Only a Promise of Happiness

<p>Neither art nor philosophy was kind to beauty during the twentieth century. Much modern art disdains beauty and many philosophers deeply suspect that beauty merely paints over or distracts us from horrors. Intellectuals consigned the passions of beauty to the margins replacing them with the anemic and rarefied alternative aesthetic pleasure. In <i>Only a Promise of Happiness</i> Alexander Nehamas reclaims beauty from its critics. He seeks to restore its place in art to reestablish the connections among art beauty and desire and to show that the values of art independently of their moral worth are equally crucial to the rest of life.<br><br><br> Nehamas makes his case with characteristic grace sensitivity and philosophical depth supporting his arguments with searching studies of art and literature high and low from Thomas <i>Mann's Death in Venice</i> and Manet's <i>Olympia</i> to television. Throughout the discussion of artworks is generously illustrated.<br><br><br> Beauty Nehamas concludes may depend on appearance but this does not make it superficial. The perception of beauty manifests a hope that life would be better if the object of beauty were part of it. This hope can shape and direct our lives for better or worse. We may discover misery in pursuit of beauty or find that beauty offers no more than a tantalizing promise of happiness. But if beauty is always dangerous it is also a pressing human concern that we must seek to understand and not suppress.</p>