Overcoming the destruction of the ideal

According to Patricia Watwood, the late Martha Erlebacher talked about how each artist has their own unique “form sense,” that is, an inborn sense of perceptual tendencies, which they uses in making decisions about what they see or create. (American Arts, Spring, 2014). Martha believed that great art is about sex and death, with “Big Beauty” as the succor for the human condition. But alas, even Big Beauty is not enough.

A form sense or pattern sensibility also seems to apply to philosophy and philosophers. The form or pattern of theological materialism written about here, moves across a consilience of fields. If we consider beauty alone, or truth alone, or goodness alone, we can end up with hedonism, or only abstractions, or a morality that excludes truth and beauty. But it turns out that one thing does encompass these virtues and values and that is Godhood, defined as the zenith of the material evolution of truth, beauty and goodness.

This sacred ideal becomes the foundation of art philosophy, as the affirmation of the sacred, which has always defined the greatest art. But this also applies to philosophy, politics and culture in general. Pursuing a balance of truth, beauty and goodness can be an aid in a rational and humane eugenics as well, as we evolve toward Godhood in the cosmos. This is a form sense that can overcome the modern destruction of the ideal.