The Ascetic Aesthete
How Ascetism is the Right Relationship to Beauty, Real Care for the Self, and Love for the World
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/nja.v34i69.160692Keywords:
Beauty, Asceticsm, Self-Care, Love, ConsumptionAbstract
What is the role of beauty for the individual navigating the modern world? What does it say about the moral status of people, the value of matter, and the relationship between the two? I will argue that the right relationship to beauty is an ascetic one, a practice of saying no to the self, in order to truly care for the self and love the world. This is a matter of constant training, re-evaluating, and witnessing ourselves and the world
References
1 For some of the contemporary views on the value of art and beauty, see Peter Goldie, “Towards a Virtue Theory of Art,” British Journal of Aesthetics 47, no. 4 (2007): 372–87; Peter Goldie, “Virtues of Art and Human Well-being,” Aristotelian Society Supplementary 82, no. 1 (2008): 179-195; Peter Goldie, “Virtues of Art,” Philosophy Compass 5, no. 10 (2010): 830–839; Dominic McIver Lopes, “Virtues of Art: Good Taste,” Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 82, no. 1 (2008): 197–211; Dominic McIver Lopes, Being for Beauty: Aesthetic Agency and Value (Oxford University Press, 2018); Nick Riggle, “Toward a Communitarian Theory of Aesthetic Value,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 80, no. 1 (2022): 16–30.
2 For a discussion on the aesthetic value question, see James Shelley, “Punting on the Aesthetic Question,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 102, no. 1 (2021): 214–219; James Shelley “Simple Theory of Aesthetic Value” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 81, no. 1 (2023): 98-100; James Shelley, “Beyond Hedonism about Aesthetic Value in Disinterested Pleasure and Beauty: Perspectives from Kantian and Contemporary Aesthetics, ed. Larissa Berger (De Gruyter, 2023), 257–274.
3 For a further discussion on aesthetic value, see Keren Gorodeisky, “Aesthetic Value: The View from Here,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 81, no. 1 (2023): 85–86.
4 For a further discussion of the relationship between beauty and consequences, see Alexandra Hayes “Wisdom Regarding Beauty. Self-effacement and One’s Right Relationship to Beauty,” Contemporary Aesthetics 21 (2023).
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