Aesthetics Have Morality

Gentlemen,

German philospher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “If you crush a cockroach, you’re a hero. If you crush a beautiful butterfly, you’re a villain. Morals have aesthetic criteria”

Aesthetic means concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty. Morality refers to the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.

The idea that aesthetics possess a moral component may seem abstract, but there’s truth to it.

Drop yourself into a time you were in a beautiful place - a national park, a beach sunset, a european cathedral, or even a nice coffee shop on a sunny day.

How was your energy? Your mood? Your gratitude?

I’d bet all three were elevated. Even the memory of these places may enhance your mood as you read this.

Now, drop into a time you were in an unpleasant place - a dimly lit school classroom, a grey cubicle, or the DMV.

How was your energy? Your mood? Your gratitude?

It’s highly likely that your energy, mood, and gratitude in those places were depressed compared to when you were in the beautiful place.

Elevated states of mind and being enhance your propensity to do good - or act morally - especially when compared to depressed states.

Therefore, if an environment can positively or negatively affect your state of being, it can affect your morality.

Your environment affects your spirit.

All this to say, curating and cultivating beautiful environments in your life has an outsized impact on your state of being, the way you percieve the world, and the quality of your life.

Aesthetics matter.

There’s more to say about this, but I’ll leave it here for now…

I discuss this topic on The Tyro Experience #73 with Will Coomer.

Will is travelling the world in his mid 20s while building communities, facilitating remarkable experiences, and living an all around intersting life.

Check out our conversation: YouTube, Spotify, Apple

Determine 1 or 2 ways you can incorporate more beauty into your everyday life this week and take stock of how these changes impact your state of mind.

Stand firm,

Nolan