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8120
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Objects can be beautiful which express nothing at all, such as the rainbow [Herbart, by Tolstoy]
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Full Idea:
Objects are often beautiful which express nothing at all, as, for instance, the rainbow, which is beautiful for its lines and colours and not for its mythological connexion with Iris, or Noah's rainbow.
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From:
report of Johann Herbart (works [1830]) by Leo Tolstoy - What is Art? Ch.3
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A reaction:
A nice counterexample to Tolstoy's own theory. The example is one of a natural beauty, but it would be harder to find examples in human art. How much the artist may feel, though, has little to do with the success of a work of art.
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7903
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The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
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Full Idea:
The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
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From:
Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
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A reaction:
What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').
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15674
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One can universalise good advice, but that doesn't make it an obligation [Finlayson]
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Full Idea:
'Early to bed and early to rise' is a universalizable maxim, but, though it might be good advice, there is obviously no such obligation.
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From:
James Gordon Finlayson (Habermas [2005], Ch.6:83)
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A reaction:
I take it that Kant's rule won't distinguish moral guidance from prudential guidance. Unfair, I think. I may be a lark, but when I universalise this maxim I see that it can't be willed as a universal rule, because we should tolerate the owls.
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