AdamWho

I went to Yosemite a few weeks ago for the first time and we hiked all over the place and saw lots of scenery. My girlfriend kept saying this is beautiful or isn’t that beautiful and the fact is I don’t know what is beautiful.

Some things that are beautiful can be related to desire such as a very attractive woman; attractiveness has been shown to be related to symmetry of features. Other times it seems that things are beautiful because they have been defined as beautiful, such as certain works of art. But these fail to explain why Yosemite is beautiful; are the shear cliffs and waterfalls of Yosemite beautiful?

I thought that maybe the grandeur, scale and uniqueness of the landscape might be attributed to beauty. But then why use the vague term “beautiful”.

Discussing this problem we decided that the term beauty (like love) was a composite of a number of characteristics that is prone to subjective misuse.

Does anyone have any ideas about this problem?

Vandrare

i guess beauty will always be used to mean so many different things, as it describes such a subjective concept.
one aspect i think makes something beautiful to us individually though is how we value something. eg - i put great value in nature and therefore find the wilderness to be absolutely beautiful, i dont on the other hand value a concept like being cool so i dont necessarily find the latests fashions to be beautiful.

anyway, i personally think that plays a large part in it.

Nowhere357

At first I was thinking it is that which the senses are attracted to, but I recall that I've seen lines of code that I thought were beautiful - and that appeal was certainly not to any of the senses, as we normally think of the term.

The generic definitions are not much help, either. I think the answer to "is it beautiful?" must be "go and see for yourself". That's the only way to tell. It's hard to think of anything more subjective.

Merriam-Webster
Main Entry: beau·ti·ful
Function: adjective
1 : having qualities of beauty : exciting aesthetic pleasure
2 : generally pleasing : EXCELLENT
- beau·ti·ful·ly /-f(&-)lE/ adverb
- beau·ti·ful·ness /-f&l-n&s/ noun
synonyms BEAUTIFUL, LOVELY, HANDSOME, PRETTY, COMELY, FAIR mean exciting sensuous or aesthetic pleasure. BEAUTIFUL applies to whatever excites the keenest of pleasure to the senses and stirs emotion through the senses <beautiful mountain scenery>. LOVELY is close to BEAUTIFUL but applies to a narrower range of emotional excitation in suggesting the graceful, delicate, or exquisite <a lovely melody>. HANDSOME suggests aesthetic pleasure due to proportion, symmetry, or elegance <a handsome Georgian mansion>. PRETTY often applies to superficial or insubstantial attractiveness <a painter of conventionally pretty scenes>. COMELY is like HANDSOME in suggesting what is coolly approved rather than emotionally responded to <the comely grace of a dancer>. FAIR suggests beauty because of purity, flawlessness, or freshness <fair of face>.

Main Entry: 2aesthetic
Function: noun
1 plural but singular or plural in construction : a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste and with the creation and appreciation of beauty
2 : a particular theory or conception of beauty or art : a particular taste for or approach to what is pleasing to the senses and especially sight <modernist aesthetics> <staging new ballets which reflected the aesthetic of the new nation -- Mary Clarke & Clement Crisp>
3 plural : a pleasing appearance or effect : BEAUTY <appreciated the aesthetics of the gemstones>

Theli

It is not the beauty of an object that changes when different people observe it as the object doesn't change at all, so it must be the emotional response the word "beauty" describes. That is why it's subjective. Thoughts?

Pyrrho

It has been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If so, it is purely a subjective matter, and is the reaction of the individual observer rather than something in the "beautiful" object. Think about your girlfriend; she reacted in a certain way to the objects in Yosemite, and expressed this reaction when she said that various things were beautiful.

The fact that many people "agree" on what is "beautiful" is not surprising, given the many other similarities between different people. Although many philosophers make much of how different people view things differently, the reality is that there is far more similarity between people than differences. Most people have eyes that see, more or less, the same frequencies of light, hear the same frequencies of sound, etc., not to mention the other similarities between different people, such as similar brain structure that is probably very relevant to this matter.

Really, you don't seem to know how to enjoy yourself; your girlfriend seems to have appreciated the beauty of Yosemite, and I suggest that in the future, when you go on such trips, be more like her. Just enjoy the beauty around you on such occasions.

Keith Russell

Good afternoon.

Everything can beautiful, but not everything is...

K

sophie

Mabye I would think up some convoluted model of the world in mind and ascribe beauty to those things which enhance my model and makes me feel good about the model.

Have I left the door open for the evil prince and princess of sulliness?

Tristan Scott

I agree with that statement. Plato has Diotima explain this to her student Socrates in Symposium. She first tells him how we see something when we are children that we are told is beautiful and that soon we learn to apply all that makes that object beautiful to other objects. Then we learn that beauty is not always apparent just to the eye. A comely person may not seem beatiful until you get to know what the person is really like, and in doing so their appearance seems to transform. Then, in the eternal hymn to Eros, she explains to him about absolute, immortal almost god-like beauty:

"He who has been instructed thus far in the things of love, and who has learned to see the beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes toward the end will suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty (and this, Socrates, is the final cause of all our former toils)-a nature which in the first place is everlasting, not growing and decaying, or waxing and waning; secondly, not fair in one point of view and foul in another, or at one time or in one relation or at one place fair, at another time or in another relation or at another place foul, as if fair to some and-foul to others, or in the likeness of a face or hands or any other part of the bodily frame, or in any form of speech or knowledge, or existing in any other being, as for example, in an animal, or in heaven or in earth, or in any other place; but beauty absolute, separate, simple, and everlasting, which without diminution and without increase, or any change, is imparted to the ever-growing and perishing beauties of all other things. He who from these ascending under the influence of true love, begins to perceive that beauty, is not far from the end. And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is. This, my dear Socrates," said the stranger of Mantineia, "is that life above all others which man should live, in the contemplation of beauty absolute; a beauty which if you once beheld, you would see not to be after the measure of gold, and garments, and fair boys and youths, whose presence now entrances you; and you and many a one would be content to live seeing them only and conversing with them without meat or drink, if that were possible-you only want to look at them and to be with them. But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty-the divine beauty, I mean, pure and dear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and all the colours and vanities of human life-thither looking, and holding converse with the true beauty simple and divine? Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may. Would that be an ignoble life?"

AdamWho

Thanks for the responces

Pyrrho
Do you really think this is good advice? Maybe we shouldn't ask any questions and just act like the people around us!

Is beauty (especially natural "beauty") defined by people or is it a combination of atributes?

I am addmittedly very impressed with the scale and uniquness of Yosemite but I just have a difficult time making the emotional connection to the term beauty.

Nowhere357

I almost understand what you mean - in the end it's just trees and rocks and a bit of water. I think Yosemite is beautiful and awesome - primeval. But I'm a nature fan. When I think of my visits there, I also recall the out of place swarms of people, the overcrowded blacktop, the trash at the bottom of climbing routes.

I'm curious: other than fine examples of your favorite sex, what do you find to be beautiful?