Introduction by Ralph McInerny The essays in this volume, indebted
in great part to Jacques Maritain and to other Neo-Thomists,
represent a contribution to an understanding of beauty and the arts
within the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition. As such they
constitute a different voice in present-day discussions on beauty
and aesthetics, a voice which nonetheless shares with many of its
contemporaries concern over questions such as the relationship
between beauty and morality, public funding of the arts and their
educational role, objective and universal standards of what is
beautiful. In the tradition in which the contributors of this
volume reflect, beauty manifests itself in the order of the
universe, an order that provides human reason with a window onto
the transcendent. For Aristotle and Aquinas the natural order
grounds both art and morality, and yet it is this very order which
has been called into question by modern science and philosophy.
Instead of pointing us to a suprahuman order, the beautiful then
points to the order of human freedom and creativity. Reflection on
the beautiful since the modern philosopher Immanuel Kant has thus
often taken a subjectivistic turn. Because of the importance of
beauty and art in human existence, in man's education and life as a
moral and political being, an alternative should be sought to any
reduction of the beautiful to a purely subjective experience or
cultural construct. The Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition, in
dialogue with modern and contemporary conceptions of the beautiful,
provides us with just that alternative, and thus the essays herein
represent a decisive step in the "journey for Thomistic
aesthetics." THE CONTRIBUTORS: In addition to the editor, the
contributors to the volume are: Brian J. Braman, Matthew Cuddeback,
Christopher M. Cullen, S.J., Patrick Downey, Desmond J. FitzGerald,
Donald Haggerty, Wayne H. Harter, Jeanne M. Heffernan, Thomas S.
Hibbs, Gregory J. Kerr, Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., Daniel McInerny,
Ralph McInerny, James P. Mesa, John F. Morris, Ralph Nelson,
Katherine Anne Osenga, Carrie Rehak, Stephen Schloesser, S.J.,
Francis Slade, John G. Trapani, Jr., and Henk E. S. Woldring. ABOUT
THE EDITOR: Alice Ramos is associate professor of philosophy at St.
John's University.
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