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The philosophical conception of beauty
Topic about beauty
The philosophical conception of beauty
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The question of whether beauty is a transcendental is something that has been debated throughout history. Saint Thomas Aquinas was one on those people who debated that topic. In order to fully understand the question one must first learn about Thomas Aquinas, what he defines as beauty and transendentals and then finally how the question. “Is beauty a Transcendental?” had been contemplated over time.
Thomas Aquinas was a theologist who lived from 1224 to 1274 A.D. He was born to an aristocratic family and spent his early years in the kingdom of Sicily. When Aquinas was young there was a clash between the pope at the time and Frederic the second, the conflict between the civil and ecclesiastical authority was the first of many conflicts that would influence Aquinas’ theological and philosophical writings. When Aquinas and his family moved to the University of Naples, he began reading the works of Aristotle. Aquinas looked up to Aristotle’s work and was influenced from it. He then completed his studies in Paris where eventually he became a teacher in the Faculty of Theology. He traveled from Rome to Paris living in various places until he died in 1274.
Aquinas’ writings have a strong center in theology but also leaning toward Christian Philosophy. He is also considered the father of Thomism. Aquinas often took a religious spin on his work to better society. This can be seen when Aquinas mentions that God had “equipped the human mind to capture it” (Spicher). It being the knowledge of the world around us. Aquinas was regarded a close friend to the church, some even saying that he was the ideal Catholic. He provided logic to prove God’s existence, giving the church more power. He did this by first stating that somethings could be und...
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...e (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest)” source. From that definition, beauty is Subjective; appealing towards ones pleasures and taste. The modern definition of a transcendental is described as “not experienced but knowable: independent of human experience of phenomena but within the range of knowledge”.
There is no concrete answer to this question of if beauty is a transcendental. If you go off of St. Thomas’ definition of beauty and transendentals then the short answer would be no. The longer answer is debatable. The modern take on this question follows some of the same paths.
Works Cited
Spicher, Michael. "Medieval Theories of Aesthetics ." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., 11 Dec. 2010. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.
College Binary. "Three Minute Philosophy: Thomas Aquinas." CollegeBinary. YouTube, 24 Apr. 2008. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.
Examining the two works against each other as if it were a debate makes it a bit clearer to compare. Aquinas, reveals his argument under the groundwork that there are essentially two methods of understanding the truth. One being that it can be surmised through reason an logic, and the other being via inner faith. On the surface at this point it could be argued that this ontological determination a bit less convoluted than Anselm, yet I tend to think it could be a bit more confusing. This is what leads him to the claim that the existence of God can be proven by reason alone or “a priori”. Stemming from this belief he formulated his Five Proofs or what he called the “Quinquae Viae”. The first of which is fairly simple based on the fact that something in motion had to have been moved. Agreeing that something set it in motion therefor there must have been a...
Religion was an important part to the medieval society and the development of medieval synthesis. An important person that contributed to this was Saint Thomas Aquinas between 1225-1274. His “Summa Theologica” was an important element that influenced the synthesis. The Summa Theologica simply means theological summary. His idea presents the highest example of the medieval synthesis of faith and reason. The summary included the proof of existence of God and man. It described the relationship between the two and how a man’s reconciliation with the Divine is possible through Christ. This shows that Aquinas believed the cosmological argument that shows proofs for the existence of God and its reason. Aquinas Summa Theologica also described the nature and purpose of human being. He devoted his attention to the nature of God and its role that show relationship between God and man. Aquinas tried to explain the origin and purpose of the universe. He also tried to show the different roles that live in the universe and their purpose. Aquinas never doubts...
Thomas Aquinas was born the 13th century in Italy. At fifteen, Thomas Aquinas was sent to the University of Naples. During this time, he was exposed to Aristotle. Although Aquinas did not agree with many of Aristotle’s arguments, he fell in love with his style of argument. It was also during this time he learned to use this method to preach, with other Dominicans. He went on to study with other friars in Cologne. Then, he was sent onto Paris where he settled the strike between the papal authority and the professors who taught Aristotle. In 1260, he wrote his master...
Transcendentalism is a movement that practiced morals that were seen as unorthodox. Two of the major premises that shaped the life of a Transcendentalist were the presence of God in nature and empowering individualism. Both of these tenants proved their importance by continuing to influence modern society, life, and thought. These influences have demonstrated to provide a positive impact. They have led to both advancements and reform unto which have improved our way of life. Without these valuable principles, this modern era would not be where it is at today.
Aquinas made an enormous effort to make logic and religion work together, ultimately choosing to drop his logical writing and commit himself to pursuing salvation. Aquinas’s efforts to link logic and his religion parallel today’s continued efforts to force religion into the sciences or to attempt the reverse. But his struggle also acted as a direct view into medieval western Christian culture; the western Christians repeatedly encountered problems in the academic realm with fitting Christianity and higher thinking together which, would occur for far longer than Aquinas’s time. But, if one looks at the struggle in less educated groups it mirrors Aquinas’s except, rather than fitting logic and religion together there is an effort to combine religions or religion and superstition together. Second to Aquinas as an example for religion’s effect was what I discovered whilst researching my presentation topic. I had been under the impression that, as in modern times, the medical focus would be anatomical or chemical. However, as most aspects of medieval culture are, the world of medicine was focused on the spirit. This spiritual focus remained through the middle ages and was catered to by humourism, astrology, and Christianity. While medicine’s focus did indeed limit it in some ways on a physical level, there were still great
The word Transcendentalism, as used at the present day, has two applications. One of which is popular and indefinite, the other, philosophical and precise. In the former sense it describes man, rather than opinions, since it is freely extended to those who hold opinions, not only diverse from each other, but directly opposed. (1)
Her beauty is very non-traditional: "features were not of that regular mould which we have been falsely taught to worship in the classical labors of the heathen".
Transcendentalism was a movement that began in the 1830s through the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. It has to do with self reliance, nature and the connection between man, God, and nature. It tells you to listen to oneself and go by one's own choices instead of what society tells one to do. It shows the beauty in nature and all of what can come out of it. People today often don't think that way anymore and have argued that Transcendentalism has died out over the years. However, one may need to take into account modern conception of individuality and the beauty of nature. Transcendentalism has not died out and is still thriving in American culture through music of Twisted Sisters, Nirvana, kendrick Lamar, and The Beatles
Scholars Press, Atlanta : 1991. Armand Maurer. Being and Knowing: Studies in Thomas Aquinas and Later Medieval Philosophers, Papers in Mediæval Studies, no. 10. Pontifical Institute of Mediæval Studies, Toronto : 1990. Thomas Aquinas.
Both Abelard and Aquinas were the two leading followers of scholastics of their time. Summa Theologica and Sic et Non, to this day, are controversial ways man has looked for reason in finding the truth about God and the divine order of life. The views on the "natural world" were challenged without challenging the Christian faith, while being followers of the Christian faith.
Emery, G. (2007). The Trinitarian Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas. New York, New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
Philosophies of Art and Beauty Edited by Hofstadter and Kuhns, (Chicago: University of Chicago press, 1976) chapters one and two for an overview of the aesthetics of Plato and Aristotle.
In Leslie Marmon Silko's "Yellow Woman and a Beauty of Spirit", true beauty is not a physical or mental state, one separate from the other. Rather, beauty is a culmination of characteristics that include honesty, friendliness, and caring, outward behaviors with inward feelings and intentions that cause or intend harm to others. In this particular reading, beauty is evident in your relationships with nature and fellow human beings and how you relate to those around you. While I was born in the United States, where the term "beauty" is often used to describe a person's physical characteristics, I see it as coming from within as well as in how a person interacts with others in their community and world. In fact, I would agree with Merriam Webster's definition; “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirt.” (Merriam) This definition encompasses all of the senses that one has available to them in order to determine what beauty is to each individual.
Thomas Aquinas was a teacher of the Dominican Order and he taught that most matters of The Divine can be proved by natural human reason, while “Others were strictly ‘of faith’ in that they could be grasped only through divine revelation.” This was a new view on the faith and reason argument contradictory to both Abelard with his belief that faith should be based on human reason, and the Bernard of Clairvaux who argued that one should only need faith.
Aquinas,was more empiricist because he followed the route of Aristotle. As to Augustine who wasn’t empiricist. Aquinas believed senses are how we find the truth, opening your eyes to the bigger picture. Aquinas simply believed that abstraction is a process that takes place in the human mind, and that person, thats seeing multipl objects, such as a basketball, will be able to create this random idea of a basketball in their mind, which would be done by by the ideology of “active intellect” a process in which Aquinas concieved. Aquinas built from the ground up using Aristotle’s ideas of the intellect and how we understand information we come across. Aquinas was conflicted by the fact that or minds can understand something he refers to as internal copies of what we see, feel, smell, or hear. The “passive intellect” is the the intellect that knows material objects, thats what Aquinas believed to be how we know all objects. To know what phantasms actually are, we require a passive intellect to actually know understand what we are seeing. The active intellect is the part of the mind that is able to create from knowledge of the passive, kind of like a memory card. Again Both Aquinas and Augustine agree upon the fact that God is the ultimate knowledge and nothing or nobody can or will ever know as much as God, this is