Wonder is the beginning of wisdom! Kant's "Beauty as the symbol of Morality" compared to theory of Filipino Meaning focused on kagandahang-loob. [beauty of will] + Socrates & Albert Einstein, Abraham Heschel, St. Gregory of Nyssa & Irish poet-theologian John O'Donohue
Creators: name: Peck Jr, Charles E
Publisher: name: Knowledge Commons
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: Royal Institute of Philosophy
subject: International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
subject: Philosophy of Science Association
subject: British Society for the Philosophy of Science
subject: Truth Consciousness, Inc. (USA)
subject: Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (U.S.)
subject: Consciousness--Research
subject: Consciousness--Social aspects
subject: Seven pillars of wisdom (Lawrence, T. E.)
subject: Wisdom--Biblical teaching
subject: Wisdom (Gnosticism)
subject: Socrates
subject: Irish studies
subject: Irish literature
subject: Irish--Religion
subject: Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955
subject: Saint Gregory's University
subject: Spirituality in art
subject: Spirituality--Social aspects
subject: Spirituality--Psychology

description: Neuroscience synopsis of morals: Morality is a set of complex emotional and cognitive processes (Funk and Gazzanigna) - emotions are pivotal: Kant's "Beauty as the symbol of Morality" compared to Theory of Filipino Meaning - "A life is meaningful if and only if it exhibits kagandahang-loob. [beauty of will]
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom! - Socrates "He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead - Einstein  Saint Gregory Of Nyssa: "Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees." 
The Kantian theory of symbolism is presented in a few brief paragraphs of the Critique of Judgment, entitled "Of Beauty as the Symbol of Morality."  As the title suggests, Kant's chief concern is not to explicate the nature of symbolism, but rather to define the relation between beauty and moral goodness - an important and difficult topic in his aesthetics. P.13
According to Kant, beauty is the expression of "aesthetic ideas," which are representations of the imagination to which no determinate concept is adequate. These are termed "ideas," he explains, because they "at least strive for something lying outside the bounds of experience, and seek to approximate a presentation of concepts of reason (intellectual ideas), which gives the latter the appearance of an objective reality," and also because "no concept can be fully adequate to them." P.17
The overall tendency of Kant's discussion of symbolism is, I think, to suggest that man's higher mental faculties, understanding and reason, are much more closely intertwined with imagination and sense than he had earlier thought, that the basic concepts (the categories and the ideas of reason) which the human mind employs can only come to be conceived because they are capable of being first presented in concrete symbolic form."
B.	J D Espiritu and M Zosa A life is meaningful if and only if it exhibits kagandahang-loob. [beauty of will]  & relational will
"the importance of the concept of loob in the Filipino value system is undeniable. With its many iterations, loob represents an inner self that is also inherently connected to the other, and as a consequence, to the community as a whole. It is also the very core of every other Filipino value like courage (as in lakas ng loob), gratitude (as in utang-na-loob), and generosity (as in kagandahangloob), among others. Hence, if there were to be a theory of meaning in life that can properly be called Filipino, it needs to base itself on this concept
Kagandahang-loob, as discussed, is translated as "beauty-of-will" where loob is understood as a relational will that can be viewed as a shared humanity. While the notion of "will" is practically absent in Filipino, this is the closest translation possible for loob since it has its volitional character. Hence, kagandahangloob does not only mean an external aesthetic. It ultimately means a holistic aesthetic that encompasses not just the interiority of the self, but also that of the other and the whole community. It therefore implies a certain harmony among these different levels of subjectivity for a life to be considered meaningful. (Loob and Meaningfulness: A Filipino Theory of Meaning in Life Jairus Diesta Espiritu and Marielle Antoinette Hermoso Zosa)