Truth and Beauty

Philosophy, as the process of inquiry, is a science, a quest for truth. An expression or formulation of a theoretical system, as a product of this process, is an art form, at least from an artistic point of view.

Peirce in Chapter 19:

The work of the poet or novelist is not so utterly different from that of the scientific man. The artist introduces a fiction; but it is not an arbitrary one; it exhibits affinities to which the mind accords a certain approval in pronouncing them beautiful, which if it is not exactly the same as saying that the synthesis is true, is something of the same general kind.

EP1:261

Northrop Frye in Fearful Symmetry (1947, 88):

No work of art claims to be more than one of an infinity of mental syntheses. It includes no solid body of impersonal truth; it suspends judgment on the inherent truth of all creeds and regards all explanatory and dogmatic systems as art-forms.

Frye’s ‘work of art’ appears to have its own point of view (which is not necessarily that of the artist or the reader). Since it is a symbol, we surmise that the life of a symbol endows it with a point of view. Frye’s expression of that view is a scientific one, insofar as he is trying to tell the truth about art; and Peirce’s assertion that the mind’s ‘approval’ is the common factor in beauty and truth can be regarded as a work of art.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.