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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]
| 22338 | An unexamined life can be virtuous [Murdoch] |
| 22337 | Philosophy must keep returning to the beginning [Murdoch] |
| 23563 | Philosophy moves continually between elaborate theories and the obvious facts [Murdoch] |
| 22343 | If I attend properly I will have no choices [Murdoch] |
| 22339 | Love is a central concept in morals [Murdoch] |
| 22341 | Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living [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] |
| 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] |
| 22348 | Ordinary human love is good evidence of transcendent goodness [Murdoch] |
| 22349 | Art trains us in the love of virtue [Murdoch] |
| 22350 | Only trivial virtues can be possessed on their own [Murdoch] |
| 22351 | Only a philosopher might think choices create values [Murdoch] |