Art, the transcendents, and secularism

[KEP1983]

I found this video through Facebook. The presenter is Roger Scruton, a famous philosopher to specializes in aesthetics.

rclvideolibrary.com/2012/12/08/why-beauty-matters/

He first discusses how art has always been about “truth, beauty, and goodness.” Around 1950 our culture abandoned these transcendent ideals and no longer have any higher ideals. We’ve reduced ourselves to our animalistic nature.

Likewise, Modern Architecture abandoned the ideas of beautiful art and architecture, and adopted a belief of “function over form.” That is, the function of a building became more important than appearance of it.

Roger Scruton states that humanity needs these transcendent ideals of truth, beauty, and goodness.

About half way through Roger Scruton develops the idea that the source of these ideas is the Divine, and that beauty is to point us towards God.

This is what the Catholic Church says about art, too.

I wasn’t sure if Roger Scruton has any religious beliefs; but I just read online that he’s a traditional Anglican.

(I haven’t watched the whole video, and have mostly listened and not watched, so I apologize if there’s anything inappropriate in there.)

See what you all think!

 

[snarflemike]

In many ways, the 20th century is truly the Ugly Century, and the 21st is starting off much worse. We can only hope (indeed, it must be a certainty) that humanity will abandon such a hopeless, ugly and death-celebrating worldview.