Thank you for this post. This really resonates with me. I am a big appreciator of beautiful high quality menswear. If you look at old pictures, people in US universities used to wear suits every day. Nowadays, wearing sweatpants on campuses is ok even for instructors. I think you are doing something really profound by rooting the lack of aesthetics in philosophy, and that is 100% to the point. By the way, it’s a really nice suit! I love chalk-stripe flannels. Want to get one for me too in the future.
"today . . . aesthetics is seen as optional at best, suspect at worst. We have severed beauty from morality, and in doing so, have made both weaker"
Recall the last line of Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Truth is beauty, beauty truth." Complicating matters, morality and ethics are not the same thing. One could say today's world which largely subscribes either to subjectivism or material phenomenalism, we suffer the consequences of compartmentalizing morality, ethics, and truth.
"What people call comfort is often just a reflection of what their culture expects."
A useful addition to the argument would be a consideration of the distinction between personal comfort and social comfort.
"And from a place of good aesthetics, good politics will emerge." and "from a place of good aesthetics, good politics will follow."
This observation may be overly optimistic. Plato's advocacy that philosophers be the ones to rule the body politic notwithstanding, the Greeks pursued aesthetics but their politics were as fractious as ours.
"It is books, movies, and architecture . . . that shape the direction of a society."
The fly in the ointment is, for example, Leni Riefenstahl 's "Triumph of the Will, Wang Ping's "The East is Red" and Mikheil Chiaureli's "The Vow"
"Politics does not shape culture"
Maybe not, but it sure worked under Stalin
"The effort to maintain a standard of elegance is an act of deliberate control over one's life. "
Taken too far, as it has been in the past, we find 19th century dandyism a la Oscar Wilde and company.
Holy moly, you nailed it! "The modern obsession with comfort is nothing more than an excuse to avoid the effort." In 2019 Morgan Stanley officially went "business casual" to conform to the image of their investment banking clients in Silicon Valley during the dotcom craze. But the trend really began in America in the 1960s with everyone adopting the jeans and t-shirt uniform.
Thank you, Mark! And yes, I think you can also find a parallel with the philosophic trends of the 1960s that were celebrated in Woodstock and their ongoing impact on the issue of aesthetics.
This post is pure fun. I hope you enjoyed writing it, as it’s fun to read.
I would think that there is a tighter tie-in to metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. If your central purpose is to live well and to promote living well (which is implied) the the passion to live well would be to explore that reality, know what living well entails, and why living well is good, as well as satisfying. 👍👍
Thank you for this post. This really resonates with me. I am a big appreciator of beautiful high quality menswear. If you look at old pictures, people in US universities used to wear suits every day. Nowadays, wearing sweatpants on campuses is ok even for instructors. I think you are doing something really profound by rooting the lack of aesthetics in philosophy, and that is 100% to the point. By the way, it’s a really nice suit! I love chalk-stripe flannels. Want to get one for me too in the future.
Thank you!
Beautiful article!
"today . . . aesthetics is seen as optional at best, suspect at worst. We have severed beauty from morality, and in doing so, have made both weaker"
Recall the last line of Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Truth is beauty, beauty truth." Complicating matters, morality and ethics are not the same thing. One could say today's world which largely subscribes either to subjectivism or material phenomenalism, we suffer the consequences of compartmentalizing morality, ethics, and truth.
"What people call comfort is often just a reflection of what their culture expects."
A useful addition to the argument would be a consideration of the distinction between personal comfort and social comfort.
"And from a place of good aesthetics, good politics will emerge." and "from a place of good aesthetics, good politics will follow."
This observation may be overly optimistic. Plato's advocacy that philosophers be the ones to rule the body politic notwithstanding, the Greeks pursued aesthetics but their politics were as fractious as ours.
"It is books, movies, and architecture . . . that shape the direction of a society."
The fly in the ointment is, for example, Leni Riefenstahl 's "Triumph of the Will, Wang Ping's "The East is Red" and Mikheil Chiaureli's "The Vow"
"Politics does not shape culture"
Maybe not, but it sure worked under Stalin
"The effort to maintain a standard of elegance is an act of deliberate control over one's life. "
Taken too far, as it has been in the past, we find 19th century dandyism a la Oscar Wilde and company.
Holy moly, you nailed it! "The modern obsession with comfort is nothing more than an excuse to avoid the effort." In 2019 Morgan Stanley officially went "business casual" to conform to the image of their investment banking clients in Silicon Valley during the dotcom craze. But the trend really began in America in the 1960s with everyone adopting the jeans and t-shirt uniform.
Thank you, Mark! And yes, I think you can also find a parallel with the philosophic trends of the 1960s that were celebrated in Woodstock and their ongoing impact on the issue of aesthetics.
This post is pure fun. I hope you enjoyed writing it, as it’s fun to read.
I would think that there is a tighter tie-in to metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. If your central purpose is to live well and to promote living well (which is implied) the the passion to live well would be to explore that reality, know what living well entails, and why living well is good, as well as satisfying. 👍👍
Thanks Ilene! Really glad you enjoyed my essay.
Fashion is what you buy, style is what you do with it. Aim up. Set a new standard!