"There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realise his conception of the beautiful."
-Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
This is my second time quoting from this book, but I could really go on forever. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde is my favourite novel, offering incredible insight into art, beauty, good, evil, sin, religion, and class.
This quote touches on an interesting philosophical concept. Could good and beauty exist without the parallel of evil and ugliness? Is it the contrast in which we discover true merit, the ability to compare that leads us to distinguish one from the other? I'm not a fan of philosophy and its roundabout tendancies, but this question intrigues me. I agree with the speaker of this quote. I believe that if we weren't aquainted with evil, then we could never appreciate the good in the world to its fullest extent.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
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Extending on what Hannah has said about the contrast and balance that good and evil give us, I once read an philosophic article on the balance of life. Simply stated, for anything in life, there must be contrast in order for balance; meaning that in order to have something positive, there must always be something negative to maintain balance in life. Importantly, as Hannah has said, this balance is required in order for us humans to fully appreciate and respect the things that we have in life. To everything, there will always be a good and a bad, an up and a down, a ying and a yang, a pro and a con; this is the balance of life that we live with in order to fully live.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that there must be contrast in order to have balance; otherwise the world would consist of a mediocre grey area. I do believe that beauty can be in the eye of the beholder, however it is generally pitted against the beauty of something else. Even things such as books and music-much less concrete than good vs. evil-are compared and ranked with each other.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post and comments.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I disagree completely with Wilde. Goodness and beauty can exist with or without evil. For example, I have never needed to imagine a concrete parking lot before I could enjoy a walk in the woods. All I imagine (if ugliness comes to mind at all) is I wish the whole world were as beautiful as this.
Think of an incredibly enjoyable moment in your life... something entirely beautiful and good... While you are appreciating it, do you need to think of something totally ugly and totally evil in order to enjoy it as beautiful and good? Human beings aren't so daft that they don't know beauty when they see it.
I am convinced that human beings innately know what goodness is and what beauty is. We may not be innately good or beautiful, but we know what beauty and goodness are and we often strive for them. I have always considered ugliness and evil as intrusions, not essential, in my understanding of beauty and goodness.