Decoupling beauty and truth: Lichtwark’s Education of the Eye

by John Hartley “Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible.” Noted the Russian novelist Fydor Dostoevsky, “God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.” When 18th century Scholars used anthropology, physiognomy, and phrenology to apportion value according to race and beauty, clearly something has gone terribly wrong. Yet…

The Wayward Gaze of Western Art: Cornicelius’ Corrective to The Mona Lisa’s ‘Dis-Integrated’ Smile

by John Hartley How does Leonardo’s masterpiece, arguably representative of the fatal juncture of Western Art, provide the philosophical basis for pornography? And how does the lost work of an obscure German painter seek to correct what Pavel Florensky called ‘dis-integrated personality’? In 1888, Georg Cornicelius, a relatively obscure German artist known primarily for his…

Akrasia and the divided will: The crisis of moral choice and the goal of human existence

by John Hartley “To err is human,” observed the poet, Alexander Pope. Yet, why do we consciously choose to err from right action against our better judgement? Anyone who has tried to follow a diet or maintain a strict exercise regime will understand what can sometimes feel like an inner battle. Yet why do we…

The injured bird – Conversations with a member of Wittgenstein’s ‘Swansea School’

by John Hartley One wet January I happened to attend a meeting of the Newman Association – a Catholic group concerned with ecumenism. Long tailbacks on the motorway meant the guest speaker, making his way from Birmingham, was delayed. When Archbishop Bernard finally appeared an hour later, I was deep in conversation with my neighbour,…