Our Deepest Desires by Gregory E. Ganssle

Author:Gregory E. Ganssle [Ganssle, Gregory E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2017-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Eight

THE ARTIST

When I worked at Yale, I would often walk through Phelps Gate to get onto campus. Under the arch was the door to the classics department. For a while, there was a sign on the door: “Annoy your parents. Major in Classics!” I loved it! Some academic pursuits simply do not seem practical. As a philosopher, I have had my share of questions about my course of study. Why would anyone be a philosopher? It seems so . . . odd! What will you do with a philosophy degree? Behind these questions there often lies an assumption about what is important or what counts as real. In the real world—the emphasis is always on real—classics or philosophy finds little place. This view of what is real or what is important is part of a larger critique of the humanities and the arts. We hear this larger critique whenever business leaders accuse universities of failing to prepare students for the work of business. What is the good of such study? These fields do not prepare students for the real world—that is, the business world. While philosophers may be dismissive of the concerns of business leaders, there are serious issues at stake. Is there actually a place for beauty in the real world?

I recall attending a panel discussion on the humanities. During interaction with the audience, one student referred to a recent scientific advance that had good hopes of reversing some kinds of blindness. She asked the question: “Given that we could be working to help blind people see, why should we consider investing our lives in the humanities?” One professor on the panel, without missing a beat, took the microphone and said, “Because we want there to be something worth seeing.” The creation and contemplation of beauty complements rather than competes with the pursuit of more practical achievements. Both have value. If there were not things worth seeing, there would be little motivation to cure blindness.

There is a current of thought that the pursuit of beauty and other things, such as learning, belong to what we might call high culture, and therefore they are luxuries. Such pursuits are available only to the privileged few who have the leisure and resources to enjoy them. As a result, the pursuit of beauty is challenged on ethical grounds. First, preoccupation with beauty is thought to distract us from more important issues that require addressing. Second, high culture strikes many people as elitist. Only the rich and the educated can participate. A third charge against the value of beauty is that attention to the beauty of a person or thing is intrinsically exploitive. It is an attempt to use the object of perception for one’s own purposes. It is, to use Immanuel Kant’s ethical terms, to treat the beautiful person merely as a means and not also as an end.1 What can we say about these charges?

It is true that the way our culture trades in beauty can be deeply exploitive. We see this reality in our fixation with the stars of television and film.

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