2005— International Winner
Vladimir Crisan, Napoca, Romania
TRUTH or BEAUTY?
At first, if I were to choose between truth and beauty I'd choose
beauty because I think that truth can be painful sometimes.
But if I think well, I believe that truth must contain beauty.
What I mean is, that if you tell someone a truth which is painful
to him/her, you can wrap it in kind gestures, in beautiful words,
etc., and then it becomes a beautiful truth, which is beyond a
truth emptied of beauty. The same happens with beauty - it must
contain the truth, but here, logically speaking, a beauty with
no truth is a false beauty. So the beauty is beautiful only when
it is true.
If a person who is physically beautiful is a liar, I can not say
that he/she is not beautiful because the moral truth (the opposite
of lie) has no connection with the truth of its physical existence.
Therefore, I may consider that a liar has physical truth, which
is its physical existence represents this truth. If such a person
exists, that it the truth of its physical existence exists, that
person may or may not be beautiful. If such a person does not
exist physically, I could not speak about the beauty of something
which does not exist. But physical beauty is connected to pleasure
- to feelings - and it can differ according to someone's views.
And that would be a long discussion. Generally speaking, I may
establish that, from the physical point of view, truth is more
important than beauty, because beauty needs truth in order to
exist. But I couldn't think that beauty is not important, since
it is necessary. Therefore, I consider that truth and beauty can
be independent and they are both necessary.
Now, I shall think of it from the spiritual point of view and
I shall presume that there is a person who possesses beauty but
does not possess truth. This means that such a person is a liar
(for example), and therefore I cannot say that he/she is spiritually
beautiful: a person who lies is not a beautiful person. On the
other hand, if a person possesses truth but does not possess beauty,
it means that he/she is not a liar, but as I said at the beginning,
the truth could be painful. So that means, from a spiritual point
of view, that truth needs beauty as well, even if truth may exist
in the absence of beauty.
From my points of view, both truth and spiritual beauty are important.
On one hand, truth enlightens the soul and makes it open towards
beauty; it could also reveal things or could show their hidden
side. On the other hand, beauty provides the harmony of the soul
and expresses the soul's wish for love, understanding, forgiveness
and kindness.
I wonder then, why, before judging all these things, I would have
chosen only beauty…
Kids
Philosophy Slam Home Page
