21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

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14. The Soul Seeks Beauty First

‘Beauty’s nothing

But beginning of Terror we’re still just able to bear.

And why we adore it so because it seriously Disdains to destroy us.’

Rainer Maria Rilke — Duino Elegies

‘It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified.’

Friedrich Nietzsche — Birth of Tragedy

‘Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.’

Simone Weil — Gravity and Grace

The word ‘aesthetics’ was invented by German philosopher, Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (Philosophical meditations on some matters pertaining to poetry). He wrote: ‘The end of Aesthetics is the perfection of sensuous knowledge.’ At once we have the link between pleasure and beauty. This is further discussed by Alexander Lowen:

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