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Full Idea
The appreciation of beauty in art or nature is not only the easiest available spiritual exercise; it is also a completely adequate entry into (and not just analogy of) the good life, since it checks selfishness in the interest of seeing the real.
Gist of Idea
Appreciating beauty in art or nature opens up the good life, by restricting selfishness
Source
Iris Murdoch (The Sovereignty of Good [1970], II)
Book Ref
Murdoch,Iris: 'The Sovereignty of Good' [RKP 1974], p.64
A Reaction
Not keen on 'spiritual' exercises, but I very much like 'seeing the real' as a promotion of the good life. The hard bit is to know what reality you are seeing in a work of art. [p.84] Her example is the sudden sight of a hovering kestrel.
Related Idea
Idea 22349 Art trains us in the love of virtue [Murdoch]