Philosophers Key to The Development of Ideas of Beauty?: Philosophy Forums

Philosophers Key to The Development of Ideas of Beauty?

Dusty
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Posted 04/02/08 - 03:22 PM: Subject: Philosophers Key to The Development of Ideas of Beauty?	#1
Philosophers Key to The Development of Traditional Ideas of Beauty The box wouldn't let me fit that in its entirety as the title. Anyway, who were the philosophers key to the traditional development of the ideas around beauty? I've read of Pythagoras and Kant, but don't fully understand their role and I need a better overview. Keep it chronological if you can, if you could offer some philosophers who evolved traditional ideas into such areas as ironic appreciation or what have you that would be great. Thanks.

PhilipF
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Posted 04/05/08 - 01:45 PM:	#2
The key philosopher in the development of the Western idea of beauty is Plato. He linked Greek notions of physical harmony with aspirations towards a higher spiritual and intellectual ideal. This was revived in the Renaissance where Neoplatonist thinkers like Ficino had an influence on art and poetry via patrons like the Medici. Irony has no traditional link with beauty as such but also has its origins in Greek art . Dramatists like Sophocles used irony in a special sense i.e. where the audience was in on the secret and the character on the stage was not . Thus there was a tension and depth due to the disparity between reality as percieved by the protagonist and the situation as perceived by the more 'knowing' spectator .

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