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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 Physical objects are not really beautiful, and the wise person should aspire to care only about the beauty of minds.

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

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Plato's Symposium (178a–212c) presents physical beauty not as a mere illusion to transcend but as a necessary epistemic ladder toward higher beauty.
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    • 2.If physical beauty is a genuine rung on the ladder of ascent, dismissing it entirely undermines the very process by which wisdom about beauty is achieved.
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    • 3.Shaftesbury's own neo-Platonic framework thus contradicts the claim: the wise person must honor physical beauty as constitutively enabling, not merely as a stage to abandon.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (X.6–8) argues that virtuous perception of sensible particulars is itself a form of eudaimonic excellence, not a deficiency of wisdom.
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    • 2.If the virtuous person's refined sensory responsiveness to beautiful objects is part of flourishing, then aspiring to care only about minds misidentifies where aesthetic virtue actually resides.
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    • 3.Dismissing physical beauty as unreal conflates metaphysical hierarchy with normative prescription, a fallacy Aristotle's hylomorphism explicitly resists.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Shaftesbury establishes a hierarchy in which beauty of mind is superior to beauty of physical objects.
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    • 2.Shaftesbury's points about beauty of mind suggest physical beauty is merely an early stage of appreciation that the wise person eventually leaves behind.
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