Aesthetics, Virtue, and the Dangers of Defamation
The Philosophy of Beauty and Inner Harmony
The concept of beauty is the property of things that infuse spiritual delight in us. Artistic or outer beauty refers to products that conform to aesthetic principles, either through the imitation of nature or by intuition of the spirit.
Essential Properties of Beauty
- Harmony: The union and combination of sounds, colors, or lights, achieved through accord.
- Equilibrium: Simultaneous and different states in a work of art where opposing forces act upon it, mutually offsetting each other.
- Proportion: The arrangement, agreement, or correspondence of the parts of a work with the whole, or between related things.
Cultivating Inner Beauty
Inner beauty is a combination and twinning of truth, goodness, and spirituality in the soul (inner harmony).
- The best use of our spirit is to seek truth and strive to be good.
- It makes us capable of seeing, feeling, and experiencing the wonder hidden in everything around us, which is one force.
- This gives us harmony with the world, with others, and with ourselves.
- It allows us to discover significance that man is not capable of expressing in rational terms.
- All these actions help us to fully realize our inner beauty.
Ethics of Speech: Calumny, Defamation, and Sincerity
Defining Social Harm
- Calumny: A serious accusation or imputation made against someone that is maliciously false.
- Defamation: Damage done to a person's reputation by publishing things that harm their good standing. The key difference from calumny is that defamation can be based on things that are true or false.
- Gossip: Murmuring negative comments about someone, whether true or false. Generally, gossip seeks to alienate one person from another.
Botticelli's Allegory of Calumny
Analysis of Botticelli's painting, The Calumny of Apelles, as an allegory:
- Each person represents a virtue or vice.
- Characters include: The Calumniated, Slander, Hatred, Lies, Envy, The Bad Judge, Ignorance, Suspicion, Truth, Justice, and Penitence.
- The Temple and the Torch symbolize the rapid propagation speed of slander.
The Virtue of Sincerity
Sincerity is characterized by simplicity and accuracy; expressing oneself in a manner free of pretense.
Ethical Corollaries for Communication
- Every slander requires retraction.
- One must distinguish between calumny and defamation.
- Try never to speak ill of someone who is not present.
- When one speaks ill of someone who is absent, even if one is convinced that what one says is true, one speaks as a slanderer.
- Do not tell others what you do not want them to say about you.