The Aesthetic Limit (Calculus Essay)

Aestheticism is a modern philosophy of art, which maintains that art is the constant striving for ever greater pleasure. In accordance with the idea of limits in calculus, this aesthetic pleasure also has limits. Since aesthetic pleasure uses the self as its main standard, it is limited by the same things which the self is limited by. First and most noticeably, the self is limited by the idea of space-time. One cannot instantaneously move from one place to another- one must reach a place through some means. A second limit is that of the mental-bodily complex. A person can only have so much intelligence, which limits his ability to achieve mental pleasure, and by chemical hormones such as endorphins, which limit physical pleasure. Since all of this is limited, then perhaps it can be said that aestheticism is equally limited. However, its limitation is relatively high, as an individual can take a large amount of pleasure before “maxing out.”
This limited aestheticism can, perhaps, find its antithesis in fundamental Christian thought. The spiritual, under this system of thinking, is limitless and free. The spirit still finds pleasure, but it is seen as a higher form of pleasure. A sense of peace- that seems to be the best way to describe the Christian’s pleasure. The Christian view offers other forms of limitlessness as well. It insists that God is infinite, something that the self-as-god aesthete cannot believe rationally. In the end then, every man has a choice, as to how he wants to limit himself- morally, as the Christian; mortally, as the aesthete; or in all ways, as those who refuse to really see their position. Man must choose, and in doing so change everything.