“Ethics and aesthetics are one.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1921
Wittgenstein published this thesis just a mere hundred years ago. However, long before it happened this idea was a lifelong philosophy of George Washington. He believed that a personal character meshes with the person’s aesthetic world to form an ethic of moral excellence and he himself was a perfect proof of this belief.
Washington is universally recognized as the most influential figure in American history, a hero of the Revolution, the first president of the United States. Much less known is his artistic and creative side - Washington was a talented landscape and interior designer, architect, and passionate art collector. For many years he carefully assembled his aesthetic world designing and supervising the remodeling of his family’s estate, Mount Vernon, to become a public face of his virtue.