Difference between revisions of "Beauty" - New World Encyclopedia

From New World Encyclopedia
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Beauty is one of values, that give pleasure and joy.  Beauty is associated with harmony
  
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[[Image:Nymph with morning glory flowers.jpg|200px|thumb|right|''A [[nymph]] with [[morning glory]] flowers'' by [[Jules Joseph Lefebvre|Lefebvre]]. The image of the young woman is a classical symbol of human beauty, and a dominant theme in [[art]].]]
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==Diversity of Beauty and Cultural Traditions==
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As one of core values,
  
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'''Beauty''' is a value associated with an innate and emotional perception of life's affirmative and meaningful aspects within objects in the ''perceived world'' —ie. vitality, fertility, [[health]], happiness, Goodness and evil goodness, and love.
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==Ancient Philosophy==
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[[Cognition]] of "beauty" involves the interpretation of objects as being in balance and harmony with nature, which in turn elicits a sense and experience of attraction, affection, and pleasure. Beauty is mainly an sensational perception or concept of what brings us pleasure depending mainly on what a person thinks is taught or instinctively determines is beautiful.
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===[[Pythagoras|Pythagoras and Pythagoreasns]]===
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Pythagoras and Pythagoreasns, [[Pre-Socratic_philosophy|Pre-Socratic philosophers]] understood that: [[harmony]] is the objectively existing principle that constitutes the cosmos as a unified whole; harmony is built upon mathematical order and balance; beauty exists as the objective principle in beings which maintain harmony, order, and balance. They realized that aesthetic experiences in arts such as music have closely tied to mathematical ratios of tones and rhythms.  
  
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In its most profound sense, beauty is said to engender a salient experience of positive reflection with regard to the meaning of one's own being'' within life perceived. An object of beauty" may be anything that reveals
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Pythagoras and Pythagoreasns understood experiences of beauty and contemplating the mathematical as central part of their religious exercises to purify the soul. Aesthetic experience and exercise of reason were understood as an integral part of religious practices, a necessary process and training to cultivate the soul.  which they understood as immortal. They built a theory of beauty within the framework of their religious thought. Their conviction of the immortality of the soul, the relationship between the mathematical and the beautiful, gave strong impacts on [[Plato]].
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or resonates with a personal meaning. This mainly could be said that in someway we relate to beauty with what is perceived as self subconscious awareness.
 
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Hence [[religion|religious]] and moral teachings have often focused on the ''divinity'' and ''[[virtue]]'' of beauty, to assert natural beauty as an aspect of a ''[[spirituality|spiritual beauty]]'' (ie. ''truth'') and to define most if not all self-centered or [[materialism|materialistic]] pretensions as based in ignorance. The ancient story of Narcissus for example, deals with the distinction between recognizing ''beauty'' and falling into ''vanity.'' Vanity being the perception that beauty is only experienced threw ones own appearance and nothing is more beautiful then that.
 
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The presence of the self in any human context means that beauty is naturally tied to its ''human'' meaning, wherein ''human beauty'' is often the dominant aspect of a greater ''natural beauty.''
 
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Otherwise, objects can be defined as belonging to any of various types, such as "artificial," "internal" or "intellectual" beauty.
 
  
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In the modern context, the usage of beauty as means to promote an ideology or [[dogma]] has been a focus of societal debates which center around issues of prejudice, [[ethics]], and human rights. The usage of beauty for purposes of commercialism is a controversial aspect of the "culture wars," wherein feminism typically claims such usage promotes a dogmatic (ie. "The Beauty Myth") rather than a virtuous understanding of beauty.
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===[[Plato]]===
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The literal opposite of beauty is ''ugliness'' —ie. the perceived ''lack'' of beauty, which stimulates ''displeasure'' and engenders a deeper ''negative'' perception of the object. Which society appears to have influenced this concepts threw media.
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[[Plato]] conceived beauty, together with other Ideas such as “good,” “justice” and other virtues, as eternal, immutable, divine existence. Ideas for Plato are not mental images or psychological objects of mind, but are objectively existing, unchanging, permanent, and eternal beings. They belong to a divine realm.
  
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==Beauty and aesthetics==
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For Plato, the Idea (often capitalized in order to distinguish modern concept of idea as a mental image) of beauty exists in perfect form for eternity in the realm of immortal gods. These Ideas are manifested in imperfect forms in material world we live in.  Plato called the world we live in as a “shadow” of perfect world of Ideas. Concept of beauty was built into Plato’s [[metaphysics]].
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Understanding the nature and meaning of beauty is one of the key themes in the philosophical discipline known as aesthetics.
 
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The composer and critic [[Robert Schumann]] distinguished between two kinds of beauty, ''natural'' beauty and ''poetic'' beauty: the former being found in the contemplation of nature, the latter in man's conscious, creative intervention into nature. Schumann indicated that in music, or other art, both kinds of beauty appear, but the former is only sensual delight, while the latter begins where the former leaves off.
 
  
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Poet Craig MacKenzie, first used his earlier works to portray beauty as an external feature of one's character. He used the example of one of his estranged family members, Shona MacKenzie, who considered herself to be beautiful, but MacKenzie considered her ugly both inside, and out, "like a wilted rose, so often in autumn, dies a death, ugly and rotten," whereas Erin MacDonald considered herself to be relatively homely, while she was in fact stunningly gorgeous.
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Human souls are immortal.  Man is born with implicit understanding of the Idea of beauty as well as that of all other Ideas. Upon entering into the body at birth, man temporarily “forget” these Ideas. Throughout man’s life course, he seeks to experience these Ideas and his experience of beauty and other Ideas is a [[Anamnesis|recollection]] of Ideas the soul has temporarily forgotten.
  
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A common theory says that beauty is the [[appearance]] of things and people that are [[Goodness and value theory|good]]. This has many supporting examples.  Most people judge [[physical attractiveness|physically attractive]] human beings to be good, both physically and on deeper levels. The phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," however, suggests that beauty is wholly subjective. Although some may argue that beauty is not wholly subjective. In the "I of the beholder" is subject to a learned behavior. For example as Erin MacDonald considered herself to be homely, this was most likely a learned perception. Although the argument does hold some merit no matter how a persons perception is developed, if it is innate or learned, we still perceived beauty by our own values and cognition so it is still in the eye of the beholder.
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The process of ascent of the experience of beauty begins with beauty in manifested in human bodies, and it is gradually elevated to the beauty in the soul, characters, and other incorporeal realms. Beauty manifested in bodies and physical materials are less perfect for Plato, and the soul is naturally led to seek permanent and perfect beauty. For Plato, the power of [[eros]] is the driving force for the quest of perfect Ideas in man.
  
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[[Image:Red rose.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Many see natural beauty folded within petals of a [[rose]].]]
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Plato conceived the Idea of [[good]] as the supreme one, and all other Ideas including that of beauty exist under it. In Plato’s [[ontology]], beauty, good, truth, other virtues and being are all tied together.  Accordingly, “to be beautiful,” “to be virtuous,” and “to have true knowledge” are inseparable.
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"Beauty as goodness" has many significant counterexamples with no agreed solution. These include such things as a [[glacier]], or a ruggedly dry [[desert]] [[mountain]] range. Most people find beauty in [[nature]], despite it sometimes being "red in tooth and [[claw]]" ([[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Tennyson]]). Another type of counterexample are comic or sarcastic works of art, which can be good, but are rarely beautiful.
 
  
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It is well known that people's skills develop and change their sense of beauty. [[Carpenter]]s may view an out-of-true [[building]] as ugly, and many [[master tradesman|master]] carpenters can ''see'' out-of-true [[angle]]s as small as half a [[degree (angle)|degree]]. Many musicians can likewise hear as dissonant a tone that's high or low by as little as two percent of the distance to the next note. Most people have similar aesthetics about the work or hobbies they've mastered.
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[[Plotinus]] (205-270), who developed a [[Neoplatonism|Neo-Platonist]] tradition, also held that: good and beauty are one in the realm of thought; and the soul must be cultivated to see good and beauty. In both Platonist and Neo-Platonist traditions, concepts of being, good, and beauty are always understood to be inseparable, and experience of beauty is, therefore, also inseparable from that of being and good.
  
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Beauty as a quantifiable and measurable attribute places upon the trained and educated viewer a great deal of responsibility to tolerate defect. Thus, once again beauty is in the eye of the beholder only so far as the beholder tolerates defect.  It is indeed subjective but in relation to one's intelligence and understanding which can be innate of learned.
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===[[Aristotle]]===
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Unlike Plato, Aristotle conceived beauty not an immutable, permanent being existing above the world we live in, but as a property of the nature and the works of arts. While Aristotle tied beauty with the good, he also made conceptual distinction between them.  
  
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==Theories of beauty==
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Aristotle developed a theory of art and presented its particular part in Poetics, but his ideas and discussions on beauty and arts are scattered in diverse works including Metaphysics, Nichomachean Ethics, Physics, and Rhetoric.  He focused more on examining existing forms of Arts and developing art theories.
  
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The earliest theory of beauty can be found in the works of ancient [[Hellenic civilization|Greek]] [[philosophers]] from the [[Pre-Socratic philosophy|pre-Socratic]] period, such as [[Pythagoras]]. The extant writings attributed to Pythagoras reveal that the Pythagorean school, if not Pythagoras himself, saw a strong connection between mathematics and beauty. In particular, they noted that objects proportioned according to the [[golden ratio]] seemed more attractive. Some modern research seems to confirm this, in that people whose facial features are symmetric and proportioned according the golden ratio are consistently ranked as more attractive than those whose faces are not.
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== Medieval Philosophy==
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As a Christian thinker, [[Augustine]] ascribed the origin of beauty, good, and being to the Creator God.  Beauty as well as goodness and existence come from the Creator alone. Platonic unity of beauty, goodness, being, perfection, and other virtues is found in Augustine. Rational understanding of the order and the harmony of the cosmos and recognizing the beauty was also the path of ascent of the soul to the divine realm and the process of purifying the soul.
  
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[[Thomas Aquinas]], following the philosophy of [[Aristotle]], had the simple statement that "beautiful things are those which please when seen" (''[[Summa Theologian]]'', I, 5, 4, ''ad'' 1].   Under his system, the perception of beauty has three components: the Objective, which includes the unity, order, and harmony of the beautiful; the Relative, or particular situation in which the thing is seen; and the Subjective, or interior mental state of the viewer.  According to Aquinas, beauty is an attribute of goodness, and that true beauty derives from health, vigor, virtue, wisdom, natural order, etc.
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Another important source is pseudo-dyinisious areopagita. He developed his unique “metaphysic of light” and presented aesthetics in the contexts of [[mysticism]].
  
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According to an ancient Indian definition, the beautiful is that which from moment to moment is always new. That is to say, it removes the mind from the world in which things grow old. But considering that the [[visual cortex|visual system]] allows us to see by extracting the stable, rather than changing, features of the environment on a momentary basis, this ancient definition seems hard to support.
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[[Thomas Aquinas]] distinguished beauty and good in terms of its meaning (ratio), but he identified them as the same being (subjectum), indistinguishable in reality. Since God is the only source of beauty, good, and being, they were said to be in oneness.  He enumerated elements of beauty: perfection (integritas sive perfectio); harmony (debita proportion sive consonantia); clarity (claritas) (singakutaizenn 1.5.4 The answer to the first objection 39.8) 
  
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Different cultures have deified beauty, typically in female forms. Here is a list of the goddesses of beauty in four different mythologies.
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==Modern Philosophy==
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* [[Aphrodite]] - [[Greek mythology]]
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After Christian thoughts receded from the main stream of philosophy, discussion of beauty was also shifted from the metaphysical discussions to the studies of man’s perception of beauty.  With and after [[Renaissance]], the realm of the arts flourished and the concept of beauty was discussed in relation to man’s capacities in the arts. [[Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten]] (1714-1762) coined “aesthetics” for the studies of human sensibility (aesthesis). The concept of “sublime” was also discussed in relation to [[morality]].
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* [[Freya]] - [[Norse Mythology]]
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[[Image:Red rose.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Many see natural beauty folded within petals of a [[rose]].]]
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* [[Radha]] - [[Hindu mythology]]
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[[Image:Wenuszmf.jpg|thumb|right]]
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* [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] - [[Roman mythology]]
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Prior to the publication of Critique of Pure Reason (1781), the major work on his epistemology, [[Kant]] wrote Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime (1764). Through Critique of Judgment, together with Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason, Kant established the field of the philosophy of art as autonomous independent genre. Three domains of nature, freedom, and art were discussed through the analyses of three faculties of mind: cognition, desire, and pleasure and pain. With Kant, analyses of beauty became one of major branch of philosophy comparable to Ethics and Epistemology. For both Greeks and Medievals, the area of beauty and art was not an independent or autonomous area of study. (see [[Kant]] for his philosophy)
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== Beauty in modern culture ==
 
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[[Beauty contest]]s claim to be able to judge beauty.
 
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The ''[[millihelen]]'' is sometimes jokingly defined as the scientific unit of human beauty.  This derives from the legend of [[Helen of Troy]] as presented in [[Christopher Marlowe]]'s ''[[The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus]]'', in which her beauty was said to have launched a thousand ships.  The ''millihelen'' is therefore the degree of beauty that can launch one ship.
 
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The foundations laid by Greek and Roman artists set the standard for male beauty in western civilization. The ideal Roman is the more masculine form of pure male beauty. He is ideally defined (similarly to today's classic male beauty) as: larger (over 6 feet tall), far more muscular, long-legged, with a full head of thick hair, a high and wide forehead - a sign of intelligence – wide-set eyes, a strong browline, a strong perfect nose and profile, a smaller mouth, and a strong jaw line. This combination of factors would, as it does today, produce an impressive "grand" look of pure handsome masculinity. Interestingly, this ideal of masculine beauty has remained fairly constant over time. You can look at any magazine or billboard which has a male model and see that this image has not changed if any. The cultural perception of male beauty has not changed as opposed to standards of female beauty, which have radically changed multiple times in the same amount of time.
 
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This ideal was strive for in early Hollywood by such executives as Louis B. Mayer at MGM who selected his people for their raw ideal looks and talent. In the studio system of early Hollywood and even during the same time in fashion people were groomed to perfection and noted for their classic ideal good looks and personal style like [[Tyrone Power]], [[Gary Cooper]], and [[Cary Grant]] who were all classically handsome in a grand way. Even though the ideal of the male persona has changed very little there is a slight change in modern Hollywood. Today many actors do not fit that [[classical antiquity|classic]] mold, yet are promoted for their looks such as [[Brad Pitt]] and [[Matt Damon]], who don't have a strong classic profile and jawline.
 
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Modern culture has maintained and influenced perception of physical beauty threw media. Every where that we look we see images of what beauty should be from the perception of a elite group of people that create magazines, billboards, commercials and other forms of visual media. When was the last time that anyone turned on a commercial to see a obese women advertising perfume. The concept that they portray with the model is that if you use there product you can also look like the model. This portrail has made people that are "normal" or even "beautiful (by most standards)" look at them selves as ugly. Beauty in this case or the perception of beauty is not nessacerly a natural or "beholden" perception but clearly a influence of the modern culture. It can be argued that we can chose not to be influenced by others perception of what we should look like but that is difficult considering that most people want to be perceived as beautiful if it is even a subconscious desire.
 
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===Genetic beauty===
 
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In the 1990 study by Langlois & Roggmann it was found that an extremely ''average'' face was considered the most attractive by the study group. A composite face (one of both sexes) was generated by combining all of the most common features from a group of photographs. The result was a face devoid of any irregularities, and especially asymmetrical features. It was suggested that the features represented may indicate a lack of genetic variation, promoting an indication of a particularly desirable mate. Interestingly, in the same study, combining racial features from ethnic groups in creating a meta-average composite face produced much the same results.
 
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There are three basic contributors to genetic beauty: averageness, [[bilateral symmetry|symmetry]], and [[sexual dimorphism]]. Averageness is sexually preferable because it potentially reflects stability during [[child development|development]], [[heterozygote|heterozygosity]], and functional optimization. Bilateral symmetry is sexually preferable because it potentially reflects the ability to respond reliably to environmental pressures. Sexual dimorphism is sexually preferable because it indicates [[sexual maturity]], reproductive potential, and [[health]]. Blemishes or other physical attributes that can be considered "ugly" are often also a sign post of poor health. Obesity for example is not healthy and is considered to be ugly. Males tend to prefer a feminized face in females, while females' preference varies depending on the phase of their [[menstrual cycle]].<ref>Rhodes, G. The Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Beauty. Annual Review of Psychology 57:199-226, (2005). PMID 16318594.</ref>
 
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===Internal beauty===
 
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By definition there is also an Internal aspect of beauty. People can find them selves attracted to others who physically are not attractive. Even the way we perceive beauty is only a matter of what we "think" is beautiful. Peoples personality and what some may call spirit can also be perceived as beautifully not just their outward appearance. This is why even in a society and a personal aptitude for physical beauty can be put aside when someone finds a perceived beautiful person.
 
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The way a person talks to others or the personality of the character makes someone just as beautifully as anyone else even if there is a concept of there physical appearance not being up to the standard of being "beautiful".
 
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This concept is the focus of the saying, "It is not what is on the outside that matters but what is on the inside." As a society we do have a tendency to over infacise a persons outside appearance and not conceder the standard of beauty from a internal point of view. Although people in history that have not been considered physically attractive have become famous or successful. One good example of this is Einstein, Mother Teresa, and Gondei all of them are often portrayed as being physically not attractive but yet there internal beauty and scope of there achievements are obvious.  
 
  
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==Effects of beauty in human society==
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The focus of the studies of beauty made a shift from the beauty of the nature to that of the arts after Kant. German classicists such as [[Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe|Goethe]], [[Friedrich_Schiller|Schiller]], and [[Holderlin]]; poets of [[German Romanticism]]; [[Schelling]] and [[Hegel]] further developed philosophies of arts.  Studies of beauty of German Idealism reached the peak at [[Schelling]] and Hegel approached arts from historical perspective.
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A survey conducted by London Guildhall University of 11,000 people showed that (subjectively) good-looking people earn more. Less attractive people earned, on average, 13% less than more attractive people, while the penalty for overweight was around 5%.  Alternatively, one could say that people who earn more are more likely to be (or able to be) beautiful.
 
  
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The term "beautiful people" is used to refer to those who closely follow trends in [[fashion]], physical appearance, [[food]], dining, [[wine]], [[automobiles]], and [[real estate]], often at a considerable financial cost. Such people often mirror in appearance and consumer choices the characteristics and purchases of wealthy [[actors]] and [[actresses]], [[model (person)|models]], or other [[celebrities]].  The term "beautiful people" originally referred to the [[musicians]], actors and celebrities of the [[California]]n "[[hippy|Flower Power]]" generation of the 1960s. [[The Beatles]] reference the original "beautiful people" in their 1967 song "Baby You're a Rich Man" on the [[Magical Mystery Tour]] album. With the close of the 1960s, the concept of beautiful people gradually came to encompass [[fashionista]]s and the "[[hip (slang)|hip]]" people of [[New York City]], expanding to its modern definition.  Beautiful people usually enjoy an image-based and/or financially-based prestige which enhances their aura of success, power, and beauty.
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After Hegel, studies of beauty were further dissociated from metaphysics and the arts were also separated from the traditional concept of beauty.  In the twentieth century, metaphysical discussions of beauty were revived by [[Heidegger]] and [[Gadamer]]. Philosophy of beauty and arts today is one of important branches of philosophy.
  
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The term [[Lookism]] is used to describe discrimination against others based on their appearance. Lookism relates to received notions of beauty and cultural stereotyping based on appearance as well as gender roles and expectations.
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== Eastern Thought==
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Far Eastern thought are formed by three major traditions: [[Taoism]], [[Confucianism]], and [[Buddhism]]. These traditions intertwined and formed a general background within which their experience and concept of beauty was formed.
  
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==References==
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Unlike the traditions of western philosophy, abstract theory of beauty did not sufficiently develop in these traditions.  Beauty was often discussed within ethical (Confucianism) and cosmological (Taoism) contexts.
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<references />
 
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* [[Władysław Tatarkiewicz]], ''A History of Six Ideas:  an Essay in Aesthetics'', translated from the Polish by [[Christopher Kasparek]], The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1980.  (Traces the history of key [[aesthetics]] [[concept]]s, including [[art]], '''beauty''', [[form]], [[creativity]], [[mimesis]], and the aesthetic experience.)
 
  
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Chinese character of beauty (美) is consisted of the components of “sheep” (羊) and “big” or “great” (大) . Chinese character of good (善) and justice (義) similarly contains a component of “sheep” (羊).  As [[Confucius]] described in Analects, sheep was an animal offered at religious rituals as an offering to the Heaven.  Beauty  implies “great sacrifice” which connotes “self-sacrifice.” The self-sacrifice out of traditional virtues such as filial piety and loyalty were considered to be noble and beautiful.  The beauty is therefore often ascribed to virtuous actions, characters, and life style. 
  
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Beauty was also understood as a part of nature.  Nature in Far Eastern tradition was the totality of the cosmos which encompassed human life as well.  “To be natural” means “to be authentic.”  In Taosim in particular, ethics and cosmology were fused into naturalism. Beauty is understood as a natural part of the cosmos and the norm of human behavior.
  
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==External links==
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Theories of beauty in this tradition were not a general theory of beauty but particular theories in each form of arts. Practical orientation of Chinese tradition probably led studies of beauty not into speculative metaphysics but into practical theories in each genre.
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* [http://www.lookism.info/eng/index2.html www.lookism.info]
 
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* [http://www.faceresearch.org/ FaceResearch] – University of Aberdeen online studies on facial beauty
 
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*[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-28 ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'':] Theories of Beauty to the Mid-Nineteenth Century
 
  
 
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Revision as of 02:33, 12 October 2006


Beauty is one of values, that give pleasure and joy. Beauty is associated with harmony

Diversity of Beauty and Cultural Traditions

As one of core values,

Ancient Philosophy

Pythagoras and Pythagoreasns

Pythagoras and Pythagoreasns, Pre-Socratic philosophers understood that: harmony is the objectively existing principle that constitutes the cosmos as a unified whole; harmony is built upon mathematical order and balance; beauty exists as the objective principle in beings which maintain harmony, order, and balance. They realized that aesthetic experiences in arts such as music have closely tied to mathematical ratios of tones and rhythms.

Pythagoras and Pythagoreasns understood experiences of beauty and contemplating the mathematical as central part of their religious exercises to purify the soul. Aesthetic experience and exercise of reason were understood as an integral part of religious practices, a necessary process and training to cultivate the soul. which they understood as immortal. They built a theory of beauty within the framework of their religious thought. Their conviction of the immortality of the soul, the relationship between the mathematical and the beautiful, gave strong impacts on Plato.

Plato

Plato conceived beauty, together with other Ideas such as “good,” “justice” and other virtues, as eternal, immutable, divine existence. Ideas for Plato are not mental images or psychological objects of mind, but are objectively existing, unchanging, permanent, and eternal beings. They belong to a divine realm.

For Plato, the Idea (often capitalized in order to distinguish modern concept of idea as a mental image) of beauty exists in perfect form for eternity in the realm of immortal gods. These Ideas are manifested in imperfect forms in material world we live in. Plato called the world we live in as a “shadow” of perfect world of Ideas. Concept of beauty was built into Plato’s metaphysics.

Human souls are immortal. Man is born with implicit understanding of the Idea of beauty as well as that of all other Ideas. Upon entering into the body at birth, man temporarily “forget” these Ideas. Throughout man’s life course, he seeks to experience these Ideas and his experience of beauty and other Ideas is a recollection of Ideas the soul has temporarily forgotten.

The process of ascent of the experience of beauty begins with beauty in manifested in human bodies, and it is gradually elevated to the beauty in the soul, characters, and other incorporeal realms. Beauty manifested in bodies and physical materials are less perfect for Plato, and the soul is naturally led to seek permanent and perfect beauty. For Plato, the power of eros is the driving force for the quest of perfect Ideas in man.

Plato conceived the Idea of good as the supreme one, and all other Ideas including that of beauty exist under it. In Plato’s ontology, beauty, good, truth, other virtues and being are all tied together. Accordingly, “to be beautiful,” “to be virtuous,” and “to have true knowledge” are inseparable.

Plotinus (205-270), who developed a Neo-Platonist tradition, also held that: good and beauty are one in the realm of thought; and the soul must be cultivated to see good and beauty. In both Platonist and Neo-Platonist traditions, concepts of being, good, and beauty are always understood to be inseparable, and experience of beauty is, therefore, also inseparable from that of being and good.

Aristotle

Unlike Plato, Aristotle conceived beauty not an immutable, permanent being existing above the world we live in, but as a property of the nature and the works of arts. While Aristotle tied beauty with the good, he also made conceptual distinction between them.

Aristotle developed a theory of art and presented its particular part in Poetics, but his ideas and discussions on beauty and arts are scattered in diverse works including Metaphysics, Nichomachean Ethics, Physics, and Rhetoric. He focused more on examining existing forms of Arts and developing art theories.

Medieval Philosophy

As a Christian thinker, Augustine ascribed the origin of beauty, good, and being to the Creator God. Beauty as well as goodness and existence come from the Creator alone. Platonic unity of beauty, goodness, being, perfection, and other virtues is found in Augustine. Rational understanding of the order and the harmony of the cosmos and recognizing the beauty was also the path of ascent of the soul to the divine realm and the process of purifying the soul.

Another important source is pseudo-dyinisious areopagita. He developed his unique “metaphysic of light” and presented aesthetics in the contexts of mysticism.

Thomas Aquinas distinguished beauty and good in terms of its meaning (ratio), but he identified them as the same being (subjectum), indistinguishable in reality. Since God is the only source of beauty, good, and being, they were said to be in oneness. He enumerated elements of beauty: perfection (integritas sive perfectio); harmony (debita proportion sive consonantia); clarity (claritas) (singakutaizenn 1.5.4 The answer to the first objection 39.8)

Modern Philosophy

After Christian thoughts receded from the main stream of philosophy, discussion of beauty was also shifted from the metaphysical discussions to the studies of man’s perception of beauty. With and after Renaissance, the realm of the arts flourished and the concept of beauty was discussed in relation to man’s capacities in the arts. Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714-1762) coined “aesthetics” for the studies of human sensibility (aesthesis). The concept of “sublime” was also discussed in relation to morality.

Many see natural beauty folded within petals of a rose.
Wenuszmf.jpg

Prior to the publication of Critique of Pure Reason (1781), the major work on his epistemology, Kant wrote Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime (1764). Through Critique of Judgment, together with Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason, Kant established the field of the philosophy of art as autonomous independent genre. Three domains of nature, freedom, and art were discussed through the analyses of three faculties of mind: cognition, desire, and pleasure and pain. With Kant, analyses of beauty became one of major branch of philosophy comparable to Ethics and Epistemology. For both Greeks and Medievals, the area of beauty and art was not an independent or autonomous area of study. (see Kant for his philosophy)

The focus of the studies of beauty made a shift from the beauty of the nature to that of the arts after Kant. German classicists such as Goethe, Schiller, and Holderlin; poets of German Romanticism; Schelling and Hegel further developed philosophies of arts. Studies of beauty of German Idealism reached the peak at Schelling and Hegel approached arts from historical perspective.

After Hegel, studies of beauty were further dissociated from metaphysics and the arts were also separated from the traditional concept of beauty. In the twentieth century, metaphysical discussions of beauty were revived by Heidegger and Gadamer. Philosophy of beauty and arts today is one of important branches of philosophy.

Eastern Thought

Far Eastern thought are formed by three major traditions: Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. These traditions intertwined and formed a general background within which their experience and concept of beauty was formed.

Unlike the traditions of western philosophy, abstract theory of beauty did not sufficiently develop in these traditions. Beauty was often discussed within ethical (Confucianism) and cosmological (Taoism) contexts.

Chinese character of beauty (美) is consisted of the components of “sheep” (羊) and “big” or “great” (大) . Chinese character of good (善) and justice (義) similarly contains a component of “sheep” (羊). As Confucius described in Analects, sheep was an animal offered at religious rituals as an offering to the Heaven. Beauty implies “great sacrifice” which connotes “self-sacrifice.” The self-sacrifice out of traditional virtues such as filial piety and loyalty were considered to be noble and beautiful. The beauty is therefore often ascribed to virtuous actions, characters, and life style.

Beauty was also understood as a part of nature. Nature in Far Eastern tradition was the totality of the cosmos which encompassed human life as well. “To be natural” means “to be authentic.” In Taosim in particular, ethics and cosmology were fused into naturalism. Beauty is understood as a natural part of the cosmos and the norm of human behavior.

Theories of beauty in this tradition were not a general theory of beauty but particular theories in each form of arts. Practical orientation of Chinese tradition probably led studies of beauty not into speculative metaphysics but into practical theories in each genre.

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