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Monism and Pluralism

1989; Springer Nature (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-94-009-2452-9_6

0924-4530

T. Pawłowski,

The chief point of the controversy resolves itself into the question: Is there exactly one aesthetic value, or are there many of them? The monist would support the former alternative, the pluralist the latter. In antiquity, monism dominated; 'Beauty has only one perfect form', claimed the thinkers of the time. However, even in those days doubts were voiced, questioning the correctness of the view. One of the charges against monism was levelled by Plotinus towards the end of antiquity. Seeing beauty exclusively in terms of proportions means that only composite objects, those comprehending several parts, can be beautiful. Whereas, Plotinus maintains, there are simple objects like light, stars, gold (or, as we would call them today, patches of light or colour) which are beautiful, although not composite. In ancient Rome, with the development of the art of rhetoric, the Sublime was singled out as a dinstinct variant of aesthetic value.