Beauty is a concept that inspires fierce debate. It is, perhaps, one of the few concepts that have generated as many different philosophical viewpoints as there are philosophers, each characterized by highly divergent and even incompatible interpretations. One might think that such an intensely contested concept could not have any objective, scientific basis. However, the study of aesthetics has produced some remarkably consistent findings. For example, the research of Professor Semir Zeki has found that all people perceive beauty in the same way, regardless of culture. People also have the same basic pleasures in viewing beautiful objects, buildings, landscapes, and people.
For a long time, philosophers have tended to identify beauty with suitedness to use, and the ancient hedonist Diogenes Laertius and the neo-Platonist Plotinus took particular pride in describing the pleasures of beauty in hedonic terms: “Beauty is a heavenly delight, a delicious trouble and a troublesome lust, a delight that calls out for love and adoration.”
More recently, though, a number of philosophers, notably Kant, have rejected this idea that beauty is a pleasure of an intellectual sort. Instead, they argue that the enjoyment of a work of beauty arises from the fact that the form of the object or artwork fits into certain patterns or categories, which are recognized by all individuals as beautiful.
Kant’s view is quite influential in contemporary philosophy, as it provides a foundation for much of aesthetics. It is not without problems, but it does provide a strong alternative to the more traditional views of beauty.
A more classical conception of beauty was embodied in classical and neo-classical architecture, sculpture, literature, and music. It consisted of the arrangement of integral parts into a coherent whole according to proportion, harmony, symmetry, and other notions. This concept of beauty is the foundation of much Western art and, more generally, of the Western idea of a beauty that can be found in any object.
In contrast to this, some philosophers have identified a kind of objective beauty that cannot be subjected to human tastes or desires. A good example is Augustine’s De Veritate Religione, in which he describes the beauty of an object as “the power of its intrinsic order to communicate to the mind something of the truth and unity of the world”.
The question whether or not the beauty of a particular object or work of art consists of its own intrinsic value or of its power to convey the truth and unity of the world is a profoundly important one, and it has been answered in a variety of ways.
Some philosophers have taken a very narrow view of beauty, such as the anti-realist philosopher George Santayana, who identifies beauty with pleasure that is not the pleasure of self-indulgence. For him, a beautiful object evokes a kind of pleasure that is like a religious experience. This is a very narrow conception of beauty, however, and it has little bearing on the issue of the subjective or objective nature of beauty.