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Beauty and Imitation: A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts
The human person is a truth seeker, and one of the most compelling ways human beings pursue truth is through the arts. In Beauty and A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts, Daniel McInerny argues for an understanding of art as a form of inquiry into truth that proceeds by way of sensible beauty.
Drawing upon the thought of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, McInerny argues for the unfashionable yet philosophically compelling view that art is essentially “mimetic,” imitative of human action. But what does it mean for art to imitate human action? It means that art imitates the way human beings by nature quest for fulfillment, or happiness. In questing for fulfillment, human life takes the form of a story, and so the arts—all the arts, from painting to music, from fiction to film—are storytelling arts whose beauty reveals the truth about human happiness.
The first part of the book features a renewed defense of the ancient Aristotelian claim that art is mimetic and that its imitation of the human story takes the form of a moral argument. The second part shows how audiences are transformed by the moral arguments the mimetic arts make, and the third concludes with a guided tour of the mimetic arts, where specific arts are considered in light of the Aristotelian and Thomistic principles advanced earlier.
Drawing upon the thought of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, McInerny argues for the unfashionable yet philosophically compelling view that art is essentially “mimetic,” imitative of human action. But what does it mean for art to imitate human action? It means that art imitates the way human beings by nature quest for fulfillment, or happiness. In questing for fulfillment, human life takes the form of a story, and so the arts—all the arts, from painting to music, from fiction to film—are storytelling arts whose beauty reveals the truth about human happiness.
The first part of the book features a renewed defense of the ancient Aristotelian claim that art is mimetic and that its imitation of the human story takes the form of a moral argument. The second part shows how audiences are transformed by the moral arguments the mimetic arts make, and the third concludes with a guided tour of the mimetic arts, where specific arts are considered in light of the Aristotelian and Thomistic principles advanced earlier.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
430 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 3, 2024
About the author
Daniel McInerny
17 books22 followersDaniel McInerny is the author of the novel, THE GOOD DEATH OF KATE MONTCLAIR (Chrism Press, 2023), as well as BEAUTY & IMITATION: A PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION ON THE ARTS (Word on Fire Academic, 2024).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 3, 2026
4.5 stars! I didn’t think I was intelligent enough to understand this book but I found it pretty accessible. I’m starting to enjoy philosophical books more. This really was an amazing read on the human desire to find beauty and how we try to express that through art. It made me excited to read books that I have not yet read and a greater appreciation for the ones I love. I feel like I now know why I love those books so much and why a lot of modern literature just doesn’t do it for me. When a book isn’t aimed at what we are made for or a doesn’t aim at a higher good it doesn’t land the same. I always use this example but it’s why Lord of the Rings will stand the test of time and Game of Thrones won’t. Same thing with why Pride and Prejudice stands the test of time and honestly name any romance written in the last decade won’t. We know true beauty when we see it, hear it and watch it.
March 24, 2026
This is a fascinating and lucid philosophical summary of the Aristotelian and Thomistic understanding of beauty and how it applies to the arts, particularly at a popular level. Following Word on Fire’s tradition of “the way of beauty”, this book seeks to explain the place of beauty and popular entertainment in the search for human beatitude and as a legitimate pathway to God. Given the massive influence of popular media and the relative lack of engagement on such topics from modern philosophers, especially from a Catholic or traditional perspective, I found this book to be greatly informative and an excellent and necessary contribution to the modern discussion of entertainment. While the book does highlight Aristotle and Aquinas as primary thinkers related to this topic, McInerny also pulls from a variety of additional sources such as Josef Pieper, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Robert Sokolowski. When these many voices all are shown together, they offer a fascinating dialogue from a variety of different perspectives, some ancient, some modern, some strictly Thomistic, while others more phenomenological, yet all contributing to an integrated understanding of the subject matter.
My favorite portions of the book were in the first section, where McInerny offers a summary of the Aristotelian understanding of mimetic art and its power to offer moral and social transformation. This was a fascinating application of many of Aristotle’s previous ideas I was already familiar with, and as always I found Aristotle’s philosophy to be timeless, clear and common sensicle, and rich with wisdom. This really helped shape and solidify my understanding of the arts and it is fascinating using this knowledge as I approach art in a new way. In a world where most art is seen strictly through the post-modern lens of nihilism, subjectivity, and a disordered emphasis on sensible stimulation, this understanding of art was by comparison rich, nuanced, and beautiful, and I believe offers a necessary healing balm to all those who desire to appreciate and understand the beauty of the arts in the modern world.
The third section of the book, which offers a commentary on specific arts through the lens of this Aristotelian understanding of the arts, was my least favorite section. Though I did find it interesting, I found this section to be a little less focused than the first. I felt certain chapters offered more substance than others, with some focusing on a specific example from a particular medium of art, such as Dunkirk for the chapter on movies or the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, while others focused more on the medium as a whole. Additionally, the structure of certain chapters felt lacking resulting in portions that were unnecessary or made the chapter feel more meandering in nature in comparison to the clear and logical structure of the book’s first portion. One final nitpick was there wasn’t a chapter at the end of the book offering a summary of all the main points which could have been helpful with a book covering so many different ideas and ranging so widely in scope. This could have been a nice bow tying up the conclusion of the book, which instead kind of ends feeling as if there were many loose threads still needing to be tied up.
These are all mostly small gripes, however. I still see this as a fantastic exploration of a topic I find fascinating and which I think potentially has wide appeal and interest. While it is a little dry and academic, these are ideas and questions worth pondering and anyone could appreciate given our media-saturated environment of 2026. As McInerny argues, quite convincingly, entertainment plays a powerful role in shaping the mind and heart of a culture, and it has the power to influence it for both good and evil. I am grateful for the ways Word on Fire earnestly engages with our current media landscape and offers us hope that art and entertainment may play a role in the revitalization and rebirth of our culture.
(4.5/5 stars)
My favorite portions of the book were in the first section, where McInerny offers a summary of the Aristotelian understanding of mimetic art and its power to offer moral and social transformation. This was a fascinating application of many of Aristotle’s previous ideas I was already familiar with, and as always I found Aristotle’s philosophy to be timeless, clear and common sensicle, and rich with wisdom. This really helped shape and solidify my understanding of the arts and it is fascinating using this knowledge as I approach art in a new way. In a world where most art is seen strictly through the post-modern lens of nihilism, subjectivity, and a disordered emphasis on sensible stimulation, this understanding of art was by comparison rich, nuanced, and beautiful, and I believe offers a necessary healing balm to all those who desire to appreciate and understand the beauty of the arts in the modern world.
The third section of the book, which offers a commentary on specific arts through the lens of this Aristotelian understanding of the arts, was my least favorite section. Though I did find it interesting, I found this section to be a little less focused than the first. I felt certain chapters offered more substance than others, with some focusing on a specific example from a particular medium of art, such as Dunkirk for the chapter on movies or the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, while others focused more on the medium as a whole. Additionally, the structure of certain chapters felt lacking resulting in portions that were unnecessary or made the chapter feel more meandering in nature in comparison to the clear and logical structure of the book’s first portion. One final nitpick was there wasn’t a chapter at the end of the book offering a summary of all the main points which could have been helpful with a book covering so many different ideas and ranging so widely in scope. This could have been a nice bow tying up the conclusion of the book, which instead kind of ends feeling as if there were many loose threads still needing to be tied up.
These are all mostly small gripes, however. I still see this as a fantastic exploration of a topic I find fascinating and which I think potentially has wide appeal and interest. While it is a little dry and academic, these are ideas and questions worth pondering and anyone could appreciate given our media-saturated environment of 2026. As McInerny argues, quite convincingly, entertainment plays a powerful role in shaping the mind and heart of a culture, and it has the power to influence it for both good and evil. I am grateful for the ways Word on Fire earnestly engages with our current media landscape and offers us hope that art and entertainment may play a role in the revitalization and rebirth of our culture.
(4.5/5 stars)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews