Beauty – A Personal and Cultural Review

Beauty is frequently defined as a subjective feeling of aesthetically satisfying aspects of objects which makes these objects enjoyable to see. These objects could be natural or man-made objects. Beauty, along with other aesthetic sense, is the most important subject of modern aesthetics, among the various branches of psychology. According to Charles Darwin, “For me the happiness of the woman is the most beautiful thing in the world; but I must confess, from my personal experience, that I have never found any gratification in the possession of a beautiful woman.” From this, Darwin clearly suggests that the pursuit of beauty is an aesthetic one.

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in aesthetic evaluation, particularly in relation to issues of beauty, race, gender and power. According to Max Weber, beauty is defined as the subjective response of a person to beauty and is thus necessarily connected with the concept of value. We can find a wide array of definitions for beauty, ranging from absolute beauty, the sublime, to beauty as an abstract quality. According to many, the definition of beauty varies depending on the culture, time and place. For instance, some may compare beauty with genius while others may compare beauty with poverty.

In recent years, people have begun to define beauty in different ways, taking into account culture, time, place and individual personality. The Romantic artists, who were famous for their discussion of emotions and their portrayal of the human body, are said to have given us the idea of beauty through their work. Others argue that beauty is the unique emotional reaction to a person or things, while some others believe that beauty is a subjective response to both beauty and poverty.