In the eye of the beholder.

[tragula]

What is beauty?

Why does beauty have the power to move us? Is it really just our evolutionary instincts making themselves heard?

Why do we sometimes feel shallow for admiring someone beautiful?

What is the difference between a beautiful woman and a beautiful flower?

Can someone with an unattractive personality be considered beautiful?

Is beauty ultimately just an illusion? What do blind people think is beautiful?

[kruT]

What is beauty?


Why does beauty have the power to move us? Is it really just our evolutionary instincts making themselves heard?
Beauty has the power to move us because just like shiny things, we are attracted to them.

Why do we sometimes feel shallow for admiring someone beautiful?
I "feel" that I shouldn't be singleminded with my opinion of the person.
Just by saying "She's smart" or "She's Pretty" with no budding example justification to like the person leads to this shallow feeling. It makes me feel like I'm trying to compensate myself through the other person, using them so to speak.



What is the difference between a beautiful woman and a beautiful flower?
The different between a beautiful woman and a beautiful flower is that the flower has no legs in order to carry itself in the other direction.

Can someone with an unattractive personality be considered beautiful?
Sure. Take me, for example.
(No.)


Is beauty ultimately just an illusion? What do blind people think is beautiful?

Beauty is relative, not an illusion. Blind people find beauty through their remaining senses and their mind.

Happy 60th post. This is my all-time forum record.

[tragula]

Beauty is a girl I know. Beauty is the thought of running my fingers through her hair. Beauty is the shape of her lips. Beauty is the tingle I get when I look at her face. Beauty is the place I go when I daydream of her. Full of popping bubbles and bursting stars. A kaleidoscopic dreamscape of sheer reverence and heart-stopping bliss. Beauty is the pang of pain that comes soon after. She will never be mine. And she will never know my secret.

[Clara]

What is beauty?
Beauty has the power to move us because just like shiny things, we are attracted to them.

Happy 60th post. This is my all-time forum record. ~ :thumbup:
Anything anyone says after that second post of yours, tragula... *shaking my head* hooo boy, you are making yourself miserable, and you're doing it on purpose -- so, kinda poignant, and kinda pointless -- not so smart, but as I recall, you didn't phrase it as a question. /shaking my head

krut, shiny things is a beautiful analogy. When something or something strikes me as beautiful, "brilliance" is part of my perception of it/him/her.

I think there's -- some of the time, anyway, I'm thinking as I type because I've been deleting so much, today -- a sense of connectedness that we feel, as though our appreciation might give us some claim... I know that I step back, laughing, most of the time that I find myself feeling this way, when I stop to consider, "Really ? This is really something I want, to the point of giving time/effort that keeping would imply ?"

I really appreciate that there are a lot of beautiful things, and people, in the world, which require no action from me, to continue as they are. To add an example : the violets I plan on planting outside later this spring are as hardy as weeds. So, their brilliant colours will still be there at the end of the summer, just from whatever rain falls. And, if someone else decides to practice at gardening, and waters them at whatever intervals, they'll survive that, too.

Still, that which is beautiful to me strikes a chord in me, th way emotions do.

[tragula]

Don't let your imagination run away with you Clara! ;-)

It was just a memory of an emotion I once felt that I was reminded of today...

Feelings are nice. Sigh.

Perhaps it is just me concluding that beauty shouldn't be dissected and analyzed and that this thread is a bit pointless. Beauty should just be felt.

[Iothiania]

Personally, I see 'beauty' as just being a synonym for 'natural'; ie, a waterfall, a cloud pattern on Saturn, a Maple tree, etc.

Therefore, all humans would by default be 'beautiful', and ones who take on an artifical appearance (such as by make-up or other cosmetics) are not beautiful.

For me, 'beautiful' and 'aesthetically pleasing' are not the same thing. One of the said humans wearing cosmetics may not be 'beautiful' by my definition, but may be 'aesthetically pleasing'.

Likewise, I may not find one of my cat's hairballs aesthetically pleasing, but it will still be 'beautiful' by my (perhaps flawed) definition.

[Pierce]

Beauty is a comparative term, a term we use to distinguish between different things and has no meaning apart from comparison. Beauty can also be true or false (pure or impure). Ideal beauty can be supreficially cultural, but ultimately it's deeply personal. Many things I once thought beautiful, I now realize were ugly, and many things I once thought ugly, I now find beautiful. Beauty is not relative -- it's associative.

[Avengardh]

Beauty is what you perceive...

Out of many paintings I usually only pick a few, for me beauty has to be balanced, perhaps it's because I draw myself, and I appreciate beauty in the sense that is well constructed/drawn, it shows effort.

But then again it can only be an illusion humans make up to feel good, at least for a moment.

As long as it does its job, I see nothing wrong with liking beauty.
It's setting that beauty as a standard with people without knowing a particular person, that I find ridiculous...

[Pedro_The_Lion]

Didn't we have this conversation before? Beauty is math and what their appearance tells you about their personality.

[Hypnos]

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

[Wilde Mutton]

"But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don't think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful. Your mysterious young friend, whose name you have never told me, but whose picture really fascinates me, never thinks. I feel quite sure of that. He is some brainless beautiful creature who should be always here in winter when we have no flowers to look at, and always here in summer when we want something to chill our intelligence."
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

[Hypnos]

"Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all"
-- W. Somerset Maugham

:)

[euterpenc]

"But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don't think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful. Your mysterious young friend, whose name you have never told me, but whose picture really fascinates me, never thinks. I feel quite sure of that. He is some brainless beautiful creature who should be always here in winter when we have no flowers to look at, and always here in summer when we want something to chill our intelligence."
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

That story is a classic of the shadow and psychic compensation. by our intellect we discover ourselves, and no one is perfect or entirely good or beautiful. So, by intellect, we discriminate (hence the Fall) and see things as different, including the bad. We still see beauty, we merely see plaws as well.

[Lee]

Beauty is a combination of features that match measurements that our brains have adapted to feel pleaure from, this pleasure is felt because beauty is experienced as something helpful and therefore better for our survival and reproductive success. Any stimulus that taps into this innate construct of the mind is percieved as beautiful, this of course differs between individuals but remains fairly consistent across the species.

[Wilde Mutton]

Zeitgeist: A classic example of how with knowledge there comes pain. Beauty is unaware of itself and thus survives because it does not recognise flaw in anything it sees("lacking intellect"). I don´t know if Wilde considered it consciously when he wrote this story, but it could be argued that the moment Dorian Gray truly becomes aware of his beauty (which, as you will recall, is shortly afterwards) he starts to consider it something to attain and henceforth his beauty starts to decay (in the picture at least, which has become a picture of the state of his soul). The similar kind of examination of the nature of beauty in relation to its understanding of self and its environs can be found in the metaphor about the garden of Eden. Assuming that paradise and all its inhabitants were beautiful in the absolute sense then the Tree bore fruit which gave insight into that ambigous mix of good and bad within ourselves (Adam and Eve acknowledging their nudity), then God, who supposedly had the knowledge one got out of the Tree, would have seen ugliness and in His world would come to avoid it by not letting such acknowledgement slither its way into Paradise. (I´m not too sure though; I haven´t read the Bible since Sunday school and consider myself an agnostic, but still, it makes sense...)

[Hypnos]

Then, to know sin is to question the beauty before you? I suppose that is the essence of desire.

[Wilde Mutton]

Exactly. Desire, if one is to follow the line I seem to have taken in my earlier posts, might be construed as a craving for something that one lacks, something beautiful and pure, or just something seen to fill the void between the ideal and the actual, resulting in perfection which in some cases is seen as a synonym for beauty (but what about such cases where it doesn´t? Is beauty perfection, and if so, does that apply all the time?). One might consider this idea in accordance with relationships, or at least relationship theories, as well...

[Wilde Mutton]

Does that mean intellect leads to desire?

[euterpenc]

"High rests on low." "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

The more beatiful Dorian became, the uglier his picture. The higher a tree grows, the deeper its roots.

Good old psychic compensation. The more "good" one acts in public, the more atrocious he is at home. Hence we see "good sumaritans" beating their wives and such.

[Hypnos]

Does that mean intellect leads to desire?
In a sense, yes. Adam and Eve were inhuman in their lack of reflection and imagination: there was only hunger, and satiety -- like animals. With intellect, one can contextualize and ramify, and so the hunger can build on itself and always seek something higher. This is desire. As far as The Church is concerned, it is a sin if you seek the resolution of your desire outside of its God.

The religious might argue that this is how one "finds" God -- the worldly torment of desire is displaced by the passion for God, the only perfect satiety given our fall from ignorant grace.

[Helios]

Wow this has developed in a manner I couldn't have forseen, very interesting.

It seems like EZ should be crashing in here any moment now with an anti-God rant

[Wilde Mutton]

Might be why some say they see in God a force that fills them and their "lacking" in a way that nothing else can.

[Hypnos]

Might be why some say they see in God a force that fills them and their "lacking" in a way that nothing else can.
Heh -- the hope of ultimate, eternal contentment. In the meantime, they get told what to do, which is awfully useful; oh, and we tell them to deny their mortal desires in the meantime and assuage their guilt by doing what we tell them. :devil:

[Wilde Mutton]

Ah, the perfect natural reserve - the religious!

[philonightmare]

What is beauty?
When one gets a feeling that they should appreciate/envy something, they are experiencing the pull that the something beautiful creates.

Why does beauty have the power to move us? Is it really just our evolutionary instincts making themselves heard?
Beauty has the power to move us because usually beauty is something we envy in someone else or what we find most attractive about someone (not necessarily looks). People can be motivated to do things for this "beauty" because most would hate to destroy something beautiful. They want to covet, hold, desire to put on a pedestal, that something beautiful.

Keeping in mind that there are certain people willing to destroy beautiful things to make a point or because they hate beauty. Beauty can be recognized (appreciated) and it can be hated (envy).

No, it is not our evolutionary instincts being heard because not everyone appreciates beauty. Like I said before, people can envy and wish to destroy it.


Why do we sometimes feel shallow for admiring someone beautiful?For some, I can imagine letting oneself to be completely entranced by something beauty to be a lack of control --which some people hate. Perhaps feeling shallow is a result of appreciating the beauty which leads to the hate that one has let go of themself to something that controls them to a degree.


What is the difference between a beautiful woman and a beautiful flower?
Woman: can say thank you to you immediately after she hears you consider her beautiful.
Flower: will die from the latest frost and you'll never hear those words of gratitude.


Can someone with an unattractive personality be considered beautiful?Yes. Physical beauty plays into that. For how long will the deluded remain so? I'm not going to discuss the fall out. All I can say is I would rather marry the ugliest man on Earth as long as he had an attractive personality. Keyword: attractive personality, so no one can say, "but, you'll never want to f**k him!" It's him I'll be doing, not his looks.


Is beauty ultimately just an illusion? What do blind people think is beautiful?Yes, it can serve as an illusion. Blind people? I'm not one so experientially speaking, I fail to speak the truth, but I can imagine them considering the personality the source of beauty and not the looks.

[euterpenc]

We think of God, therefore he/it must exist. For us to know of something, it must either be within or without us, so God is either in us, out of us, or both.

[jimkopelli]

But do we know of God, or of the idea of God?

[Wilde Mutton]

When one gets a feeling that they should appreciate/envy something, they are experiencing the pull that the something beautiful creates.

Beauty has the power to move us because usually beauty is something we envy in someone else or what we find most attractive about someone (not necessarily looks). People can be motivated to do things for this "beauty" because most would hate to destroy something beautiful. They want to covet, hold, desire to put on a pedestal, that something beautiful.

Keeping in mind that there are certain people willing to destroy beautiful things to make a point or because they hate beauty. Beauty can be recognized (appreciated) and it can be hated (envy).

No, it is not our evolutionary instincts being heard because not everyone appreciates beauty. Like I said before, people can envy and wish to destroy it.

For some, I can imagine letting oneself to be completely entranced by something beauty to be a lack of control --which some people hate. Perhaps feeling shallow is a result of appreciating the beauty which leads to the hate that one has let go of themself to something that controls them to a degree.


Ever seen "Amadeus"? Wraps the whole beauty/God/resentment-complex in a nice package.

[Dunearhp]

Wow this has developed in a manner I couldn't have forseen, very interesting.

It seems like EZ should be crashing in here any moment now with an anti-God rant

Beauty is the intersection between form and function.

To tie beauty to god is to rob it of its value. The world contains an abundance of beauty. At every scale there can be found a beautiful aspect. To tie it to god precludes us from perceiving the depth of the beauty around us.

If god is meant to be the greatest of all things, then claiming that god is beautiful is just lip service.
When we can examine a grain of sand and discover thousands of ways to expose its beautiful complexity. When such a small thing can be an object of awe; how can we claim to see the beauty of god? When the stars outnumber us a trillion to one, all of them are different. How can we claim to perceive a will capable of placing them?

God is redundant. The world is beautiful enough. We just have to cultivate it.

[Sally]

God is redundant. The world is beautiful enough.

This is precisely how I feel about spirituality. The natural world is beautiful and unfathomable and awe-inspiring all on its own. God has nothing to do with the universe - the universe is beautiful enough. God is a human construct in answer to a human emotional lack.

[euterpenc]

But do we know of God, or of the idea of God?

God is an idea.

[Clara]

When one gets a feeling that they should appreciate/envy something, they are experiencing the pull that the something beautiful creates.

Beauty has the power to move us because usually beauty is something we envy in someone else or what we find most attractive about someone (not necessarily looks). People can be motivated to do things for this "beauty" because most would hate to destroy something beautiful. They want to covet, hold, desire to put on a pedestal, that something beautiful.
I think fear of the hateful reaction leads to overestimating its frequency. Note, philonightmare, you listed "... something we envy" before "... find most attractive" -- fear is an insidious thing... making us doubt our reactions, and doubt expressions of celebration. Of course, how we celebrate what ... and going back to something I was thinking of , earlier in this post : I currently own too many books ( don't argue, this is both subjective & true ) -- so, I haven't bought a book in a long time. It annoys me that I have to look critically at the ones I have. So, when I'm setting myself to culling, I remind myself that not-liking any of them isn't necessary, to passing them on.


For some, I can imagine letting oneself to be completely entranced by something beauty to be a lack of control --which some people hate. Perhaps feeling shallow is ... that one has let go of themself to something that controls them to a degree.
:) Maybe. I agree with tragula ( the scamp ) understanding is superfuous, and possibly gets in the way.


... I can imagine [ blind people ] them considering the personality the source of beauty and not the looks.
I rather dislike that talking about beauty so often ends up in a "which criteria matters more" ... and that our appreciation must be linked to our choices of partners. Not that it isn't endlessly fascinating ( what one finds beautiful, in one's mate ) ... just, those two facets are not the only ones, either, if we're going to parse things. And, here again, I agree with tragula. It's superfluous to enjoyment.

[philonightmare]

[...]those two facets are not the only ones, either, if we're going to parse things[...]

I agree with you, there is much more to it. I was just trying to keep my post simple and short, if not slightly contradictory. :)

[euterpenc]

For me to find something beautiful, I must force myself. It is never sincere, unless it is a sexual desire for a gorgeous female. What causes this?

[CoHo]

What causes this?

Television when you were a baby, it is irreversible, you're pretty much fucked. The bright side is Wal-Mart has a shotgun sale this weekend.

[euterpenc]

Television when you were a baby, it is irreversible, you're pretty much fucked. The bright side is Wal-Mart has a shotgun sale this weekend.

I wouldn't go that far..

[Sally]

You've never found anything beautiful? What about a feeling? Ever had a really good meal?

[Hypnos]

For me to find something beautiful, I must force myself. It is never sincere, unless it is a sexual desire for a gorgeous female. What causes this?
Or, all beauty starts with sexual desire.

I hope this changes if I have kids.

[Clara]

Well, for most of us,* having kids is the sudden beginning of a transformation that continues to change you in ways you could never have predicted ( yes, even if you read all the books ). :)


* men too. ;)

[Hypnos]

Well, for most of us,* having kids is the sudden beginning of a transformation that continues to change you in ways you could never have predicted ( yes, even if you read all the books ). :)


* men too. ;)
Can you put into words beauty that is neither sexual nor a metaphor for sexuality?

[Clara]

You gave a good example, in asking that -- a question reflecting well phrased thought is beautiful.

I'm still trying to finds words to reply... harder to do because, I don't even remember when I realized it wasn't obvious to everybody. I think the two are rather sometimes parallel, and sometimes overlapping. And that there are a few things that get in the way of knowing it.

First, to address "not a metaphor." When people believe that beauty is ruled by sexuality, this blurs their understanding. What's the song, though ? When ( several things could fit here : love, lust, & belief among them ) comes in the door, reason flies out the window. One thing I've noticed : this is a belief that quite a few people vigorously refuse to question. An example : there are men and women who are uncomfortable that the same body that made it possible for a baby to form, in pregnancy, makes food that's best suited to the baby, once s/he's born. I know from experience that the feelings of nursing a baby aren't sexual -- the feelings because biology can do that, and the wonder at holding a new little person, and the stark almost-terror, of being responsible for another person. ( My experience of belief is that it goes well with doubt, but, not everyone thinks so. So, I think that if one could only suspend that belief, while thinking about this question, the distinction would be clear. )

Another impediment might be too narrow a focus. Or maybe, personal experience that doesn't include enough experiences of that doesn't have a direct personal ... ( import, maybe ). Or, maybe it's like what you said, in the jargon thread, that a specific, complex vocabulary is needed to make some things precise. And, those who don't see the need for distinctions don't build their sense of how it can sometimes be similar-ish, yet not the same.

Athletes competing. Minds thinking -- and any branch of study one might pick. Artists creating, or interpreting. Good food, when it's exactly what you most feel like eating. Friendship. ( Stopping before the list gets tediously long. )

[philonightmare]

[...]Another impediment might be too narrow a focus. Or maybe, personal experience that doesn't include enough experiences of that doesn't have a direct personal ... ( import, maybe ). Or, maybe it's like what you said, in the jargon thread, that a specific, complex vocabulary is needed to make some things precise. And, those who don't see the need for distinctions don't build their sense of how it can sometimes be similar-ish, yet not the same.
I am lacking in personal experiences (that would give me a broader idea of distinctions between beauty) and appreciate your example of breast feeding to explain it. I think I need to develop a stronger vocabulary.


Athletes competing. Minds thinking -- and any branch of study one might pick. Artists creating, or interpreting. Good food, when it's exactly what you most feel like eating. Friendship. ( Stopping before the list gets tediously long. )
I hadn't thought of it that way before. Again, my focus really was too narrow and I didn't make clear distinctions in my previous posts. Good job Clara, yours was written beautifully. ;)

[Hypnos]

How about "Ave Maria" by Schubert? Music is the only place where paternal affection, loss, guilt, etc. are not all framed by sexuality for me.

I concede that this same sensibility is not available to me in the real world; perhaps I have not expended the necessary psychological effort or been presented with the necessary stimulus (e.g., progeny).

[Clara]

Philonightmare ~ you silly, if it's in a post, and it strikes you in some way, then it applies to you. All this discussion is for all of us... whoever is there.

What I left out is : I think beauty applies in our experience of it. That anything any of us can find beautiful, has non-beautiful sides to it. Hmm, the difficulty of saying something that keeps surprising, in not being equally obvious to everyone. To return to the example, a woman who's chronically short on sleep, due to the recent arrival of a new principal character in her life : she won't be experiencing wonder every moment that she's feeding her kid. And she may or may not laugh when, during an hour out alone, maybe running errands, a thought, or the sound of someone else's baby crying, causes her milk to suddenly flow, making her shirt wet. And there is nothing fun, at all, in discovering that her partner is now intimidated by ( parts of ) her body.

I don't think it's so necessary to make efforts to broaden one's definition of beauty - only to be open to the possibility ( doubt, it's so great ). I find that life tends to take care of the things that are important for us to learn, usually when we're not "trying" to ( understand, among other processes ). :)

So Hypnos, I sincerely doubt that ( never mind same, no two people are quite the same ) "the sensibility is not available... inthe real world."
*crossing my fingers ~ please, please let's not have to debate the idiocy, the distorted belief, of "motherism" ** ~ wishing stongly*

edit : ( I made this edit immediately, but it disappeared )
** mother is one role, among many possible roles in the world

edit again : the change of words, above, keeps the original sense, while specifying that I'm making a point, which may or may not be true to any one person's exact experience.

Philonightmare, for you : the real story is funnier. What happened is that all the men around ( including visitors ) developed a disinclination to drink any milk -- and because it's polite to ask, "You sure you wouldn't..." twice, after the first refusal... the looks on their faces, as they insisted, caused great merriment.

[MaroonBells]

What is beauty?

Beauty is anything that moves us positively.

MB

[philonightmare]

Philonightmare ~ you silly, if it's in a post, and it strikes you in some way, then it applies to you. All this discussion is for all of us... whoever is there.

What I left out is : I think beauty applies in our experience of it. That anything any of us can find beautiful, has non-beautiful sides to it. Hmm, the difficulty of saying something that keeps surprising, in not being equally obvious to everyone. To return to the example of the woman who's chronically short on sleep, due to the recent arrival of a new principal character in her life : she won't be experiencing wonder every moment that she's feeding her kid. And she may or may not laugh when, during an hour out alone, maybe running errands, a thought, or the sound of someone else's baby crying, causes her milk to suddenly flow, making her shirt wet. And there is nothing fun, at all, in discovering that her partner is now intimidated by ( parts of ) her body.[...]

I like that. So, no one should have to change their sense of beauty, but should be open to all possible interpretations of such a subjective "thing." I still like the example of breast feeding. I have never considered having children since it doesn't fit into my future plans as a priority (especially at the moment) and never considered that example as one of containing beauty before. Nor did I really consider the opposing view of that which you found beautiful --your partner being intimidated by that part of the body! :)

[Clara]

Getting back to the original topic : the song "Lucille" as performed ( tunefully ) and sung ( not tunefully ) by Les Trois Accords is a beautiful and hilarious expression of the nonsensical experience of being unbeautifully in love.

[Johnny]

I think of toasted buns loaded with hamburger meat, mustard, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, ketchup, and pickles...with lots of freedom fries on the side with a full ketchup bottle within reach, when I think of beauty.

A really good song is a thing of beauty.

A beautiful woman is a thing of beauty.

These are all things that speak to me in a way that disconnects me from my rational mind, things that take me to a world where my experience is not of words, but things where words can only be offered in tribute to them.

I don't know what beauty really is, I just know it when it's there.

That song, "You Only Get What You Give" or whatever it's called, has a great chord progression that I'd call beautiful.

[euterpenc]

These are all things that speak to me in a way that disconnects me from my rational mind, things that take me to a world where my experience is not of words, but things where words can only be offered in tribute to them.


That is what beauty should be.

[kit]

Can we give it a scientific definition? It's almost like asking, "what is nostalgia?". Because whatever it is (material or immaterial), it produces a feeling at the pit of our stomach that causes us to yearn for more...

[Johnny]

Can we give it a scientific definition? It's almost like asking, "what is nostalgia?". Because whatever it is (material or immaterial), it produces a feeling at the pit of our stomach that causes us to yearn for more...Sure.

The following observation of the following phenomena in human behavior have been documented as follows:
1) dialated pupils
2) big eyes
3) racing heart

How 'bout that for starters?

[melancholeric]

Can we give it a scientific definition? It's almost like asking, "what is nostalgia?". Because whatever it is (material or immaterial), it produces a feeling at the pit of our stomach that causes us to yearn for more...
Beauty:

the qualities that give pleasure to the senses
smasher: a very attractive or seductive looking woman
an outstanding example of its kind; "his roses were beauties"; "when I make a mistake it's a beaut"
http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

Beauty is the phenomenon of the experience of pleasure, through the perception of balance and proportion of stimulus. It involves the cognition of a balanced form and structure that elicits attraction and appeal towards a person, animal, inanimate object, scene, music, idea, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty

The attribute of a thing in virtue of which the thing pleases when perceived. A blending of the unity, truth, and goodness in a thing, characterized by completeness, proportion, and clarity of presentation in an intellectual-sensuous form, so as to produce a disinterested emotional pleasure in a rational perceiver.

http://radicalacademy.com/aipphilglossary1.htm
a Primary Principle, is defined as such combined perfection of form and charm of coloring as affords keen pleasure to the sense of sight, that quality or combination of qualities which affords keen pleasure to other senses (eg, hearing), or which charms the intellectual or moral faculties, through inherent grace, or fitness to a desired end, an embellishment, ornament, grace, charm. Beauty is defined by Plato as the Luster of Good. Emerson said, "We ascribe beauty to that which is simple, which has no superfluous parts, which exactly answers its end." James Barry said, "Beauty consists of unity and gradual

http://miriams-well.org/Glossary/

deliverance through the perception of: cf. vimokkha (II. 3) To hold for beautiful or pure (subha) what is impure (asubha), is one of the 4 perversions (s. vipallása).

http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma2/dictionary/bd5.html

an enthusiastic expression of pleasure or agreement.

http://www.artistwd.com/joyzine/australia/strine/b-3.php

is the highest sign of power: it is beyond contradictions, relaxed and without stress - no need for violence; everything follows and obeys the most love-worthy features (Nietzsche)

http://www.a-studio.nl/en/writings/abc/

[Hypnos]

Sure.

The following observation of the following phenomena in human behavior have been documented as follows:
1) dialated pupils
2) big eyes
3) racing heart

How 'bout that for starters?
Like I said, all beauty is sexual ;)

[euterpenc]

Like I said, all beauty is sexual ;)

What about artistic beauty?

[Hypnos]

What about artistic beauty?
What's more sensual than the Romantic turn of phrase, the flow of Bernini's marble vestments?

The question is: can sensuality be more than sexual? Clara made an attempt to show that it can.

[Johnny]

Like I said, all beauty is sexual ;)I don't agree that all beauty must be attributed to sex...but I do agree that all beauty can be attributed to the foundation from which sexual behavior stems.

[Wilde Mutton]

I just noticed one hasn´t even skimmed the question of whether one can conceive of beauty and how. In many answers this was dealt with as a sidenote, a given. When beauty is seen to be subjective is it assumed to be immediately an accessible, almost subconscious notion or a trained, informed opinion, or something else? If beauty is not subjective how does one recognise it? What are the parameters at work that make something beautiful?

[Hypnos]

Isn't the essence of art that it evades reduction? The best art is without principle, but still "works."

[Dunearhp]

I am surprised that no-one has mentioned the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenence". It makes a big fuss about the difficulty of defining beauty.

[Hypnos]

Calm down, we're getting there ... :D

[Dunearhp]

Ah, so this must be one of those meta-debates then. :cool:

[Wilde Mutton]

Isn't the essence of art that it evades reduction? The best art is without principle, but still "works."

What are the mechanisms that allow it to "work"? As with beauty it could be asked what it is about art that is recognised as art; what are the mechanisms that make us view something as art? Are art and beauty truly analogous and in fact synonymous as your reply could lead one to believe?

[Johnny]

What are the mechanisms that allow it to "work"? As with beauty it could be asked what it is about art that is recognised as art; what are the mechanisms that make us view something as art? Are art and beauty truly analogous and in fact synonymous as your reply could lead one to believe?Ah, now I can offer Kant! LOL

He's my favorite philosopher and I think his work is also a thing of beauty. It points to God, to others, to one's own soul, to the mysteries and wonders of life...and a hopeful look at the future of mankind and all that inspires us, both individually and collectively.

It's sort of a mystic tradition I'm offering here, so when I assert that all we do in life is art and all beauty is ordained then there's not much I can do to defend it beyond calling it my tribute to these things.

When you find out the real answers, what will you do with them?

[nonsequitur]

^ i like Kant too ;) he's one of a few philosophers who have collectively had a profound effect on how i view the world.

personally, I seldom see physical beauty, so I find it difficult to explain. I seldom see someone and exclaim that he/she is beautiful. To me, beauty lies very much in what I infer, what I learn. It may be a moment in a day, when I'm not doing anything in particular, but when I glance at something, suddenly, I realise how wondrous life is. Or perhaps when I'm reading a book, and I feel touched by a certain line, or I lean out of the window, and I smell rain. It's rather difficult to pin point, but my definition of "beauty" isn't something physical. To my mind, there is probably beauty in everything around us. It just takes the right moment, the right person to experience it.

[/probably the INFP side of personality speaking]

[Wilde Mutton]

Ah, now I can offer Kant! LOL

He's my favorite philosopher and I think his work is also a thing of beauty.

Kant IS something...I personally prefer his criticism towards Descartes´s rationalism and Hume´s empiricism. He is my one of my favourites when it comes to epistemology.


When you find out the real answers, what will you do with them?

I don´t think I´d look forward to such a moment. It´s nicer to initiate something, not have it brought to a close. It´s that openendedness...Can there be real answers?

[Hypnos]

I don´t think I´d look forward to such a moment. It´s nicer to initiate something, not have it brought to a close. It´s that openendedness...Can there be real answers?
If you believe Kant, sublimity exists because of the summum bonum -- keep God in mind, and you will find why things "work" aesthetically.

I, personally, find this unsatisfactory because in true Kantian fashion, it holds up the subjective as false objectivity: what is God? He argues that transcendence arrives at God, but is transcendence the standard of art?

[afton]

What is beauty?

Why does beauty have the power to move us? Is it really just our evolutionary instincts making themselves heard?



According to evolution theory, we like someone beautiful because
it will likely produce a beautiful offspring, which will attract people
who are attracted to beautiful people.