Category: Beauty/Aesthetics
V. Dependence is the Only Psychological Fact
Joy is the Only Psychological Fact “All day I think about it, then at night I say it: Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere,...
IV. Entitlement is the Only Sin
Entitlement is the only sin. “Value the least gifts no less than the greatest, and simple graces as especial favours. If you remember the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or mean, for nothing can be valueless...
III. A Rough Definition of Gratitude
Gratitude Is the Spontaneous Emotion of Thanksgiving and Happiness in Response to Some Unmerited Good. When someone gives you a gift you did not expect and did not deserve, you ought (and most people do) feel a spontaneous sense of...
Worse than Asparagus: Charlie Lehardy on Jazz
Charlie Lehardy thinks jazz is (gasp!) worse than asparagus: Jazz may be worse than asparagus. As a musician, I have great respect for the virtuosity of jazz artists, most of whom are masters of their instruments. I can relate to...
II. Appropriate Emotions
Appropriate Emotions The first and foremost fact we must acquaint ourselves with is that certain emotions are appropriate given a stimulus and certain others are not. See CS Lewis for a detailed and robust argument in Abolition of Man. For...
Is Beauty Objective?
If you are like most people alive today, you believe ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ This is exactly what I was taught and grew up believing — but no one ever told me that (in view of...
The Body of Music
Music has a body. Or, as Jeremy Begbie argues in the latest Books and Culture, the expression of music is inseparable from corporeality. Music making and music hearing are ways we engage the physical world. Even in the case of...
Selling Classical Music
Is classical music dying? While it may depend upon what we mean by “classical”,there has been concern among the cultural elite that the symphony no longer holds its position of cultural importance. Case in point: while the LA Philharmonic opened...
500 Years of Women in Art — in 3 Minutes
A lovely video slide-show has shown up on YouTube which runs through 500 years worth of paintings depicting feminine beauty. The viewing experience is quite mesmerizing, as the video’s creator melds each successive face with a fluid ease. (The classical...
the thorns of a rose – a myth
A fascinating narrative in the style of the Greek fables, written by unlikely author… “In ancient times, when the world was just beginning that is, there was a young lonely nymph named Rose. Rose was lonely because she wasn’t...