"My proposition is that great accomplishment in the arts and sciences is anchored in one or more of these three transcendental goods ["the good", "the true", "the beautiful"]. Art and science can rise to the highest rungs of craft without them, wonderful entertainments can be produced without them, amazing intellectual gymnastics can be performed without them. But, in the same way that a goldsmith needs gold, a culture that fosters great accomplishment needs a coherent sense of the transcendental goods. Coherent sense means that the goods are a live presence in the culture, and that great artists and thinkers compete to come closer to the ideal that captivates them. A conception of the beautiful was a live presence among artists of the Italian Renaissance and among composers of the Baroque. A conception of the truth remains a live presence in the scientific world of today’s West. To the extent that you can think of an era and culture for which such statements are not true, I hypothesize that accomplishment in that era will have suffered thereby."
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