“I think we are losing beauty, and there is a danger that with it we will lose the meaning of life.” — Roger Scruton
British philosopher Roger Scruton has produced a one-hour documentary about the role of beauty, in which he affirms the need for beauty in human life and in which he documents the rejection of beauty in postmodern art and its loss in modern architecture.
At any time between 1750 and 1930, if you had asked educated people to describe the aim of poetry, art, or music, they would have replied, “beauty.” And if you had asked for the point of that, you would have learned that beauty is a value, as important as truth and goodness. Then in the twentieth century, beauty stopped being important. Art increasingly aimed to disturb, to break moral taboos. . . . Not only has art made a cult of ugliness, architecture, too, has become soulless and sterile. And it’s not just our physical surroundings that have become ugly. . . I think we are losing beauty, and there is a danger that with it we will lose the meaning of life.
Watch the video here.
Why Beauty Matters – Por que a beleza importa from jinacio on Vimeo.
