Beauty is a concept that has captivated humanity for as long as people have been around. It is an idea that is largely nebulous and undefined, but there are certain things that tend to make someone beautiful, whether we’re talking about a face or a painting. Scientists have boiled it down to a few key determinants and there is a fairly tight consensus across time, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds as to what makes someone truly attractive.
Throughout history philosophers have offered competing accounts of beauty and its nature, but one theme that is a constant is the debate over whether it is objective or subjective. Some philosophers have argued that beauty is not just a matter of taste or preference, but that it is something that can be measured and that certain features are essential to its nature.
Plato, for example, was an early advocate of this view of beauty. His idea of beauty is linked to his idea of Forms, which are non-physical ideas that are the basis for certain art objects. For Plato, a beautiful object must fit into these Forms. A painting, for instance, might be a good expression of a person’s beauty because it fits into the Form of the woman it depicts.
Other philosophers have taken a more subjective approach to beauty. One of the most famous treatments of this subject came from the eighteenth century hedonist philosopher George Santayana, who argued that beauty is a specific sort of pleasure. For him, a painting might be beautiful because it produces in the viewer a particular pleasure. He argues that this pleasure is a part of the experience of beauty, so that it isn’t the same as the hedonistic pleasures produced by other experiences such as eating or drinking.
Some philosophers have found a middle ground between these two extremes. The classical Greek philosopher Aristotle, for example, argued that beauty was not just a matter of personal taste but could be objectively measured. He argues that certain forms of order and symmetry and proportion are the chief beauties. He also discusses a formula for beauty called the Golden Ratio, which blends mathematics and aesthetics by suggesting that certain proportions are inherently more appealing.
Aristotle’s ideas were later Christianized by Thomas Aquinas, who argues that beauty must have three qualities. First, it must have integrity. A portrait of a woman, for instance, cannot be considered beautiful if it violates the rules of realism and shows her with an extra eye, or if it’s painted in cubist style without following its own internal logic. Second, beauty must have harmony or consonance with its environment. A piece of music, for instance, might be deemed beautiful if it creates the right mood. Finally, beauty must have clarity, or a sense of brightness. This means that it must be clear to the spectator that what they’re seeing is beautiful. If all of these criteria are met, the object is truly beautiful.