Obviously not, if by beauty we mean that which is pleasing to the eye and delightful to the mind. Or, should not the order be reversed so that the good embraces the beautiful, i.e. that the beautiful is only that which is good, or more precisely, that which aims at the greatest common good. The artistically effective then is not the same as the beautiful. Besides the forms and lines which give joy and delight to the eye and the mind, there are those which are not pleasing. The latter are needed to make the former stand out.
Discords are there to throw harmony into focus.
Such questions have tormented my mind, as they probably have many of my contemporaries in the beginning of our century. In vain I searched for answers to these problems in the books of professional aestheticians and philosophers. Despite their best intentions, I could clearly see that they themselves had no solutions. Meanwhile some momentous events were taking place in the world and I took an active part in them. Before and during the First World War, I had thrown in my lot with one side of the conflict, in the conviction that it fought for human ideals, a more humane social order, equality, justice, and freedom for all men and all nations.