The Artist and
The Beautiful
By
Martin L. Cowen
III
This
essay invites the reader to identify and activate the Artist within herself.
This Artist performs the Beautiful person—mind and body.
Followers
of our recent thought will recall that we are impressed with Professor Joe
Sachs’ translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean
Ethics. Sach’s translation makes clear that the goal of ethical action is
the Beautiful. From Saint Thomas Aquinas we learn that Beauty is composed of
three elements: wholeness, harmony, and radiance. We propose that the Beautiful
is a perception, meaning that Beauty simply strikes you, rather than being the
subject of analysis (though it can be analyzed). We respond to the charge that
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder with the admission: Yes, it is! (To be asserted
in a future essay: the assessment of the Beautiful has subjective universality and is binding
upon all human beings.) We have asserted that in order to perceive the
Beautiful, one must be properly trained. For example, only a properly trained
lawyer can perceive as Beautiful a legal brief. We observe that Ayn Rand’s
ethical claim that the goal of ethical action is a flourishing life is almost
co-extensive with Aristotle’s claim that the goal of ethical action is the
Beautiful. A flourishing life is a Beautiful life. However, Ayn Rand’s
formulation, like Newton’s physics that breaks down near light speed, breaks down at
the margin of life and death. And, finally, we argue that a Beautiful death is among the goals people
seek. A Beautiful death not part of a flourishing life, logically, therefore,
a more comprehensive theory is required, to-wit: Aristotle’s.
In
preparation for our introduction to the Artist within us, consider the
following:
During
our recent study of the 1988 television documentary, Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, we learned
that the religious event called “born again” is a psychological phenomenon
involving the movement from an animalistic way of being to the quintessentially
human way of being and thinking. An animal acts from instinct to satisfy basic
needs, such as food, drink, and sex. The character of Shakespeare’s Falstaff as
depicted in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Falstaff
(1893) is an example of a human being acting immoderately from the
animalistic motives of food, wine, and sex.
The
movement from animal to human does not involve discarding our animalistic
nature, but regulating the animalistic nature and integrating it into the human
nature, with a view toward the Beautiful. To use the language of aesthetics,
the human being integrates his animal nature into the whole of his human being, renders the animalistic elements proportionate to one another and proportionate to the whole human being (in
other words, brings them into harmony),
and, in the case of the true artist, affects radiance. “Ad pulchritudinem tria requiruntur: integritas,
consonantia, claritas.” Thomas Aquinas. [For beauty three things are required:
wholeness, harmony, radiance.]
To illustrate
the importance in philosophical and religious thought of the moderation of our
animalistic nature, consider that religious ascetics, by definition, deprive
themselves of food, wine, and sex. They do this precisely to bring their full
attention to the essentially human parts of the human being. We do
not recommend asceticism; we call attention to the practice of asceticism as evidence of our view that immoderate consumption of food, wine, and sex are
perceived as problems by ascetics, theologians, and ethical philosophers.
The
ascetic would say that he suppresses the animalistic in order to accentuate the
spiritual. “Spiritual” means “of or pertaining to consciousness.” The mental
elements of human being are the quintessentially human elements.
Again,
we look to Aristotle for the quintessentially human elements. Aristotle is the
first and greatest of categorizers. Aristotle categorizes the human excellences
in his Nicomachean Ethics. (Some
translations use the word “virtues.” We prefer “excellences.”) Among the human
excellences are these: courage, temperance, liberality, magnanimity, proper
ambition, patience, amiability, sincerity, and wit. The intellectual
excellences are scientific knowledge, intuition, wisdom, art or technical
skill, and prudence. The penultimate excellence is friendship. The ultimate
excellence is rational contemplation. A full discussion of these excellences is
a rehearsal of Aristotle’s Nicomachean
Ethics. We have already studied Aristotle’s excellences in Fellowship of
Reason Sunday School and we will do so again. This essay is not the place for
that now.
Now,
we are prepared to meet the Artist, whose job it is to perform the Beautiful
human being using the animalistic and human elements listed above.
The
Artist is the isolation in thought of the capacity of healthy individuals to
stand aside from their active and emotive selves, to observe their acting and
feeling selves in the context of their lifetime and group or society, and to
influence their own action with a view toward the Beautiful. Apart from the
Artist, we are a soup of chemicals. Sometimes we feel sexy, sometimes
depressed, sometimes calm, sometimes nervous, etc. Commonly, we assign external
explanations for our current chemical state, as in: “I am depressed, because my
boss snapped at me today.” It may be that we are depressed because of our
boss. It is more likely that our internal chemistry set is presently configured
to make us depressed. One of the jobs of the Artist is to determine which is
true.
We
have used other labels for “the Artist.” “Homunculus” is from the Latin and
means “little man.” In the 1997 film Men
in Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, there is a scene in
which a dead alien is being examined in a morgue. The examination reveals that
the face of the alien is a hinged door behind which sits another tiny alien who
is dying. This homunculus is seated in a tiny chair in the skull of the
exo-alien with many controls at his fingertips. Evidently, the homunculus is
the driver of the eco-alien. As the homunculus dies he says: “The galaxy is on
Orion’s belt.” (We mention the quote merely to recall the scene to mind for
those who have seen the film.) This visual image of a homunculus is to provide the
reader imaginary content for the idea of “the Artist.”
The
function of the Artist has been identified by Aristotle as an “active
condition.” The Artist is the personification of the mental function of
actively attending to one’s actions, emotions, and thoughts with the intention
of guiding those actions and thoughts in the full context of the individual’s whole
lifetime within her group or society. The Artist is useful, in part, because
she is an abstraction. She is abstracted from the whole human being and
separated from the chemistry set which is our animalistic being. She is
objective, an observer of the whole individual from whom she has been
abstracted, seeing her individual (her host, herself) in the whole context of
her lifetime and group or society. We have imagined the Artist (or the
homunculus) as sitting on a high shelf in the room looking down upon us,
judging us, advising us.
The
active mental condition that the Artist performs requires effort. Because it is
not possible to sustain that effort continuously, habit (an Aristotelian idea) is
the necessary to guide us during the Artist’s breaks (off-time). The habit of
being courteous to others is a good default position when the Artist off-duty.
It might be that righteous indignation in a particular circumstance is the
Beautiful response, but in the absence of the Artist it is probably better to
behave courteously.
Let
us now consider what the Artist actually does.
The
purpose of the Artist is to compose a Beautiful human being. A human
being is an integration of animal and high mental functions over a lifetime in
society. Recall that three things are needed for the Beautiful: wholeness, harmony,
and radiance. The relevant whole is the lifetime of the individual
within his group or society. The relevant harmony is the proportionality
of all the parts of a human life with one another and with the whole lifetime
of the individual within his group or society. Radiance is more
difficult to define and to achieve. We have referred to radiance before in
friendly Fellowship of Reason conversations as “It.” Some performances and
performers have “It.” The opera star Renee Fleming has “It.” Michael Jackson’s
dancing in the 1983 video Thriller
has “It.” The 1955 novel Lolita by
Vladimir Nabokov has “It.” We have seen shows with ensembles of dancers all of
whom perform the required steps. Sometimes, within the ensemble, a single
dancer will stand out as having “It.” That dancer is sometimes the
choreographer. The denouement of the Clint Eastwood 2008 film Gran Torino is radiant (has “It).
“Radiance” or “It” is the quality of a work of art that arrests the mind of the
viewer, creating the experience of awe and wonder in the observer. To find
radiance in the whole of a single human life is rare. The largely fictionalized
life (as told in Plato’s Dialogues)
of Socrates is radiant. More often, individuals have radiant moments.
(Religions commonly claim a founder whose life is perceived by the adherents of
that religion as radiant: e.g. Jesus, Mohammad, and the Buddha.)
Here
is a marvelous passage from a famous philosopher on radiance (viewed
negatively), though he refers to radiance or “It” as “spirit.”
We say of
certain products of which we expect that they should at least in part appear as
beautiful art, they are without spirit,
although we find nothing to blame in them on the score of taste. A poem may be
very neat and elegant, but without spirit. A history may be exact and well
arranged, but without spirit. A festal discourse may be solid and at the same
time elaborate, but without spirit. Conversation is often not devoid of
entertainment, but yet without spirit; even of a woman we say that she is
pretty, an agreeable talker, and courteous, but without spirit. What then do we
mean by spirit?
Now
let us consider some examples of the Artist’s work.
Drink.
Excessive drinking at the Christmas office party, for example, is easily seen
as an ugly thing to do.
Food.
Food examples in the negative come to mind. Recently, my family patronized a
Pizza Hut with an all-you-can-eat lunch. The food bar was mostly empty. My
family notice two enormous (400 lbs. plus) people with a stack of discarded
pizza slices on their table with the toppings licked off. We estimate this to
be an ugly scene.
Generosity.
I share this personal example. We bought, in celebration of Thanksgiving, Chick-Fil-A
lunches for the twenty-five person office staff recently. The Artist judged that
repeating this extravagance within four weeks in celebration of Christmas would
be an act of gaudiness rather than one of generosity. Therefore, there were no
Christmas lunches from the Artist for the office staff.
Sex.
Sex is among the
three urges in need of moderation among these: food, wine, and sex. Most people
married or not, find themselves attracted to others from time to time with
varying degrees of intensity. The Artist can monitor this attraction. For
example, a person might see a professional sex artist and be attracted. The
Artist considers: (1) Does the professional sex artist have a STD (sexually
transmitted disease)? (2) Might the professional sex artist blackmail the
customer after the act or report the customer to the police? (3) Might the fact
of using the professional sex artist negatively impact the other relations of
the customer if the use became known? (4) Does the use of the professional sex
artist provide any lasting value (beyond 10 minutes or 10 seconds of sexual
pleasure)? In this case, the Artist has no trouble moderating the sexual urge
of her Host (the human being from whom the Artist has been abstracted).
Many
marriages end in divorce, often on account of sexual urges, notwithstanding the
sacred oath: “for better, for worse, until death do us part.” While there are
many circumstances, only one hypothetical example is considered here. Recall
that the question for the Artist is: What is the beautiful thing to do?
Divorce
lawyers know the impact of divorce upon children. The Artist observes the
following. The Host is married with two children, a boy aged 9 and a girl aged
7, both of whom love their parents. The Host is strongly attracted to another
person, not the spouse. The other person, who is reciprocally attracted to the
Host, is also married with children. Both are decent people with standing in
their communities. The Artist considers: (1) what will be the effect upon my
children over their lifetime if I divorce my spouse and marry this other
person? (2) What will be the effect upon the children of my beloved over
their lifetime if that person divorces the spouse and marries me? (3) What
will be the effect upon my formerly beloved spouse if I divorce my spouse? (4)
What will I think of myself if I break my solemn oath? (5) Will I be able to
trust my new oath-breaking spouse after we wed, should that person feel the urge again? Etc. The Artist judges:
What is the beautiful thing to do? The Artist decides.
An
example of the divorce situation is found in the 2000 film Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks. Hanks’ character is separated from
his beloved by an airplane crash and four years on a deserted island. Upon his
return, he finds his beloved, played by Helen Hunt, married with child. They do
not resume their love affair, because not resuming it is the Beautiful thing to do.
We
have introduced you to the Artist. Welcome your Artist into your life. Her job
is to perform the Beautiful Person that you are and can continue to be.
As
a New Year’s Resolution, invite your Artist to perform: to observe your
actions, to consider the full context
your actions over your lifetime and within your society or group. Take your
Artist’s advice on the Beautiful. She knows it well. The Beautiful is the goal
of ethical action. The Beautiful is a perception. You have been trained for the
Beautiful or you would not have read this essay. The Beautiful can be analyzed,
but that is not necessary in order to perform the Beautiful deed. Wholeness,
Harmony, and Radiance are your Artist’s guides.
Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year from the Fellowship of Reason.
It
is the Beautiful thing to do.
