Beautifull is one of those words that you might misspell if you weren’t careful. It’s a word that comes from the French beaute, and it means full of beauty, like a sunset or an abstract sculpture. Other words that mean the same include gorgeous (masculine), pretty, bombshell, and good-looking when referring to people. The most common use of the word beautifull is to describe a woman’s appearance, although it can be used to describe a man as well.
While many modern philosophers shy away from examining the concept of beauty, there is a revival of interest in its classical philosophical sense in art and philosophy beginning in the 1990s. This revival is due in part to feminist-oriented reconstruals or reappropriations of the notion, which are aimed at making it more inclusive and less hierarchical.
Historically, philosophical treatments of beauty generally paid tribute to its sensuous pleasures. Plato’s Symposium and Plotinus’ Enneads, for instance, both link the experience of beauty to a response of love and desire. They also treat beauty as objective, located in the characteristics of a particular object rather than in its subjective response.
More recently, philosophers have also focused on the functional aspect of beauty. They have argued that beauty is not just about aesthetic pleasure, but also about the benefit it can offer individuals and society. They point to the social boons of non-violent parenting, asceticism, and good works that help poor people as examples of this. Some philosophers have even suggested that the concept of beauty can be used to promote social change.
The concept of beauty is influenced by culture and personal taste, so the definition of beauty is somewhat subjective. For example, a person may find a field of wildflowers to be beautiful while another finds the same landscape unattractive. It’s also important to remember that beauty isn’t just about what a person thinks is attractive; it can be a result of genetics and environment as well.
A study found that the color and shape of a person’s face can impact how they perceive beauty. The study found that individuals who were surrounded by more vibrant colors and shapes of faces had a greater appreciation for the beauty in other people than those exposed to blander, more neutral colorings or shapes of faces. The researchers concluded that this shows how cultural and personal tastes affect our perception of beauty.
In our research, we also found that the way a person perceives beauty is impacted by their level of art education. We surveyed a group of students from various arts schools and found that those with more art training were more likely to rate the beauty in natural objects as more beautiful than those without this sort of training. This could be because the art-related training leads them to have a more critical and selective approach to judging what is beautiful, and therefore they look for more nuanced qualities in nature.
In addition, we found that women are more likely to rate a woman as beautiful when they have a positive self-image. It’s possible that this reflects the fact that a woman who is confident in herself and her abilities will be more open to seeing others as beautiful as well.