Not sure if this got sent. If so, sorry for the duplication. Flying blind as usual, I think admirable for Peirce means what it would mean to most. An action or actions that achieve a positive purpose either for an individual or in relationships. Peirce's modifier of reasonableness might be an evolutionary sense that the accumulation of such things moves toward a more reasonable community reality. Mona Lisa is like all creations a fixed thing and I would assume that Peirce might admire it or any other work and honor it for its still present effects. I imagine his musements afforded him a sense of beauty if indeed he felt progress in thinking and satisfaction at the thought.
*ShortFormContent at Blogger* <http://shortformcontent.blogspot.com/> On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 3:44 AM, Catherine Legg <cl...@waikato.ac.nz> wrote: > > > On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 9:23 AM, Gary Richmond <gary.richm...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> I want to conclude this note with a passage near the end of the book >> which I very much liked and have been reflecting on since. Forster >> writes: >> >> On [Peirce's] view, human beings are not cogs in a vast cosmic >> mechanism, but rather are free, creative agents capable of >> transforming the world though the active realization of intelligent >> ideals. The ultimate fate of the world is indeterminate and there is >> no guarantee that the forces of reasonableness will triumph. >> Nevertheless, the potential for victory is there. All it requires, he >> thinks, is a community of individuals who devote their energy to the >> pursuit of truth and goodness, a community united, not by mutual >> self-interest, but by a common love of reasonableness" (Forster, op. >> cit., 245). >> >> Cathy, this brought to my mind the discussion of Peirce's esthetics >> following Tom Short's fine talk in the Robin session at SAAP. Any >> thoughts on that in this connection? >> > *** > >> >> Yes that discussion was interesting - I wish we had had the time to >> pursue it further. This might not mean so much to people who were not at >> the talk (perhaps Tom Short might be persuaded to post a copy of it here). >> But anyway, Tom claimed the subject matter of Peirce's aesthetics was not >> the beautiful but the *admirable*. To test this, and because I was worried >> that the talk had mainly spoken at the general level, I asked about a >> specific example - the Mona Lisa, and whether a Peircean aesthetics as >> described by Tom might have anything to say about that work, and if so, >> what. > > > >> I was worried it looked like I hadn't really understood the very point >> Tom was trying to make, and Tom suggested that a painting of a beautiful >> woman is not the sort of thing Peirce has in mind, but Felicia Cruse said >> she wanted to hear what Tom had to say about it, and artworks in general. >> Then Rosa Mayorga pointed out that Peirce himself describes the subject >> matter of aesthetics as 'the growth of concrete reasonableness' (here is >> the connection Gary is pointing out) so we should work with that. > > > > >> So I guess the question is whether a painting by Leonardo da Vinci might >> somehow contribute to the growth of human concrete reasonableness. Doesn't >> seem to me it couldn't. That painting in particular, apparently people have >> been known to stand in front of it for hours and not necessarily be able to >> articulate why. > > > I hope I have captured an accurate enough snapshot of the discussion as > memory of such things is inevitably selective. > > Regards to all, Cathy > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to the PEIRCE-L > listserv. To remove yourself from this list, send a message to > lists...@listserv.iupui.edu with the line "SIGNOFF PEIRCE-L" in the body > of the message. To post a message to the list, send it to > PEIRCE-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to the PEIRCE-L listserv. To remove yourself from this list, send a message to lists...@listserv.iupui.edu with the line "SIGNOFF PEIRCE-L" in the body of the message. To post a message to the list, send it to PEIRCE-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
