Abstract
Philosophical interest in beautiful moral agency can be traced
back at least to Plato. It is an insistent theme of his writings that
a virtuous soul is one in which the functions of its various parts
are properly discharged, just as in the healthy body all the
organs must perform their proper tasks. As health in the body
is beautiful (kalon), so is the health of the soul. We here discern
the first inkling of a thought which has engrossed the moral and
aesthetic imagination ever since: that moral nobility and artistic
beauty consist in 'organic unity'. The idea reappears in both the
Ethics and Poetics of Aristotle; a good man is a perfectly
functioning hierarchy of goals in which his projects co-operate
harmoniously under the direction of more general, overarching
goods. Just as the most excellent knowledge is of theories which
subsume the most diverse instances, so the most excellent goal is
one which subsumes many subsidiary projects.' Analogously,
the plot of a good tragedy depicts a single action, and all of its
parts are contoured to the shape of this one great event. The plot
of a well-written tragedy is thus a formal emblem of the wellplanned
life. Work and life are noble to the extent that they
manifest the handiwork of a virtuous practical intelligence. The
most highly realized life is the most beautiful one, and the most
excellent artwork is a formal microcosm of the most highly
realized life.