Beauty in nature

Andrea McGhee’s dramatic discovery in nature

As a guest blog this week I want to present an experience report based on Andrea McGhee’s project in aesthetics of nature. First, I’ll present the short, dramatic version. Next, for those who are interested, I include the full paper to give you an idea of what a full project report looked like in …

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How growing up near the beach can set up the rest of your life

Beauty in nature, Walking in beauty

Michael Hill wrote this beautiful comment to the previous post on walking (juggling) in beauty, and I wanted it to be my first guest blog. While I retired from the “hectic” life not yet five years ago, when I look back on it, it is but a tiny speck in the far-away distance of the …

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Shamanist ideas about integrating mind, body, and soul with spirit and nature

Beauty in nature, Science, Spiritual experience

A tangent is something that touches. Stephen’s comment on the previous blogpost touched the theme integrating body, mind, and soul with spirit. Stephen referred to shamanism, a topic worth pursuing. For all its errors, shamanism sometimes has intuitions that are worth re-theorizing, in other words, …

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My favorite poem

Arts, Beauty in nature, Walking in beauty

Irish poet Seamus Heaney in a 1992 poem tells the story of a drive to the ocean, where he found two contrasting and breathtaking scenes. Then, leaving aside religious language, he speaks metaphorically of an awakening of the inner life. Postscript And some time make the time to drive out west Into …

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This side of Paradise, harmony implies dissonance

Beauty in nature

C.P.E. Bach and others accompany Frederick the Great "Harmony" is often mentioned as an ideal and sometimes dismissed as outdated and naive. I think Bach understands what makes harmony a mature and worthy aesthetic value for our age. What do you think? The intellectual character of Bach’s music …

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Does beauty swallow up ugliness?

Beauty in nature

John Muir’s wholeheartedness enabled him to unify the diverse phases of experience that go into the appreciation of natural beauty. We have much to learn from Muir’s achievement. Nevertheless, we can wonder whether he took his achievement to excess. Did he rejoice in beauty so much that he did not …

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Beauty in nature

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