Beauty is a complex concept, often seen as both objective and subjective. Some philosophers have argued that beautiful objects are recognizable by all people, regardless of their cultural background or preferences. Others have argued that a person’s judgment of beauty is based on personal experience and therefore is purely subjective. Despite these disagreements, most agree that beauty can be experienced and is important to the human experience.
The ancient hedonist Diogenes Laertius associated beauty with pleasure, and Socrates’s successor Aristippus of Cyrene adopted a more utilitarian approach to beauty: beauty is that which best enables us to enjoy the good things in life. Other philosophers, such as Hume and Kant, tried to temper beauty with a sense of morality or pragmatism. Hume believed that beauty is a feeling or perception and thus is purely subjective, while Kant sought to give it an ontological status that would make it a sort of “Form of the Forms.”
In recent times, the concept of beauty has been subject to intense philosophical and practical debate. For example, many people have questioned whether certain works of art should be considered beautiful, since they may encourage vanity and self-esteem or even lead to destructive behaviors such as eating disorders. Additionally, a number of feminist-oriented philosophers have attempted to revive beauty as a philosophical concept by redefining it and offering new interpretations.
When a person experiences something beautiful, they feel a pleasant sensation that they describe as awe or happiness. This feeling is usually triggered by some combination of the visual, intellectual, and emotional aspects of an object or event. In this way, a person can perceive beauty in a work of art, an attractive person, or a natural landscape.
Some philosophers, such as Descartes and Kant, believed that this feeling of pleasure was the sole reason for beauty’s existence. They also viewed it as the most important attribute of an object or person. Others, such as Plato and Aristotle, held that the pleasure caused by an object was not a sufficient reason for considering it beautiful.
The philosophers influenced by Kant and Hume feared that the notion of beauty could become too trivial. They saw that if beauty were merely a subjective feeling, it might lose its importance in comparison to other values such as truth and justice. They also feared that if beauty were only a function of the individual experiencing it, it would lose its power to inspire people and create change.
Other philosophers, such as Richard Swinburne and Alasdair MacIntyre, have argued that the sense of beauty is not innate but can be learned. They believe that a person’s ability to perceive beauty is a skill that can be developed, and that the verdicts of experts on artistic works are typically in agreement in the long run. Additionally, they have argued that the criterion for judging beauty is more than just pleasure; it must also be functionality or utility. For example, they have compared the beauty of non-violent child rearing and asceticism to the beauty of public architecture that promotes community well-being.