Sunday, September 3

A philosophers view of beauty

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. 

 

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