Abstract
What place do experiences of beauty have in a meaningful life? A marginal one, at best, it would seem, if one looks at the current literature in analytic philosophy. Treatments of beauty within so-called “analytic existentialism” tend to suffer from four limitations: beauty is neglected, reduced to artistic production, saddled to theology, or taken as a mere application of a broader theoretical framework. These discussions fail to engage with the rich tradition of philosophical aesthetics. In this essay, I begin by responding to the contention that experiences of beauty cannot lend life meaning because they are passive. Drawing on work in philosophical aesthetics, I then argue that encounters with the beautiful count as genuinely meaning-conferring because they have features commonly taken as marks of meaningfulness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 51-63 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Ratio |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2023 |
Keywords
- analytic existentialism
- beauty
- meaning in life
- passivity
- transcendence
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Philosophy