| Virtuism: Philosophy and the Aesthetics of Virtue Contributor(s): R. S. Pearson (Author) |
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ISBN: 1072854465 ISBN-13: 9781072854463 Publisher: Independently Published OUR PRICE: $18.95 Product Type: Paperback Published: June 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Aesthetics |
| Physical Information: 0.37" H x 6" W x 9" (0.54 lbs) 162 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Virtuism is about is the aesthetics of human virtue, how virtuous acts produce in us the same experience as great works of art. Witnessing or creating a virtuous act produces the aesthetic experience. The giving of the good feeling of the aesthetic or "art" experience gives evidence that life has a higher meaning and a divine purpose. The book "Virtuism -- Philosophy and the Aesthetics of Virtue" discusses this and other philosophical implications of this relationship.This book explores how the unverse acts in a way that is essentially "virtuous" towards us, in the long run, if we make an effort to act virtuous in it. The author started calling this philosophy Emotive Virtuism a few years ago because the idea of the emotional impact of human virtue played into philosophical questions very strongly. The author wanted to distance himself from the appearance of creating a simplistic philosophy because of the post-modernist critiques of narratives.Virtuism started out as aesthetic theory and then moved into reflections about other areas of philosophy. The author did not purposefully intend to create an "ism" because he has a somewhat post-modernist idea about being wary of new narratives. The author states: "Since people are starting to use the word "virtuism" (found out by my doing a search on Google) with no connection to my writings (much like the alteration of the word "Surrealism" having nothing to do with Andre Breton, the founder of Surrealism, writings), I figured I had better formalize it the way I originally intended, because I have a certain idea about the philosophy of Virtuism."Virtuism: Philosophy and the Aesthetics of Virtue is a philosophy book that draws on aesthetics and ethics. Virtuism started in the mid-1980's as an art theory. Like other art manifesto writers, like Andre Breton with his Surrealist manifestoes and Tristan Tzara with his Dada Manifestoes, the author was a young art theorist who was striving to do something new in the art world. Since everything shocking and scandalous seemingly had been done in the arts at that time, Virtuism became about the aesthetics of human virtue, how virtuous acts produce in us the same experience as great works of art. The author describes in his book how witnessing or creating a virtuous act produces the aesthetic experience. The book argues that the giving of the good feeling of the aesthetic or "art" experience gives evidence that life has a higher meaning, since in fact the aesthetic experience is so pleasant.One area the author discusses is how modern philosophy states that the existence of a benevolent God cannot be proven, but then modern philosophers go on anyway to write books overshadowed with the idea that there is no benevolent purpose to life on earth. Since the opposite view could be also taken as true, since it is supposedly equally unprovable, the book writes from the perspective of how to pragmatically get life to act benevolent to us. The book discusses other philosophical implications of this relationship such as the dubious value of religious and sectarian exclusionism, and the fact that much social science statistics seem to prove the value of the virtues.The author wanted to distance himself from the appearance of creating a simplistic philosophy because of the post-modernist critiques of narratives. Yet, philosophy and art are by necessity "ism-manufacturing" disciplines. For mathematics to grow, it must create new nouns and verbs, and philosophy and art must create new movements to grow. A person creating their own "ism" to the untrained mind is looked at dubiously. Yet, there are, every year, hundreds of new "isms" and new schools of thought created by academics and artists because of the ever present necessity for change and growth. |