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 turned this in for a class assignment. Footnotes have not been included.  Aristotle recognizes that generally, men say that happiness is the highest of goods to which men aim. However, since some men say that to have health or wealth when one is sick or poor is happiness, or that some ideal above those appetitive pleasures is what happiness is, the disagreement among men makes it unclear as to what the answer is. So, Aristotle points out that there is an end to which all ends strive. A man practices medicine to obtain health, but what is the end of health? The end of strategy is victory, but what is the end of victory? All these ends have a final end, or good, to which they strive. It is final in the sense that the line of questioning or justification terminates there. That end for which other ends strive has nothing else which it strives for. This is what happiness is. It does not make sense to ask what it is that happiness strives for. It is an end unto itself. Since happi...

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...

I saw a little girl on the beach throwing rocks into the ocean. She looked back at her parents for approval, while they cheered her on, telling her what a good job she was doing. This seemingly pointless endeavor was the cause of much joy and amusement. It reminds me of the view of art that art is useless, to take away its unduly emphasis on its utility. Roger Scruton makes a point that if in creating (in something like architecture) you put a things utility first with no regard to its aesthetic worth, it will become useless, because no one wants any part in something that is so ugly. When something is beautiful, then people want to participate in that beauty. Throwing rocks into the water seems to be like one of those things that is completely pointless and has have no utility, but because there is something beautiful about it, we want to do it anyways. It's a gratifying paradox. That children do this more than adults I think clues us into some of the aspects of throwing rocks ...

On the right hand of this blog, I say that I am single and ready to mingle. Indeed, I am, but I grow weary of it. Recently, I had become attached to this woman, and I thought about dating her. We had a few conversations about it, but I stopped when she said, "I am not attracted to you. You are everything I want in a man, but I just am not attracted to you." And, you know, that's definitely not easy to hear. It's had me up a few nights, and I've been thinking, so this here is just what I have so far. Nothing too organized, but some ideas for fodder.  It is true, I am not an attractive man. I can't deny that. I'm not fit, I have a porous nose, and I have a round face. She has said that she can't be compatible with someone she isn't attracted to, but I've already written about such slogans before. So, that part is nonsense. I mean, in her view, I am a virtuous man, a faithful man, and a son of the Church, which, in my opinion, is really all ...

There is a video I just saw on Facebook of a puffer fish trying to attract a mate . He does this in a very entertaining way. Well, its entertaining for me anyways, maybe Mr. Fish wouldn't appreciate me looking down at his efforts. But what he does is, he swims around the bottom of the ocean and makes these designs in the sand, and it's really quite impressive. It's large, generally symmetrical, and actually really beautiful. If Cathedrals could be drawn in the ocean sand, the puffer fish would make the best rounded stained windows. 

Roger Scruton has this illustration about beauty which I think I may have a version of for a few years. Scruton says that a woman tells you she's wants that  peach from the peach bowl. So you hand her a random peach, and she refuses it. No, she tells you. If her desire was to eat it then sure, any peach would have sufficed. But she does not desire the peach to eat, but for its beauty. She does not wish to observe it and when she gets all the relevant data she tosses it to the side as any other peach. She just wants it.  That is the only peach that will satisfy. To not recognize that is not grasp the power and effects of beauty. I think I was taught the same lesson many years ago.  I was in a car with a mentor of mine. I was still in high school, and dating this girl. My mentor, he tells me, "Adrian, if you don't think you have the most beautiful girl in the world, it's not going to work out." I thought he was being impossible. Of course I could never thin...

What is the difference between pornography and art, if there is one at all? It may be difficult to define, but easy to recognize.  

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.