Elaine Scarry's On Beauty and Being Just

All this is prologue to the second argument, which is that beauty is conducive to the desire for justice. When we behold the beautiful, we learn to be attentive to the world, and when we are attentive to the world, we notice injustice. The aesthetic sense is disinterested and generous-the more we love the beauty of the sky or flowers, the more we w... See more

First, beauty evokes a longing for fullness and creation, even in the form of duplication. We want to tell others about beautiful paintings we have seen, beautiful songs we have heard, even beautiful arguments we have read. The desire to spread the beauty one beholds acts as a force not only for beauty but also for truth. "[T]he beautiful person or... See more