ETHICALS AND ART

the consequence of having a correct view of reality, of recognising the primacy of existance, is that it allows one to KNOW what is Art - and what is NOT Art... what is true, and what is false - and WHY...

earlier, mention was made about the importance of values in the showing aspect of a work of Art, and that a value is what you act to gain and/or keep... ethics is the science of values... a value, however, is not the same as an importance... importance in a work of Art is what is involved in that 'selective re-presentation... of aspects of reality' of the definition... the ethics is involved in that aspect of how the artist selects, being that '...according to the artist's fundamental view of reality', what Rand referred to as 'metaphysical value-judgments'...

the primary values in ethics are what are called moral values - guides or philosophical roadmaps that aid in achieving our goals in life according to our nature as human beings... these primary values are the CHOSEN, as they must be values UNDERSTOOD instead of being merely commanded, based on the objective recognition of what is required, man qua man [as Rand would say ], for survival AS HUMAN BEINGS...

a TRUE 'wisdom of life' is a NON-CONTRADICTORILY integrated view of existance... there are, tho, other values besides the primary ones... these are values hierarchially arrayed according to CONTEXTUAL importance - in line with the primary values... the more non-contradictory these lesser values are, the more integrated they will be in the ethical structuring... the greater the understanding of the inter-relationship of the values, the more consistant is the acting to achieving those goals in life... because of the immense variation in the individuation of persons, because of the differences in the specific enviromental influences [internal as well as external ] to the persons, there is a variable perimeter to the ranges of these lesser values, culminating in the immense variety of individuals - all who could act rationally in achieving an uncountable number of goals... real values, as such, ENHANCE human life, while false values are frauds which seek to undercut human life enhancement...