The Transcendentals: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty

This video is part of our Just and Sinner Essentials series. Here, I discuss the transcendentals and how they impact how we live in the world today.

[jmh]

As a philosophy nerd, I greatly enjoy your outlines on the ideas that have so molded the world, especially within a Christian context.

[redeemedzoomer]

1:10:42 don't insult my gas station hot dog!!!

[Ben_G_Biegler]

Good work here I really liked the book as well. Its my experience that in the Church we tend to acknowledge that the first two are objective, however many Christians in my experience belive beauty is subjective. This has ramifications for how we treat the liturgy, view beauty in nature, and on the art and culture we create.

[EricBryant]

This was a very good distillation of a lot of the history of philosophy. Thank you, Dr. Cooper!

[quinnhunt]

You've been on a roll recently, AC 24 on the mass, introduction to Lutheranism, and this have all been some of your finest work, thank you!

[Alden]

The format and subject matter of the last two videos has taken your instruction to a new and higher level. Stay with it.

[capturedbyannamarie]

I have heard this phrase a lot doing charlotte mason with my kids. Really appreciate the deep explanation of where it comes from.

[aaronhayes]

I am going to use this in either senior-level Government or Theology/Apologetics...I'm even tempted to use your book as a textbook...This has so many applications in terms of how we view the world, the arts, ethics, government, etc...I'm not sure why Christians are so hesitant or uninformed about this issue. One of the reasons I became a Lutheran from the Holiness/Evangelical tradition was the beauty found in music (especially Bach and the Baroque), and wondering why most Christians have abandoned this great tradition in the name of pragmatism....This is awesome. I need to write a review on amazon for the book itself...

[arthurbrugge]

Very interesting video! Taste and beauty are clearly two distinct things. I like both music and movies which I admit are not beautiful, nor of high quality. Regarding for example Ethiopian iconography; when I was first introduced to it, it seemed strange, but I still saw the beauty in it. The relativist mind seems to want to equate taste with beauty, so as to justify their (often) radical and eccentric taste.

[gagegarlinghouse]

If you want a defense of art against Plato that is still within the classical frame, I'd suggest Sir Philip Sidney's "Defense of Posey" (Poetry). It's also known as "An Apology for Poetry."

I'd also wager that Burke's view of the sublime is worth adding to that conversation.

[AntonBryl]

Percy Dearmer based his views on liturgy partly on the idea that Goodness, Truth, and Beauty are all manifestations of God in the world, and so art aimed at beauty is appropriate as an aspect of worship.

[richardtallach]

There are many examples of the lie of necessity/mercy in the extremis of war, etc, in Scripture. A full list is given in John Frame's "Doctrine of the Christian Life".

[kjhg]

Re: Kant's categorical imperative, you want something that is more flexible, but Paul says the following: "And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just" (Rom. 3:8)

[torbjorntoll]

An excellent presentation of the lost heritage of the West that needs to be relearned and reappropriated. Roman Catholic philosopher like Peter Kreeft have carried this heritage, but unless the reformation traditions regain their classical philosophical roots, their outlook on life will continue to suffer from cultural amnesia. The same is true of the cultural West as a whole. It cannot move forward until a vision of truth, goodness and beauty is recovered. Back to the sources of a Christian humanism!

[michaelleapley]

Could you do a video on the Straussian movement and its interpretation of Plato? I've recently started learning about it in a class I'm taking at Davenant Hall. I'd be interested to get your perspective.

[ThatsMyChad]

I don't think I've ever heard you cover it, but what are your thoughts on the transcendental arguments for God? I actually find them pretty compelling even from my cursory glances of Bonjour and other modern epistemologist that have utilized it.

[setheasler]

I would love to see you and the theologypugcast do an episode together!

[trecarsmi]

What do you think of the idea that the transcendentals (truth, goodness, beauty) correspond with the theological virtues (faith, hope, charity/love) and the walls containing frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura depicting the branches of human knowledge: School of Athens (religion/theology), Virtues (law), and Parnassus (poetry/literature) respectively?

It's also interesting to see how the cardinal virtues (justice, prudence/wisdom, temperance/moderation, and fortitude/courage) were defined by Plato and Aristotle and adopted by the Church Fathers, and it's so cool how the Logos serves as a common thread in the truth seeking disciplines! It seems to reconcile any tensions of balancing the two pillars of the west (reason and revelation, Athens and Jerusalem, or Greco-Roman culture and Christian tradition).

[litigioussociety]

When you mentioned gore, some of the appeal is a matter of curiosity, not pleasure. This applies to a lot of things. I know that's the case for me. There's a curiosity of the anatomy of people, how medical procedures are done, how injuries occur, etc. This of course becomes corrupted in many people resulting in them having an appetite for such things.

Like i said, this applies to many things. When it comes to physical appearance of private parts, a person can be curious about it, admire it, or lust for it. This is why there's the debate over when it's acceptable to make nude or near nude art, because the debate is whether intention alone matters, perception alone matters, or both. I think a Christian certainly should see it as both for anything that's portrayed in media, because it's a sin of omission to knowinlgy produce something in an uncessary way that could have been cleaned up, which Hollywood does all the time, such as having a character with a vulgar mouth that doesn't need to be as vulgar as portrayed to get the point across, or in the case of gore, the character can be killed in a way that doesn't require showing it in unnecessary detail. That kind of detail is only necessary for medical instruction, or forensic studies.

Also, with classical gore, many people simply admire the silliness of the practical or special effects used to emulate something gory. A good example would be the melting faces of the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[joabthejavelin]

Master Yoda teaching us about the force. Lol.