We are driven to the realist conclusion that beauty is evidence of the existence of 1+n objects: myself, the Mona Lisa, the dry…
We are driven to the realist conclusion that beauty is evidence of the existence of 1+ n objects: myself, the Mona Lisa, the dry air between us. Yet beauty is in none of these objects. What is uncanny and slightly frightening at times about beauty is that it can’t be located, yet it appears to emerge in interactions between things. Beauty then is a kind of lie that is told of an object when it interacts with another object: a beautiful lie. It is as if beauty is everywhere, everyone, for all time. Yet it emerges from a pure contingency. It is timeless only insofar as it is based on objects that seem to be fleeting. Morton, Timothy. Realist Magic: Objects, Ontology, Causality.Ann Arbor, MI: Open Humanities Press, 2013.