It needs be kept in mind that ethics is a normative science, and that it has two applications - the personal and the social... the personal is the realm of aesthetics, and ideally it means one is a spiritual visualizer, showing the possibilities of the virtues as it applies to the person - and as it applies to the social, interacting with other individuals... in practice, this is the specialization of the artist, whether the visual artist who paints, the sculptor who presents images in 3-D, or the author, who literates the visualization...

At first glance, it does seem most these virtues are repeating themselves, in effect saying the same thing over and over... in a sense this is true - and yet, each is viewing this from a different emphasis or perspective, making the case more solid in effect as a consequence... that which is, is, and that which is not - is not, and not to be concerned with, as it is false.... and this is hard to consider doing in an age in which the fantasy has long been given tokening as means of excusing virtues...


But - the end result will be an integrating of the person, the artist, to better visualize the nature of the spiritual, and to give rational meaning to the multitude of the material... and in light of keeping all in context, this principling will be more likely to be achieved as continued efforts keep at it...

This does not, however, mean using art as a 'social means', as such no longer then is art [in the contemplative] but propaganda, not matter how dandified the propaganda be... Goya's soldiers shooting was not fine art but a form of propaganda, recording of an even [some time after the fact] to push a political belief in a time before photography... this is not to suggest there is no legitimacy for propaganda, only that it is not in fine art, but another division of aesthetics - just as a pamplet decrying these injustices is not literature [in the sense of fiction]......

Justice is defined as the application of rationality to the evaluation and treatment of other individuals. This means that "....one must never seek or grant the unearned and undeserved, neither in matter nor in spirit" [Rand]. How does this apply to being a spiritual visualizer?

To begin with, consider that the concept of justice is the basis of the Trader Principle - "The symbol of all relationships among men, the moral symbol of respect for human beings, is THE TRADER..." It is the person who lives by values, not by loot, who is a trader, both in matter and spirit... "A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved..." It is the recognition that for humans, reality is a sum-plus world and that one's gain in the voluntary exchange, be it of matter or spirit or parts of both, is a gain for all parties to the exchange.

To an artist, a spiritual visualizer, this means that what is of inportance enough to show needs be of benefit to both the artist and his/her viewers - such that there becomes an exchange of values not only in terms of the artworks for the renumeration but in terms of the contemplative ideas shown in those works, ideas which should show instrumental observations of human activity which, crystalized with the created works, exemplify a catalyst for further advancement in activities and thoughts.....

If the virtue of honesty means that "...one must never attempt to fake reality in any manner', then intellectual honesty means one must always take ideas seriously - and that in turn means to live by, to practice, any idea one accepts as true... by inference, it also means to discard the ideas seen as not true... in the pursuit of knowledge, this means recognising that knowledge is a means to an end and that end is practicalizing it - for that is the purpose of acquiring the knowledge - to the furtherance of one's own wellbeing, one's flourishing... to the spiritual visualizer, this means that in the showing, one must adhere to what is or could be - the logical projections of the possible, as far as the imagination of the visualizer can show... this also means, conversely, that one must never show the known to be impossible - the fantasy - for to do so is to sanction the non-real as of having importance and in some manner holding sway over reality... that is why there is a distinction between fantasizing and imaginating - and that only in utilizing the latter is one holding to honesty as a spiritual visualizer, of assigning value to that which is and which could possibly be.... anything less would be injustice....

"Honesty is the recognition that one cannot fake existence...", just as integrity is the recognition one cannot fake one's consciousness....... they go hand in hand, as is always the case in being an integrated person...... never attempting to faking reality means that one should remove from consideration, as much as possible, under the context of what at the time is known, all implication to fantasy - speculation of the possible, however, is different, for such is in the realm of fiction, a presenting of life 'as it could and ought to be'...... it is in keeping to this, within the four sides of the universe which is the visualizer's arena of showing, that the most scrupulous adherence to reality - to being honest - is most important.... and it is within the realm of the theming, which is the backbone of holding these all together, that the most creativity of possibilities can be rendered and made full use of - but only if adhering to the reasoning faculty...... dealing, for instance, with angels or unicorns or banchees, invoking strong emotions among the ignorants, does nothing to imparting understanding of the nature of being human and the requirements to being able to flourish and as such is a form of dishonesty, of claiming that which is not in the realm of the possible.....

This is in keeping to mind that the unreal is unreal and as such can have no value... why? because the objectivity of values means that in dealing with adherence to reality, values are facts - a thing will be objectively valuable to a person because it is in a life enhancing, human flourishing relationship to the person.... life enhancing means that it adheres to facts of reality, which are the means of enhancing - and as such are viable values... honesty, being the recognition that one cannot fake values, that one cannot pretend something is of value if it is objectively not, then is the deliberate principled renounciation of any pretending, that pretence cannot change anything, that evasions or distortions or misrepresentations do not alter the inviolability of reality - it is the recognition that ONLY existence exists...

The consequence of this is that it means taking ideas seriously - it means paying attention to the importance of what the visualizer is considering as important, both WHAT is to be shown and HOW it is to be shown...

The virtue of integrity - how does one apply it to being a spiritual visualizer? For one, it would mean retaining the logical view of the long term outlook involved, and help co-ordinate the individual works into a congruent whole, each work non-contradictorially adding to the major themes.... this implies, of course, that there IS a long-term outlook to the collection of the to-be works... most visualizers, however, have none, leaving only their general 'sense of life' as the closest to being any kind of guide - prefering the range-of-the-moment impressions to be as on themselves, helter skelter, instead of as part of a unified whole.... why is there an ought involved with maintaining a unified whole?

For one, it fits within the framework of the plot of one's life, of the actualization of the self-made person..... this involves the conscious choosing of one's fundamental worldviews as deliberately chosen, instead of the usual hit/miss mess most make of their lives for lack of choesion in their planning of their futures.... this does not mean rigidity, a detailed map of what to do from one day to the next, regardless, as some would presume - but adhesion to the recognition of the value of reason and the understanding that to fully achieve the best in one's life requires consistancy in dealing with reality - and reason is the only means of gaining that consistancy.... in being a spiritual visualizer, this means keeping that created universe within as closely concurrent to reality, however others may disparage the visualizations or seek to unduly influence its corruption [for anything which is to demerit rationality is corruption to reality - it is one thing to deal with fiction, which deals with reality's possibilities, and another to deal with fantasy, which is an attempt at fraud in evading reality].... remember - integrity is the ability to hold to an ideal - BUT an ideal is only of value if it adheres to reality.....