Nonmaterial, or intangible, things should not be dismissed
in assessing what makes life worthwhile. Why a nonmaterial thing makes someone
happy is not necessarily obvious even if it does. One such thing that makes me
happy can be termed, intellectual aesthetics. This term requires some unpacking,
as does my point that such an aesthetic can trigger happiness. In fact, the
commonly presumed association between aesthetics generally and happiness is
itself in need of a closer look.
Aesthetics are typically associated with the eye—meaning sight.
A beautiful painting, photograph, or picturesque vista can be said to be
aesthetically pleasing. Looking out over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, for
instance, can prompt a person to feel a sense of awe. Beholding such a sight is
also typically associated with happiness even if the question of why a beautiful view, or object such as
a painting or sculpture, makes the beholder happy. Receiving a present or a lot
of money, and the birth of a child are quite understandably associated with
happiness. Optical aesthetics requires more in the way of explanation.
That a theory or philosophical system of thought could make
an intellectual happy rather than merely impressed is particularly difficult to
understand, for the aesthetics of an idea or relation between them is itself
barely recognized even among intellectuals. An analogy may be helpful. I liken
a theory to a physical model of a molecule. The balls are the ideas and the sticks
connecting the balls represent reason. A theory thus has a particular “shape,”
albeit in the mind’s eye, hence nonmaterial, or intangible. This mental shape
itself, rather than merely the ideas themselves, can cause pleasure in the
beholder.
