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From: cher@ihlpf.UUCP (Mike Cherepov)
Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: poetry and philosophy, beauty and truth
Message-ID: <747@ihlpf.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Sep-86 21:55:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpf.747
Posted: Mon Sep 29 21:55:34 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 2-Oct-86 20:11:21 EDT
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I did not get the original posting by Jan, so there is probably
a thing or two missing...
> "Basis" is unclear. Emotion *may* sometimes hinder  inquiry.   In

Clarification: I was talking about decision making leading to conclusions.

> >... but how about this assertion: "humans have
> >evolved from lower animals" (no tricks with word "lower", please).
> >True or false? Beautiful or ugly? Can one still say "both, yes and no"?

> > True and beautiful. It harmonizes an awful lot of  seemingly
> > independent facts. 

Truthfulness of this statement does not depend on what we think or know 
about it, whereis 'beauty' is never divorced from human perception
(in every usage of the word except for Jan's, it seems).
As the Colonel remarked before, some people think it's sleazy.
Case in point is 'love' condition where contrary to all evidence
appeal and good qualities of the loved one(s?) are exaggerated. Poetry.
Beauty. A better estimate of these qualities is provided by reason.

Qualities and appeal of a poem are destroyed by the attempt to 
express it in terms strictly understandable by our reason.
So, I think that the value of specifically 'poetic' component of
a poem for the poem's informational content is very small.

Jan can parry by expanding the notion of beauty to overlap reason,
but probably not to the point where there's no distinction between the
two. Then again, he'll come with his own way to parry...
		Mike Cherepov