Beauty is the quality that enables one to attract and charm others. It also makes one feel good about themselves, as it elicits positive emotions and feelings. People often strive to look beautiful by altering their appearance through cosmetic treatments and other alterations, but what most people fail to realize is that true beauty lies inside. This inner beauty is what allows you to feel and experience the joy of life, and it’s what will last a lifetime.
The notion of beauty is a central and controversial topic in philosophy and art. It has been debated for centuries, with a great number of different approaches to or theories of beauty having emerged in the Western philosophical and artistic traditions.
One of the most important and influential theories of beauty is that of Plato and Aristotle. While Plato argued that beauty was subjective, Aristotle took a more objective view. He asserted that beauty was the result of an arrangement of integral parts into a coherent whole according to certain principles, such as proportion, harmony, and symmetry. He considered it a matter of instantiating definite ratios or relations among these parts, and this concept of beauty is still reflected in classical and neo-classical architecture, sculpture, literature, music, and other forms of art.
Other philosophers have adopted a more subjectivist approach to the idea of beauty. These include Schopenhauer and Hanslick, who viewed beauty as a kind of pleasure. Others, such as Santayana and Croce, held that beauty is a response to an object’s ability to stimulate the senses and evoke a feeling of well-being or satisfaction. These ideas influenced a wide variety of modern artists and philosophers, including feminist-oriented reconstruals or reappropriations of the concept of beauty (see Hickey, Brand, and Irigaray).
By the late eighteenth century, however, most philosophical aestheticians had abandoned the classical conception of beauty. The prevailing empiricist approach, influenced by Locke and other empiricists, treated beauty as a sort of pleasurable sensation, a quality that is experienced by the perceiver rather than as an intrinsic property or attribute of objects. This treatment of beauty avoids philistinism, in that it enriches the concept of beauty such that, for instance, a useful activity performed well or with a special degree of satisfaction may be considered beautiful.
While the debate of whether beauty is subjective or objective will likely continue for years to come, there are some who believe that true beauty is not based on one’s appearance, but rather on who they are on the inside and how they treat other people. This is why it is so important for individuals to take the time to understand and love themselves for who they are and not what they look like.
By focusing on inner beauty and loving who you are, you will find that it will make your outer appearance more attractive than it would be if you tried to conform to a certain look or style. This is why it is so encouraging that the fashion world has become more diverse in the way that models are presented, with many showing off bodies that would have been considered taboo a few years ago, such as those with disabilities.