do not look kindly upon them, and that is more or less what Woody Allen is doing here in this move.