As I said....subjective! As for the lion devouring a philosopher, we need to look at heraldry where similar images are presented as "good". Or in Egyptian art, from Old to New Kingdom, we find the image if the king about to club an enemy who cowers at his feet and is grasped by the hair. A symbol of protection. And for the ancient Egyptians, a moral good...and beautiful.
Dispatching the enemy is a very human image...evident from antiquity to the present (war posters and the like today). WC WC --- On Mon, 12/22/08, GEOFF CREALOCK <[email protected]> wrote: > From: GEOFF CREALOCK <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Moral philosophers > To: [email protected] > Date: Monday, December 22, 2008, 5:34 PM > Michael: Would a moral philosopher attach any qualifier to > the event of the > lion in your illustration devouring, not a gazelle, but > instead, the moral > philosopher? > Geoff C > > >From: Michael Brady <[email protected]> > >Reply-To: [email protected] > >To: [email protected] > >Subject: Re: Enough "taste" > >Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:23:24 -0500 > > > >On Dec 22, 2008, at 4:33 PM, William Conger wrote: > > > >>Living according to our elastic and ever-evolving > beliefs is a form of > >>satisfying our desires which is the experience of > the beautiful. In this > >>little plan, any and all experiences can be > beautiful. Since we know > >>that is not the case then either our beliefs are > faulty or the beautiful > >>is left undefined. > > > >In moral philosophy, the will is understood to be > directed toward the good > >(for the individual), whereas the intellect is directed > toward the true. > > > >Desire is an impulse toward a thing, an urge to acquire > or attain it, and > >thus is a manifestation or expression of the will. It > is active. > > > >Beauty, on the other hand, is passive. It is an > analytical formulation of > >sensory experience, and thus beauty is a virtue of the > intellect. Nothing > >in nature is beautiful. Or ugly. No natural event is > good or bad. Spiders > >and slugs and shit are all alike in being neither > beautiful or ugly. A > >lion eating a gazelle, a fire consuming animals in the > trees, crustaceans > >crushed by the waves, all of these events are neither > good or bad. And > >because beauty is a perception that occurs at a > distance, it is not a > >quality that inheres in things in the world but a > human (moral) conclusion > >about their appearances. > > > > > >| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | > >Michael Brady > >[email protected]
