Contrary to John Keats 'truth is beauty and beauty truth...that's all you need to know.'
Well, I am afraid, not quite, for truth and beauty are poles apart. For truth occupies the alethic
( modalities of truth)
pole of the intellectual sphere and beauty the aesthetic pole.
The aesthetic pole comprises belles lettres, music, art for arts sake - here the aesthetic is a matter of
emphasis not boundaries, whereas the alethic comprises the sciences , in the broad sense a
Wissenschaft (systematic pursuit of knowledge), comprising science, maths and all the hard an soft sciences in between,
Beauty in the alethic sense can be the beauty of a scientific theory.
The alethic and the aesthetic need a third, the ethical to round out the trinity
the true
the good
and the beautiful
Well, I am afraid, not quite, for truth and beauty are poles apart. For truth occupies the alethic
( modalities of truth)
pole of the intellectual sphere and beauty the aesthetic pole.
The aesthetic pole comprises belles lettres, music, art for arts sake - here the aesthetic is a matter of
emphasis not boundaries, whereas the alethic comprises the sciences , in the broad sense a
Wissenschaft (systematic pursuit of knowledge), comprising science, maths and all the hard an soft sciences in between,
Beauty in the alethic sense can be the beauty of a scientific theory.
The alethic and the aesthetic need a third, the ethical to round out the trinity
the true
the good
and the beautiful
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