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    Carmelics

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

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    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 Material things can truly be beautiful, even if Shaftesbury's characters sometimes seem to suggest otherwise.

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

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Shaftesbury's notion of beauty-as-unity implies that beauty consists in possessing a unified form.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.A material thing really can possess a unified form.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Therefore, a material thing really can have the property of beauty.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Francis Hutcheson, Shaftesbury's direct intellectual heir, systematically extended inner-sense beauty to material objects while preserving the core unity-in-variety criterion.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If the inner sense can perceive beauty in mathematical theorems and moral characters, it can equally register unified form in perceptible material things.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Denying beauty to material things would render Shaftesbury's aesthetics incapable of explaining our warranted aesthetic responses to nature, undermining his own natural theology.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Shaftesbury's own texts praise natural landscapes and the ocean as beautiful, indicating material things are genuine aesthetic objects for him.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Shaftesbury's hierarchy places mental beauty above material beauty without eliminating the latter, just as Plato's Symposium ascends without annulling lower beauty.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

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