Having a positive mindset and being confident are the true definition of beauty. A woman who has a deep inner beauty radiates from within, even when she doesn’t have the perfect figure or the best hair. It is the beauty that comes from a heart that cares for others and a spirit that feels deeply. A true beauty shines through when she is unafraid to show her emotions and be vulnerable, and when she loves God and is kind to everyone she meets.
Beauty is a complex concept and one that is hard to define. Some philosophers have proposed that beauty is a subjective experience, while others have sought to ground it in objective criteria such as proportion, harmony, and symmetry. Some have also found ways to link beauty to mathematics, as exemplified by the golden ratio used in architecture.
Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, writes: “To be beautiful, a thing must have integrity or perfection; it must also have due proportion and consonance, and it must be clear (epithetione). The last requirement, clarity, is necessary because beauty is that which makes things evident” (Summa Theologica, I, 39, 8).
Some writers, such as Schopenhauer (1818), suggest that beauty is a feeling experienced by the individual who sees or experiences it, rather than being intrinsically linked to the object itself. Similarly, Renaissance and Humanist thinkers rejected the idea that beauty could be a universal standard, but instead looked to mathematical criteria such as proportion or symmetry as a means of grounding the experience. This view was further pushed by Sigmund Freud who argued that the concept of beauty is not just a matter of taste, but an essential aspect of our mental health.
Other writers, such as Santayana (1903), have a more adamantly subjectivist line on the topic. His view is that beauty is a pleasure attributed to an object when the object provokes certain feelings in its experiencer, such as joy or sorrow. This view, however, seems to be flawed because it attributes subjective states to a thing that in many cases is incapable of having them.
A number of contemporary philosophers have reinterpreted or reconstructed the concept of beauty, including feminist-oriented approaches based on G.E. Moore’s (1903) notion that beauty is the relationship between the part and the whole, which is an ontological priority above the particular Forms of the objects in which it occurs. There has also been a revival of interest in beauty as an issue for art and philosophy since the 1990s, in large part prompted by the work of critic Dave Hickey.
The beauty of a woman can be seen in the way she dresses, her sense of style and confidence, her manners, how she interacts with people, how she handles herself in tough situations, and her energy for life. A woman who lives life to the fullest and isn’t afraid of challenges and adventures, with a love for herself and those around her, is truly beautiful.