Ethics and Aesthetics

"Ethics and Aesthetics are one"
     —Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Because the poet traffics in mimesis, ungoverned by reason, appealing to the irrational part of the soul, this makes it right for us to proceed to lay hold of him and set him down as the counterpart of the painter, for he resembles him in that his creations are inferior in respect of reality, and the fact that his appeal is to the inferior part of the soul and not to the best part is another point of resemblance. And so we may at last say that we should be justified in not admitting him into a well-ordered state, because he stimulates and fosters this element in the soul, and by strengthening it tends to destroy the rational part, just as when in a state one puts bad men in power and turns the city over to them and ruins the better sort."
      —Plato (To be fair, Plato did consider music as a higher form of art than poetry or painting.)

Ethics and aesthetics constitute a profound unity
     —José Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema in 1975