The Concept of Beauty

Beauty is often defined as a subjective quality of certain objects that makes those objects pleasant to see. These objects can be nature, humans or works of art. Beauty, along with aesthetic sense and art, is the most significant theme of aesthetics, among the various branches of natural philosophy. The word ‘beauty’ has several meanings in different contexts, with some people using it to mean the desire of others, some people using it to express their personal opinion, and some people using it to refer to certain qualities of certain objects. We shall use the word ‘beauty’ to describe the subjective quality of certain objects and how that quality influences our experience of that objects when we view them.

In popular culture, beauty is usually associated with the aesthetic sensibility of the Western cultures. For instance, an object’s beauty is usually judged by the beauty of its exterior, but the beauty of its interior is often emphasized more. It is also interesting to note that beauty is not the only important aesthetic consideration, because many aestheticians believe that beauty is a subjective quality influenced by many outside factors. For instance, certain colors are known to create calming effects in certain people while other colors are believed to have magical effects.

In addition, some philosophers believe that beauty is the primary experience of human beings. For instance, Descartes believed that all the senses play a major role in determining an object’s beauty. This is similar to the representational theory of beauty, which suggests that only visual perception can determine an object’s beauty. Similarly, aesthetics also considers the importance of emotional response in determining beauty. According to this theory, an object’s being beautiful depends on how much it evokes an aesthetic experience. Different aestheticians have formulated different theories on beauty, but as a matter of fact, the beauty we find in ourselves has little relation to the definition of beauty used by other cultures and societies.