Why Beauty Matters. (2nd January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Scruton, Roger
• Is Part Of: Monist. Volume 101:Number 1(2018)
• Page Start: 9
• Page End: 16
• Publication Date: 2018-01-02
• Subjects: Monism -- Periodicals; 147.3
• DOI: 10.1093/monist/onx031
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0026-9662

Abstract

Abstract: Judgments of beauty are neither subjective nor arbitrary, and are a necessary part of practical reasoning in any attempt to harmonise our activities and ways of life with those of our neighbours. The creation of a neighbourhood, a place, a home, or any other settlement in which people of different occupations and views reside side by side involves coordination of a kind that only aesthetic judgment can reliably achieve. And that is why judgment of that kind exists, and why a rational being who has no grasp of it is incapacitated.