Beauty
What is beauty? Is it objective or subjective? Culture/context dependent? Or Universal and determinate?
Introduction –what is beauty?
In one’s life narrative beauty can be present in just about every
facet of existence – should we pause in a reflective mood.
In what you may regard as an unusual but valid remark to stretch the
imagination and say, that’s a beautiful piece of logic.
One feels more at home talking about experiences or in simply saying
something is beautiful than attempting a working definition.
The ancient Greeks linked beauty to the primary forms in nature – the
sky, mountains, trees and the animals: those things that give us delight; a
pleasure arising from outline, in colour or motion.
Sculptural or other artful forms were only considered beautiful when
proportional and life – like.
From the dawn of time there are a myriad of examples of land art in
prehistoric and Indigenous cultures—blurring the distinction between nature and
art to the sublime beauty and grandeur of beauty in nature. Take our first
Nations people for instance.
So it was in the beginning the dreamtime was to
dominate every facet of their rich life; in mythical creation stories,
ceremonial art, music, ritualistic practice; initiation rites into adulthood;
and in the repository of knowledge of the law handed down from one generation
to another. Within the tribal system adolescents were isolated away from the
rest of the tribe under the control of elders who provided tutelage on all
matters of their law until they were sufficiently aware to make the positive
transition to adulthood which carried with it the responsibility towards their
tribe and the environment upon which they were dependant –
Charles P Mountford – The Dawn of time.
Let Beauty Awake
In that respect I am reminded of the words of the great English
composer Vaughan Williams and the delightful lyrics he employed by Robert Louis
Stevenson in this beautiful composition aptly entitled “Let Beauty awake”
Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,
Beauty awake from rest!
Let Beauty awake
For Beauty’s sake
in the hour when the birds awake in the brake
and the stars are bright in the west!
Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day,
Awake in the crimson eve!
In the day’s dusk end
when the shades ascend,
let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend,
to render again and receive!
Those hauntingly delightful lyrics and equally
captivating tune leaves a lasting legacy.
I also remember reading what I considered an interesting
thought provoking paper on the
built environment in the context of Aristotle’s beautiful city.
Aristotle’s
Most Beautiful City
Scholar Andrew Murray’s
paper references this concept when discussing his mission aimed at bringing
peace and stability to the troubled Solomon Islands.
His key reference was the harmonious philosophy of Aristotle. This was
his introduction: ‘In Book VII of the Politics,
Aristotle notes that beauty is realized in number and magnitude, and the city
which combines magnitude with good order must necessarily be the most
beautiful. ‘{Politics VII, 4 (1326a33-35)} Not much else is said there about
beauty itself, and so the sentence must refer to other discussions. What is
Aristotle‘s understanding of beauty? How is it found in the physical features
of a city as discussed in Book VII? How does it relate to the moral entity of
the best possible city? The paper will in three sections discuss Aristotle‘s
understanding of beauty, the beauty of the built city and the beauty of the
constituted city’.
His paper provides insights
as to how the design and architecture of a city create a welcoming, friendly,
beautiful environment and contrasts a fortress. The latter mentality only
serves to underpin mistrust. Aristotle’s
ideas about living a more purposeful existence remain relevant in the built
environment today.
If we want to create a trusting environment we need to pay
attention to providing warmth and appeal in a welcoming design layout for a
model city. That sort of thinking for instance is necessary to reduce
recidivism in the prison system whose mega gloomy buildings provide just the
wrong environment for any form of rehabilitation.
During my visit anywhere in Europe, what I found amazing
was the level of beautiful architecture- life and nature often combined in
symmetry as if the city's builders were guided by Aristotle’s beautiful
city ideals.
One concludes that beauty is one of very distinct
enduring universal truths that make life worth living.
For when we achieve the aim of making things beautiful,
we justify our own existence.
I believe the world will be saved by beauty” –
Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Is Beauty objective or subjective?
The difference being the objective sense of “beautiful” refers to the
property itself in the object that causes the experience, while the subjective
sense of “beautiful” refers to the experience alone. In
contrast to the Greek philosophers who regarded beauty as different forms whose
depiction in symmetry was life-like and hence beautiful; Enlightenment
philosophers considered beauty to be a subjective judgment
as "in the eyes of the beholder".
Nietzsche thought beauty does not exist in isolation and is
not an inherent quality of the world, but rather a subjective and human
creation.
In other words, humans impose their own standards of beauty onto the
world around them, rather than beauty being an objective quality that exists
independently of human perception.
‘Man believes that the world itself is filled with
beauty—he forgets that it is he who has created it.’ ‘He alone has bestowed
beauty upon the world— alas! Only a very human, all too human
beauty…’—Nietzsche
The inference is we simply get into the habit of labelling things as
beautiful because they appear pleasing to our senses, to blithely adorn the
world with this title. The lack of realization that our perception of beauty is
heavily influenced by our own subjective experiences, values, and even our
biology.
Hence for Nietzsche and the enlightenment philosophers such as Kant,
beauty is not an objective quality of the world, but a product of our own
subjective interpretations.
Aesthetic Judgment
Aesthetic theory also examines how people make
judgments about art.
Questions that arise: Are aesthetic judgments rational?
Do they have justifications, and if so, what kind of justifications?
In attempting to answer such questions we can consider
Kant’s response in the Critique of the Power
of Judgment (1790), where he (like Hume) considered judgments of
taste to be highly subjective—that is, a statement about the subject’s response
to an object. He also thought that when people experience beauty, they
invariably conclude others ought to feel the same way. Kant
believed that art and beauty are not a matter of personal preference as values
and ideals are involved and so can be considered good.
But that does not answer the question as to what means
or justification in determining aesthetic judgments?
British philosopher Frank Sibley (1923 – 1996)
attempted to answer the question where he identifies the necessary distinction
between sensory observation and aesthetic judgments. He concludes people
usually base their aesthetic judgments on one's sensory observations- for
instance observing the use of a blue melancholic palette.
But he also concludes someone could disagree with your
melancholy idea to interpret the colour as meant to be a calming notion. In
this sense, aesthetic judgments have justifications but not necessary rules,
conditions, or relations between what a person sees and how they interpret or
judge it.
But Heidegger thought that the idea of Aesthetic judgment was a flawed concept.
From his phenomenological perspective he considers art
and beauty as integral parts of our primordial ''being in the
world".
Beauty, consciousness and the difficulty of making judgements about
aesthetics
Raymond Tallies believes beauty forms part of the mystery of
consciousness and defies definition.
Tallies posits humans have reached a stage of development that allows
us at times to “transcend nature” so that we get a glimpse of reality beyond
the usual existential state when we experience beauty.
We are at the crossroads so to speak in a constant state of
becoming.
A slight variation on that theme was held by Ralph Waldo
Emerson who linked the concept of beauty and its relationship to the human
spirit.
Emerson argues against beauty as simply a matter of aesthetics or
sensory pleasure, but rather a spiritual quality that reflects the harmony and
balance of the universe.
That experience of beauty is inspirational to uplift the soul, and it
has a transformation power. Emerson provides examples from nature, art, and
human experience to illustrate his idea that beauty is manifest in many
different forms. "Beauty" for Emerson offers a profound and inspiring
reflection on the importance of aesthetic experiences.
In evolutionary terms in nature, Beauty seems
to exist without bestowing any particular advantage or need to
differentiate species in terms of sustainability according to biologists.
Plumage and attraction to certain colours or objects in nests cannot
always be traced back to any evolutionary advantage.
Let beauty emerge for its own sake?
Culture/context dependent? Or Universal?
The modern day view of Beauty I suggest is neither egalitarian or in
the eye of the beholder, nor influenced to any marked degree by culture. As we
become more aware of the brain's chemical reaction to feelings of pleasure or
delight from experiencing beauty (given advancement in
neuroscience) may in fact be hard wired and universal – our miraculously
complex brains serve an Aussie, Briton, Asian or European or any culture with
that same exhilarating feeling. Of course opinions differ just as they do
different reactions in any culture within our global village. But you
would be hard pressed to demonstrate one culture's distinctively
different reactions to beauty to others.
Conclusion
Beauty defies both definition and Aesthetic
Judgment - yet we might say it remains an enduring universal truth
that make life worth living.
For when we achieve the aim of making things beautiful,
we justify our own existence.
I believe the world will be saved by beauty” –
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
But beauty is inextricably tied to the mystery of our
consciousness.
