Throughout history, beauty has occupied an essential position within various cultural traditions. It is considered a value that is based on quality, pleasure and harmony, and can be associated with the physical or abstract qualities of an object. Beauty has also been a central component of the philosophical tradition. In the ancient and classical periods, beauty was conceived as being alongside truth, goodness and being. Similarly, in the twentieth century, it was a topic of debate as philosophers struggled to reconcile the notion with a society plagued by wars, genocide and wastelands.
Today, the idea of beauty is an ever-changing one. Depending on the culture, it may include gender, age, shape, colour, and weight. However, it is still very subjective. Some people look at sunsets and don’t judge them, while others tend to make comparisons between objects.
Classical philosophers saw beauty as a form of being that is manifested in the forms of the world. Aristotle identified beauty as order, symmetry and proportion. He used an example of a line divided into two unequal parts. Euclid, on the other hand, used an illustration of a golden ratio.
Beauty is not limited to the visual; it can be a work of music, theatre, dance, film or architectural art. It can also express feelings, and it is the task of the artist to capture the essence of the object. Even if the person creating the work of art does not have an explicit notion of beauty, he or she will have an implicit understanding of it.
The concept of beauty is highly subjective. Each mind perceives the same thing differently, and the concept has been discussed in relation to morality, culture and religion. Nevertheless, the beauty platform is dedicated to celebrating creativity and self-expression, and it works to bring together different forms of beauty across cultures and through time.
While the notion of beauty has remained highly subjective throughout history, its definition has also changed significantly. During the Renaissance era, plumpness was a sign of wealth and beauty. By the early nineteenth century, however, the Romantic notion of beauty had gained momentum. Kant’s philosophy was a key element in the wider Romantic understanding of beauty, kicking off a wave of interest in the subject.
The definition of beauty can be quite ambiguous, but there is a general consensus that it is a combination of qualities, which give a perceptual experience to the aesthetic faculty, and provide satisfaction to the moral sense. Moreover, it can be a reflection of goodness, meaning, order or harmony.
There are several major traditions, including Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Regardless of the religious tradition, beauty can be perceived as anything that pleases the aesthetic faculty. For example, a young woman may strike a man as beautiful regardless of whether her beauty is a result of age or culture. Likewise, an adult woman’s beauty can have the same effect on a male.
Although the idea of beauty is eternally subjective, it is still an important part of our culture. In modern times, when political and ecological turmoil threatens the planet, beauty has a crucial role to play.