Re: What do you think is necessary in order to have an excellentcomposition?

["Krispen Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daryl Shawn" <highhorse@mhorse.com>

> But I don't entirely agree that the merit of Art is based on subjective, 
> isolated emotional reaction. I don't think it fallacious to state as a 
> point of fact that Bach was a great composer, Shakespeare a great 
>writer, 
> Van Gogh a great painter, Michelangelo a great sculptor, all of whom 
> created great works. My own emotional reaction isn't a solid basis to 
> argue otherwise. There are criteria other then personal emotion to judge 
> art; innovation, craft, and the perception of value over a period of 
>time, 
> fr'instance.

It isn't falacious, according to my framework of thinking, unless what you 
mean
by "Bach was a great composer" is that "greatness" is some objective and
evaluative property that "is possessed" by a person or piece of work. If 
what
you mean by "great" is a set of empirically validated criteria, then 
that's 
fine;
otherwise, I'd argue the statement is meaningless...again, this is just one
radical perspective in philosophy. I'm not pushing this on anyone, just
putting my own stake in the ground, despite how unpopular it may be
or how many folks on the list may object.

> Would you argue that the question "What is Beauty?" is not a worthwhile 
> topic for philosophical discussion? On this point, I'm just curious.

It believe is was very germane two thousand years ago and in the middle 
ages, e.g,
Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine, Anselm, etc. Reams and reams of text 
have
been written to attempt to answer this particular question. Some 
philosophers
today and in the early 20th century consider this a naive and misleading 
question;
some even consider it meaningless, like myself, if we are after anything 
like
an external truth or objective state of affairs; or if the question is not 
analyzed
and translated into a different type of statement.

Kris