Philosophy class: The irresistible mystery of the beautiful batsman

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Specification:

• Intuitionism

Click the link below to read the article and then answer the questions:

The irresistible mystery of the beautiful batsman

• Samanth Subramanian writes, “In cricket, everything is aesthetics, down to the white uniforms and the red ball on a field of utmost green.” What is aesthetics?

• What does it mean to say that beauty is ‘irresistible’? Is it? 

• Describing the recognition of the beauty of batting, Subramanian claims, “Here we have a constant, rare, cross-cultural unanimity, which at least raises the old-fashioned thought that beauty is an inherent quality, existing in the world just waiting to be recognised.” What would Plato make of this? How do you think we recognise beauty? What do you make of Guido Orgs’ claims, towards the end of the article?

• G E Moore is an Ideal Utilitarian and is associated with intuitionism. Moore asserted that “no one, probably, who has asked himself the question, has ever doubted that personal affection and appreciation of what is beautiful in Art and Nature, are good in themselves.” What does it mean for something to be ‘good in itself’? How does the quotation fit with Moore’s intuitionism? What do you make of Moore’s intuitionism?

• Subramanian ends the article, “Beauty doesn’t matter, and yet it’s there. That’s the beauty of it.” What do you think about the value of beauty?

Jack Robertson, Queen Elizabeth’s School