There are different ways in which one might consider the question, “What is the beautiful?” Taking a classical approach to the question, we may consider beauty as a quality of being related to truth and goodness. This is because beauty, along with truth and goodness, is considered a “transcendental”, which is a property of being. The transcendentals are also convertible, meaning that which is beautiful is also good and true.
This section of the blog explores beauty through various artistic expressions. By engaging and raising the mind through beauty, art leads to contemplating higher goods and ultimate truth. Art is also a place in which we can explore the need for quiet and contemplation, resting in what is beautiful (the truest meaning of leisure). The creation of beautiful art is a good done for its own sake, and it is also an important means for staying grounded in what is truly human. Beauty helps us understand the ways we, as human beings, awaken to the world and use our intellectual powers.
Come Lord and help your people, bought with the price of your own blood, and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.[i] In our last post, we wrote about the importance of recovering the capacity to see. With the philosopher Josef Pieper we considered the...
As human beings, all knowledge is received through our senses. These may be our external senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch) or internal senses (imagination, memory, estimative power, or common sense, which “coordinates” the information).[i] We “know”...