This is a crossover episode in which Thomas joins forces with Scott Hambrick and Karl Schudt from the Online Great Books Podcast, to discuss the classic essay Art and Scholasticism by Jacques Maritain.
Maritain argues for an objective view of both art and the artist, bringing an orderly, scholastic, Thomistic approach to understanding aesthetics. Mirus says, “Maritain gets art better than any other philosopher who came before him in the Western Tradition.”
For Maritain, art is “a virtue of the practical intellect that aims at making.” The virtue or habitus of art, Maritain writes, is not simply an “interior growth of spontaneous life”, but has an intellectual character and involves cultivation and practice.
The trio also talks about how fine arts and practical arts have been cloven off. How can we hold them both in esteem without denigrating the other?
Scott says, “If we really know what art is then we will be more connected to honest work— that will be a refuge from this intellectual confusion, this metaphysical disgustingness, around us.”
Links
Buy Art and Scholasticism https://clunymedia.com/products/art-and-scholasticism
Read Art and Scholasticism for free online (inferior translation) https://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/art.htm
Learn more about Online Great Books https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-27-always-wanted-to-study-great-books-heres-how-youll-actually-follow-through-scott-hambrick/
Join Online Great Books with 25% off your first three months via this link https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/
This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio