The footnote about the Askemata is the part I keep thinking about. I've kept that kind of notebook. For years I filed it under high standards, and it took me a long time to notice what was missing from it: the people I had actually wronged barely appear. Almost every entry is about the distance between me and the man I had told myself I was. It wasn't repair, it was bookkeeping, and some part of me was pleased at how strict the books were. Self-punishment has never once cost me anything I would miss.
I'd like to accept that, but I don't think I've corrected it so much as gotten slower to trust it. The notebook is still there. What's different is that a few lines in I notice how pleased I am with my own thoroughness, and that spoils it just enough to be useful.
Thanks, Brittany. I knew almost nothing about Shaftesbury before reading this, but you've convinced me he's an important bridge between the Stoics and the Scottish Enlightenment.
What particularly struck me was the idea that beauty, harmony and virtue all reflect the same underlying order. Looking around the magnificent Baroque churches of Italy this week, I've been wondering whether the Church was expressing something similar: portraying Christ, the Virgin and the saints as beautiful because beauty reflects moral and spiritual perfection.
It also made me wonder whether Darwin belongs somewhere in this conversation. He would explain our attraction to beauty and virtue in evolutionary terms, whereas Christianity would see it as drawing us towards God. Perhaps these aren't always competing explanations but different levels of explanation. Evolution may describe the process, while philosophy and theology ask why we are the sort of beings who respond so deeply to beauty, goodness and transcendence in the first place.
Thanks for the insightful comments, Tim. Yes, Shaftesbury is an important precursor to the Scottish Enlightenment and its basis in Stoicism. Regarding Italian churches, I agree—the artists and architects who created these Renaissance masterpieces were looking back to classical ideals of order and proportion. @David Fideler writes a lot about the connections between Stoicism and the Renaissance, particularly in Florence. For the connections to evolution, I would recommend Dennis Dutton’s The Art Instinct. It’s an excellent book, and he walk through the evolutionary basis for art and beauty.
The footnote about the Askemata is the part I keep thinking about. I've kept that kind of notebook. For years I filed it under high standards, and it took me a long time to notice what was missing from it: the people I had actually wronged barely appear. Almost every entry is about the distance between me and the man I had told myself I was. It wasn't repair, it was bookkeeping, and some part of me was pleased at how strict the books were. Self-punishment has never once cost me anything I would miss.
Yes, being harsh is different from having high standards (for yourself and others). It's good that you have corrected this in your own practice!
I'd like to accept that, but I don't think I've corrected it so much as gotten slower to trust it. The notebook is still there. What's different is that a few lines in I notice how pleased I am with my own thoroughness, and that spoils it just enough to be useful.
Thanks, Brittany. I knew almost nothing about Shaftesbury before reading this, but you've convinced me he's an important bridge between the Stoics and the Scottish Enlightenment.
What particularly struck me was the idea that beauty, harmony and virtue all reflect the same underlying order. Looking around the magnificent Baroque churches of Italy this week, I've been wondering whether the Church was expressing something similar: portraying Christ, the Virgin and the saints as beautiful because beauty reflects moral and spiritual perfection.
It also made me wonder whether Darwin belongs somewhere in this conversation. He would explain our attraction to beauty and virtue in evolutionary terms, whereas Christianity would see it as drawing us towards God. Perhaps these aren't always competing explanations but different levels of explanation. Evolution may describe the process, while philosophy and theology ask why we are the sort of beings who respond so deeply to beauty, goodness and transcendence in the first place.
I'm looking forward to Part II.
Thanks for the insightful comments, Tim. Yes, Shaftesbury is an important precursor to the Scottish Enlightenment and its basis in Stoicism. Regarding Italian churches, I agree—the artists and architects who created these Renaissance masterpieces were looking back to classical ideals of order and proportion. @David Fideler writes a lot about the connections between Stoicism and the Renaissance, particularly in Florence. For the connections to evolution, I would recommend Dennis Dutton’s The Art Instinct. It’s an excellent book, and he walk through the evolutionary basis for art and beauty.