Here is David Brooks; adding valuable arguments to our ongoing study of art & beauty:
We really have to trust our emotions, which are much smarter than our reason in some ways – because our emotions tell us what to value.
– we don’t have the choice to control our emotions, but we do have the power to educate our emotions. And we do that through literature and through art and music to give ourselves a repertoire of emotional experiences.
sub rosa 
Ah, but what does he mean “educate”. Might he mean “build structures out of them” or “build living structures out of them” or something about creation and sophistication and increased energy? If he merely means, “train them”, I think we’re in the yoke of post-modernism in the mud of the Somme. 🙂 Harold
I must admit, postmodernism didn’t strike me as relevant when listening to Brooks, rather I came to think of Dewey.
I liked Brooks comments. Emotional does not mean irrational. Sometimes our emotions are the smartest part of us. Maybe art educates them when we look at something outside of our usual tastes?
I didn’t know Brooks before, but his talk made me want to know a bit more, so I started reading his book “The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement”. It’s science in the form of fiction (not science-fiction). I like it a lot.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9628743-the-social-animal?bf=2000&from_search=true