GUEST POST: With Great Art Comes Great Responsibility

One of my readers answered my question about the true and the beautiful in words so clear and sentiments so true that I thought it best to reprint them here. Consider this to be a guest essay:

 For some reason I could not log in to comment on the Magnificat post. I did want to draw your attention to Charles Murray’s book Human Accomplishment from 2003. In this book Dr. Murray goes through an extremely rigorous statistical analysis of the importance of various historical figures in the most important areas of human endeavor: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Physics, Mathematics, Medicine, Technology, Combined Sciences, Chinese Philosophy, Indian Philosophy, Western Philosophy, Western Music, Chinese Painting, Japanese Art, Western Art, Arabic Literature, Chinese Literature, Indian Literature, Japanese Literature, and Western Literature.

In all cases he found that human beings accomplish more when they have a cultural and personal sense of higher goods. That the formulations of the schoolmen: *Unum, Bonum, Verum, et* *Pulchrum* is correct. Keeping in mind that Dr. Murray is an agnostic at best, and I believe he is an atheist, it is a powerful admission against interest. Indeed when discussing these issues in interviews and in lectures Murray becomes visibly uncomfortable when the subject comes up. He knows that his own particular lack of faith is borrowing from a greater patrimony, and does not personally replenish the well. To his credit, he is aware of it, and honest enough that he is uncomfortable about it and it’s implications.

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.