Critical Look on Frithjof Schuon's Views on Islamic Aesthetics

Main theorists of Traditionalists’ way of thinking pay more attention to the importance of art and beauty, and they have considered aesthetic of religious arts including Islamic arts in their works, explicitly or implicitly. The history of expansion and development of ideas and views of traditionalists about art and beauty in the intellectual and cultural climate of our country’s history is nearly five decades. Presence of critical aspects denying western culture and civilization and focus on interpretation and restoration of religious culture are two major reasons of paying attention to views and opinions of traditionalists, especially in the field of religious and traditional art, both before and after the Islamic Revolution. However, what has been neglected in this regard is lack of serious and rational critiques on this way of thinking as dominant and influential way of thinking in artistic space. In this paper, a summary of “Schuon” views on metaphysical foundations or bases of beauty are provided firstly. In the second stage, these metaphysical foundations including topics related to beauty and truth, unity of perfection, beauty, and objective reality are evaluated in terms of logic and content compared to thinkers of original Islamic intellectual tradition, including “Jafari” and “Tabatabai”. The next part of the article reviews the symbolism as base of Schuon’s aesthetics and traditionalists reviewed in the form of ability to prove beauty and inherent symbolism of forms in terms of methodology and content. As a conclusion, it is stated that the aesthetics of Schuon and traditionalists lack of clear logical and scientific properties as the theoretical foundations of Islamic art due to unconsidered generalizations, and the application of these ideas leads to a useless formalism.