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Single Idea 22715
[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 6. Value of Art
]
Full Idea
The work of the great artists shows up 'art-for-art's-sake' as a flimsy frivolous doctrine.
Gist of Idea
Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake
Source
Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.218)
Book Ref
Murdoch,Iris: 'Existentialists and Mystics', ed/tr. Conradi,Peter [Chatto and Windus 1997], p.218
A Reaction
She keeps referring to tragedy (as the greatest art), but it is hard to see how we learn love and morality from a great pot or a great abstract painting. Wilde makes the doctrine frivolous, but I think it contains a degree of truth. Music.
The
22 ideas
from Iris Murdoch
20765
|
Man is a brave naked will, separate from a background of values and realities
[Murdoch]
|
22591
|
We know perfection when we see what is imperfect
[Murdoch]
|
22341
|
Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living
[Murdoch]
|
23563
|
Philosophy moves continually between elaborate theories and the obvious facts
[Murdoch]
|
22338
|
An unexamined life can be virtuous
[Murdoch]
|
22337
|
Philosophy must keep returning to the beginning
[Murdoch]
|
22339
|
Love is a central concept in morals
[Murdoch]
|
22343
|
If I attend properly I will have no choices
[Murdoch]
|
22340
|
It is hard to learn goodness from others, because their virtues are part of their personal history
[Murdoch]
|
22342
|
Kantian existentialists care greatly for reasons for action, whereas Surrealists care nothing
[Murdoch]
|
22345
|
Moral philosophy needs a central concept with all the traditional attributes of God
[Murdoch]
|
22348
|
Ordinary human love is good evidence of transcendent goodness
[Murdoch]
|
22346
|
Moral reflection and experience gradually reveals unity in the moral world
[Murdoch]
|
22347
|
Appreciating beauty in art or nature opens up the good life, by restricting selfishness
[Murdoch]
|
22350
|
Only trivial virtues can be possessed on their own
[Murdoch]
|
22349
|
Art trains us in the love of virtue
[Murdoch]
|
22351
|
Only a philosopher might think choices create values
[Murdoch]
|
22709
|
We should first decide what are the great works of art, with aesthetic theory following from that
[Murdoch]
|
22712
|
Art and morals are essentially the same, and are both identical with love
[Murdoch]
|
22713
|
Love is realising something other than oneself is real
[Murdoch]
|
22715
|
Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake
[Murdoch]
|
22714
|
Because art is love, it improves us morally
[Murdoch]
|