Encyclopedia
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
love.
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.
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 natural life.
An "object of beauty" may be anything that reveals
or resonates with a personal meaning.
Hence
religious and moral teachings have often focused on the
divinity and
virtue of beauty, to assert natural beauty as an aspect of a
spiritual beauty and to define all self-centered or materialistic pretensions as based in
ignorance. The ancient story of Narcissus for example, deals with the distinction between recognizing
beauty and falling into
vanity.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.Otherwise, objects can be defined as belonging to any of various types, such as "artificial," or "intellectual" beauty.
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 rather than a virtuous understanding of beauty.
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.
Beauty and aesthetics
Understanding the nature and meaning of beauty is one of the key themes in the philosophical discipline known as
aesthetics.
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.
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.
A common theory says that beauty is the appearance of things and people that are
good. This has many supporting examples. Most people judge
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.
"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" . Another type of counterexample are comic or sarcastic works of art, which can be good, but are rarely beautiful.
It is well known that people's skills develop and change their sense of beauty.
Carpenters may view an out-of-true building as ugly, and many master carpenters can
see out-of-true
angles as small as half a 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.
Beauty as a quantifiable and measurable attribute places upon the trained and educated viewer a great deal of responsibility to tolerate defect. Thus, 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.
Theories of beauty
The earliest theory of beauty can be found in the works of ancient
Greek philosophers from the
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.
Thomas Aquinas, following the philosophy of
Aristotle, had the simple statement that "beautiful things are those which please when seen"
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 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.
Different cultures have deified beauty, typically in female forms. Here is a list of the goddesses of beauty in four different mythologies.
Beauty in modern culture
Beauty contests claim to be able to judge beauty.
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.
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 as: larger , 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, with few deviations, as opposed to standards of female beauty, which have radically changed multiple times in the same amount of time.
This ideal was strived 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. Today many actors do not fit that
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.
Genetic beauty
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 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.
There are three basic contributors to genetic beauty: averageness,
symmetry, and
sexual dimorphism. Averageness is sexually preferable because it potentially reflects stability during
development, 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. Males tend to prefer a feminized face in females, while females' preference varies depending on the phase of their
menstrual cycle.
Mathematical beauty
Mathematical concepts can be considered beautiful. The identity
is commonly considered one of the most beautiful theorems in mathematics .
The poet
Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote that "
Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare" in an allusion to the austere beauty many people have found in the reasoning in the
geometer Euclid's
Elements.
Another connection between mathematics and beauty which played a prominent role in Pythagoras' philosophy was the way in which musical tones can be arranged in mathematical sequences, which repeat at regular intervals called octaves.
The so-called "Golden Mean", represented by the Greek letter Phi and approximately equal to 1.618, has also been considered by many to be beautiful. It is also called the divine ratio and it is frequently found in nature. For example, in a nautilus shell, the ratio between each section is about 1.618. In Ancient Greece and Rome beauty was measured and based on similar principles. See
Golden Ratio.
Effects of beauty in human society
A survey conducted by London Guildhall University of 11,000 people showed that 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 beautiful.
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, models, or other celebrities. The term "beautiful people" originally referred to the musicians, actors and celebrities of the
Californian "
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 fashionistas and the "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.
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.
References
- Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz, A History of Six Ideas: an Essay in Aesthetics, translated from the Polish by Christopher Kasparek, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1980.
See also
External links
-
- – University of Aberdeen online studies on facial beauty
- Theories of Beauty to the Mid-Nineteenth Century
