Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A movement without a name ...

... but no less valuable for that: Loving transcendence towards a good life. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

This, by the way, is a very accomplished review.

The central project of making the most important ideas come powerfully alive in our lives requires a further step that has not yet been fully taken: the fusing of philosophy and art. We have seen the worst possible version of this in the art world. The disastrous notion of conceptual art took what was worst in each of these disciplines and bundled them together. The worst thing about philosophy is its dangerous tendencies to clever-clever obscurity. The worst things about art is its tendency to self-absorption and the mood swings of fashion. What we need is the alignment of the best ambitions of each. Philosophy aims at truth and clarity; art aims at elegance and allure.


I would also note, apropos of another point made in this review, that a preoccupation with one's own well-being equates to a preoccupation with self, and therefore practically precludes a capacity for love, which necessarily shifts attention away from the self toward the other. That's one reason I try to avoid people who spend too much time in the gym or at spas and who are always going on about what is healthy or what isn't, always in the thrall of some fad or other. Bloody self-centered bores.

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