Philosophy

Philosophy

Aesthetics Arguments from the Perspective of C .S. Louis

Document Type : Scientific-research

Authors
Maryam Seif
Farah Ramin
Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Humanities, Qom Uinversity, Qom, Iran.
10.22059/jop.2023.352526.1006761
Abstract
While discussions on beauty in the works of philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoreans, and others have been documented, it became a significant epistemological domain from the 18th century onwards. The connection between beauty and its truth has been articulated among Western philosophers as evidence for God's existence. The nature of the aesthetic argument and how it proves the existence of the divine through the beauties of the world is explored by Louis in a manner that the researcher seeks to analyze. Based on this, the writer, through sub-questions and a descriptive-analytical approach, aims to study and examine the dimensions of this issue. The research findings indicate that this argument attempts to prove the existence of God through both epistemic and ontological ways. These methods focus on our ability to recognize beauty or the inherent beauty in existence itself. C.S. Lewis's perspective on beauty is rich and distinctive, illuminating that he considers the longing for beauty a natural inclination connected to a dependency and, by establishing a link between the beauty of nature and the existence of God as the creator of the world, he provides evidence for this argument. Although challenges such as the rejection of natural inclination and the existence of counterexamples for satisfying human desires have been raised against this argument, it remains a novel initiative in the contemporary era. It continues to be a focal point of attention
Keywords
Aesthetic Argument
Epistemology
Ontology
C .S. Lewis
Theism
Subjects

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  • Receive Date 23 December 2022
  • Revise Date 15 March 2024
  • Accept Date 10 April 2023