Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Beauty must be the first law of the visual arts.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The visual arts can achieve their highest purpose through the expression of moral truth and human suffering, not merely sensuous beauty.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Hegel's aesthetic theory demonstrates that art's telos is the sensuous shining of the Idea, which in Romantic art transcends beauty toward spiritual inwardness.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.If art's essential function is to externalize spirit, then beauty is a contingent feature of some art forms, not a universal law governing all visual arts.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Lessing's own argument in Laokoon permits visual art to depict the most pregnant moment of an action, which may be one of terror or violence rather than beauty.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If visual art overcomes its static character by capturing the maximally expressive instant, expressiveness—not beauty—becomes the governing criterion of success.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Visual art has an essentially spatial and static character.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Everything in nature is incessantly changing and transitory.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.There is an essential conflict between the spatial, static character of visual art and the changing, transitory character of nature.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.