Goodness, Truth and Beauty Explained | Mark Fowler

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]So there is this idea again running through the tradition of Jerusalem and Athens that beauty is in communication with other forms of truth and what is the good and it comes from Plato that idea when what do I mean by beauty? I'm thinking for example it's it's that which is lovely. Uh, and an illustration is I some years ago when my daughter was two, we were here in Brisbane where I used to live um on the Kangaroo cliffs and it was sunset and the sun was setting and it was lighting up the river below us and the um the buildings or the windows of the buildings and I picked up my 2-year-old daughter and I said, "Look, darling, at this look on her face was one of absolute amazement as a 2-year-old and she was communing with something or something innate to her was appreciating something beyond pure materiality.

[00:00:54]And if I can express it this way, Werdsworth and Cage, they you might have heard of this CS Lewis's famous um illustration. So Werdsworth and Cage, the two poets are going for a walk together and they come across a waterfall. There's two tourists at the waterfall and one of the tourists says, "Isn't it pretty?" And then the other tourist says, "No, it's sublime."

[00:01:14]And Cage agreed with the assessment that it's sublime, meaning that it's in communication with something that's beyond the pure material.

[00:01:24]And so the enlightenment told us there is nothing but science, pure materiality. And the romantics responded to that to say no there is something more. And indeed when as I said earlier nature said if the philosopher tells us there's a relationship between what is true and what is good um then we will oppose them but if they also add what is beautiful we will thrash them and again as I said that's the seinal thought of postmodernism. So what I'm doing in the book I'm exploring how is it that CS Lewis he said he summarized it this way the natur the nature of beauty he said after the sunset fades thinking of my daughter again um after the symphony ends we have this moment of illusion sometimes he calls it whereing we're communion with the eternal we know that there is something more than the material and Roger Scrutin the English philosopher describes as you know beauty makes us feel at home in this world friends It's good to be able to announce my new Substack, which will be known as our civilizational moment. The Substack will explore the pressing issues facing countries like ours, loosely called the West, the democratic countries, and how they're playing out in the country that I love and hope you do, too, ours, Australia. I'll offer thoughts on the events and trends alongside contributions from some very knowledgeable friends and people I respect. Click the link in the description, subscribe, and share the essays with your friends and family.

[00:02:59]Let's do everything we can to bring back the Australia that we love, but which we're losing.

[00:03:06]So, it's the acknowledgement that when I see something beautiful, there's something sublime in that. It's in a communication with something that's true and good and Christ Jesus Christ when so that idea of true good relations from Athens from Jerusalem Jesus you might recall when the woman shortly before his crucifixion poured burial oil on his feet and she was reprimanded. There was discomfort there from those who were in the room because apparently it was socially inappropriate.

[00:03:37]Jesus said do not reprimand her. Leave her alone. She has done a beautiful thing. It's the only time he use the word beauty in the gospel is with meaning. The word he uses is the Greek word for beauty. And what he's saying there is she has done something that is in communion which with if he's using the Greek notion and we can't be c certain of that but if he's using that notion he's saying she has done something that is in communion with what is eternally fitting and good for this moment. She alone saw what's coming this week, this weekend which was his death.

[00:04:09]So both in Jerusalem and in a Athens we have this idea that there is a communication between what's beautiful and what's um true and good and nature sets himself up against that. So what I'm exploring in the book is what does the law do with these great philosophical undercurrens and if I might if I might say you know um there's there's a religious element to this. So Harry Styles, I mentioned previously that um you know politics flows from culture but culture flows from philosophy. Harry Styles in his um one of his current hits and I know this cuz I've got teenagers but one of his songs says in this world it's just us.

[00:04:52]You know it's not the same as it was.

[00:04:54]And he repeats that on and on. In this world it's just us. You know it's not the same as it was. That's a claim of philosophy. It's a claim of postmodern philosophy. He's basically saying God is dead and we killed him. But he goes on in the same psalm to say here and he gives us whether he's conscious of it or not, he gives us a case study in where postmodernism goes. Um the idea that I have no communion with something that is other than the material. I am just materiality, pure materiality.

[00:05:26]Um he says, "I'm sitting alone. No one's calling. My dad's not calling. I might as well just pop another pill. And that's what's being fed into our children's minds at the moment in this world. It's just us, you know, it's not the same as it was. And so Kagar, he set himself up against that idea. I can just conclude with him. Kikard.

[00:05:50]He said that if it truly is that this world is nothing but um a brief moment in time, a material moment where I exist and then I collapse into this void that is inescapable, a giant moore of a beast, he calls it, into which I escape, then we have nothing left to us but despair. And that's what Harry Styles is is giving us in that perfect case study of postmodernism's effect. But then Kikuga goes on and he says this is why it is not despair.

[00:06:24]This is why because God gave us the poet, the orator and the hero. So what Kikard's claiming back against materialism and back against the enlightenment and back against postmodernism is that the poet will declare beauty to us. And it's interesting the notion of beauty has tripped up many philosophies uh through the western intellectual project. um postmodernism certainly being one as I've just been describing.

[00:06:51]Um uh we might also say Kant's theories were tripped up by beauty. So he Kant also said he was the mech called Kant the great delayer cuz Kant said we can't actually know absolute truth. We just must proceed on the basis that we can't.

[00:07:09]Um but he then said an aesthetic sense is available to all of us so we can all appreciate beauty.