The Aesthetics Argument from the Perspective of Robin Collins

جستارهایی در فلسفه و کلام

Article 9, Volume 56, Issue 2 - Serial Number 113, February 2025, Pages 207-227   

Document Type: Scientific & Research

DOI: 10.22067/epk.2024.80214.1200

Authors

Maryam Seif^{* 1}; Farah Ramin²

¹Ph.D. Student in Philosophy and Theology, University of Qom

²Associate Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, University of Qom

Abstract

Beauty and its nature are of the most controversial philosophical topics among philosophers. Among the ancient Greek and medieval philosophers, beauty, goodness, truth, and justice have been raised. Some Western thinkers have raised beauty and its truth in such a way that it led to the emergence of one of the arguments for proving the existence of God. The nature of beauty and how to prove the existence of God through the beauties of the world and the relationship between beauty and successful sciences is an issue that Robin Collins has addressed, and this research attempts to examine and analyze his views. Accordingly, the author attempts to study and examine the dimensions of this issue by raising minor questions and using a descriptive-analytical method. The research findings show that this argument attempts to prove the existence of God through two epistemological and ontological methods. These methods focus on our ability to recognize beauty or on the existence of beauty itself. Collins's view on beauty is particularly rich and prominent, and it has become clear that he considers simplicity with variety to be the criterion of beauty. Collins also puts epistemology and ontology together and believes in the alignment between human aesthetics and successful theories of science. By recognizing the world as the work of the Creator and emphasizing that beauty is human-centered, he proves the existence of God, the Creator of beauty. Although challenges such as hasty action and lack of clarity of reasoning have come to this argument, this argument is still the center of attention as a new innovation in the contemporary century.

Keywords

aesthetics argument; aesthetics; epistemology; ontology; Robin Collins; existence of God

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