Is Beauty an Objective Feature of Reality? (QoW #1002)
About this episode
Dr. William Lane Craig discusses the nature of beauty and its objective versus subjective qualities in response to a listener's argument.
A listener from Morocco argues that beauty is like an emotion and not a property of objects, but says that doesn't make it subjective, since he considers emotions like fear objective too. Dr. William Lane Craig agrees aesthetic properties don't inhere in physical things (a chair isn't beautiful viewed from below; a piece of music's beauty isn't in the notes on a page), but rejects the "emotion in the mind" comparison itself. For Dr. Craig, fear actually is subjective, so equating beauty with it would make beauty subjective too. Instead, he holds aesthetic value is objective the same way moral value is: apprehended, not a property we find in things.
People in this episode
Host: William Lane Craig
Topics covered
- beauty
- subjectivity
- aesthetics
- emotion
- objective value
Keywords
- beauty
- objective
- subjective
- aesthetic properties
- emotion
- fear
- moral value
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Morocco
More episodes of Reasonable Faith Podcast
- Eternal Generation of the Son: Dr. Craig Responds to the Backlash
- Annihilationism and Penal Substitutionary Atonement Once More (QoW #1006)
- Why Not the Beatific Vision Now? (QoW #1005)
- A Megachurch Pastor's Eight Reasons for Leaving the Faith and Where They Go Wrong
- Bestiality Among Adam and Eve’s Immediate Descendants (QoW #1004)
- Life in the Intermediate State (QoW #1003)
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