Is an Artistic Life a Virtuous Life?
Updated: Sep 30
The connection between imagination and morality
If you’re going to talk about a philosophy or a world view, at some point you’re going to have to address the elephant in the room. Is what you’re putting out there actually a good thing not just for an individual but for society? Is it moral?
First of all, you probably know by know that the Blue Flower has no real rule book like traditional philosophy.
What's the right thing to do?
Should I lie to protect a friend?
Should I keep a promise even if it hurts someone?
Or the famous trolley problem that trades one life for five. All this stuff is familiar (and a bit musty actually).
.
But Blue Flower philosophy asks a different question:
What kind of person are you becoming?
Imagination, wonder, courage, empathy, beauty, friendship are the buzz words people throw around, but if you have to break it down, BFP flows from being awake to life. Being engaged.
"Awake?" "Engaged?" Many bad people are very awake and engaged.
So how does BFP impact the way we treat other people?
The key is the "artistic life."
Counterintuitive I know because when you hear "artistic life" —painters, musicians, writers, actors— morality usually doesn't come to mind.
Artistic talent has nothing to do with character.
Being an artist is a profession. But living artistically is a way of being in the world.
The Blue Flower is about approaching life in a certain way, creatively, with imagination. Seeing the magic in the ordinary, seeing possibilities where others might miss them. It's about paying attention.
Parents can live artistically. So can teachers, scientists. Entrepreneurs.
Anyone can live artistically. The Blue Flower was never reserved for artists.
But does any of this have anything to do with becoming a better person (treating people as ends rather then means)?
Romantics: YES
Just pursuing the Blue Flower (living artistically) isn't enough but it does help
to develop some of the qualities that goodness depends on.
Wordsworth:
"The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."
Ordinary kindness = recognizing other people's needs. A moral/artistic skill.
Where do we get this skill?
Imagination.
Richard Rorty: Moral progress doesn’t come from reasoning or a universal moral law. It comes from identifying with others.
YES.
But how?
Rorty:
"The novel, the movie, and the TV program have gradually, but steadily, replaced the sermon and the treatise as the principal vehicles of moral change and progress."
Stories are the answer.
Charlotte’s Web
I think of Charlotte's Web. The book doesn’t contain a philosophical argument. But it did make me care about a pig and a spider.
That's Rorty's point. Stories expand our sympathies, allowing us to experience the world through different eyes.
But why?
Stories carry emotions.
That’s it! That's the secret. It’s why I created Sparkle Valley. Stories allow us to enter into lives that aren't our own and see the world through others’ eyes. Even a spider’s or a pig’s. (Or Abigail and Ivana's.)
And it all starts with imagination.
Lord Byron:
"The dew of compassion is a tear."
Charles Taylor:
"Our sense of worth, of well-being, even our sanity depends upon our being able to sustain important relationships."
Schiller:
"Beauty is the pilot of life."
Schiller's "Beauty" reminds us that life is more than a collection of problems to be solved or transactions. "Beauty as a pilot" enlarges our world.
The artistic and moral life intersect.
And that's why the Blue Flower matters. It keeps us awake to beauty, to possibility. and therefore keeps us awake to other people.
