Why Beauty Matters in Classical Education

[@caseyjacobs3629]

I always end up buying the books Martin is reading. 😅. I do agree with the title that beauty is not subjective however my take away from your conversation is that beauty is subjective. I think it would be interesting to hear about the shift in thinking with the renaissance and "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" making beauty subjective. I think Andrew Kern has spoken about beauty being objective. I so thoroughly enjoy hearing the core four! Blessings to you.

[@joelturnbull4038]

Another interesting perspective is the “aesthetics of action” and proprioceptive art, which I came across in the work of philosopher Thi Nguyen. He argues that we can have aesthetic experiences by doing things such as rock climbing. If he is right, then beauty is not limited to sight, or even any of the traditional five senses, but can be found in other senses, too.

[@wewin1776]

Thank you for talking about beauty. We've been on this topic in our homeschool setting. I am with Tanya. When I think of beauty, creation and nature come to mind. And some of my students do too. Beauty now is under attack and distortion in the name of "creativity" and subjectivity. That's why I'm at constant battle with my 10 year old son who thinks Minecraft is beautiful! But I believe he will soon understand there is a difference between beauty and just "pleasing to the eyes". Happy Thanksgiving to yall from TX!

[@crystaljames3132]

Stay the course mom. We are battling video games and social media but like you said eventually they will understand and appreciate what you are doing now. Hopefully they will so pass it on to their kids.

[@annhoover9075]

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to your conversation - thank you ! Two DuMaurier books with male protagonists: The Scapegoat, The House on the Strand. Both are excellent novels, and DuMaurier is one of my favorite authors. And a good way to enjoy David Copperfield might be to listen to the audiobook narrated by Tadhg Hynes - his Dublin accent made the book thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you again - what a delight to listen to my favorite subjects: classic literature, classic art, classic homes. And you left me with a new way to think about beauty: it is when things are in their proper place.

[@christiannefenzl751]

I don’t believe Aquinas restricts beauty to just sight. He goes onto elaborate the three things needed for beauty: harmony, clarity and something else- I don’t remember. In Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man the main character- Stephen Dedalus- gives a very good summary of Aquinas’ view of beauty. Joyce should be read as part of the tradition to go deeper into Aquinas’ ideas on beauty and aesthetics.