{"id":1937,"date":"2018-09-02T13:29:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T13:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/?p=1937"},"modified":"2024-11-13T19:48:11","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T19:48:11","slug":"whence-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/general-insights\/whence-beauty","title":{"rendered":"Whence Beauty?"},"content":{"rendered":"

To me, a world without beauty is hardly a world worth living in.<\/h3>\n

Some tend to reduce beauty to an \u2018evolutionary trick\u2019<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

something like a mechanism concocted by nature only to lure us into existence and even more: keep us here\u2026<\/p>\n

This reasoning may be correct. However, the \u2018only\u2019 is loathsome because it\u2019s not the end of the story. The reasoning should go (much) further. Thus, the reduction is unwarranted.<\/p>\n

Even \u2018evolution\u2019 is not the end of the story. We see \u2018evolution\u2019 in life on this planet. It seems like a mechanism to which life automatically reaches. But what makes life reach towards this? Is it \u2018expansion\u2019? Probably. Is it then, even more abstractly seen, the same kind of \u2018expansion\u2019 as we see in the universe as a whole?<\/em><\/p>\n

The best we can say about this is:<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That shouldn\u2019t stop us from going forward. On the contrary.<\/p>\n

To (try to) reduce beauty is to stop thinking about it.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s the same way one can (try to) reduce anything of deep value. I, in any case, don\u2019t want to do that. I see no sense in such reduction, no rationality and no, well, value. No positive \u2018why\u2019. Only a negative one: some deep hurt from the past?<\/p>\n

Whence beauty?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ancient Greek \u2018\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03cc\u03c2\u00a0\u03ba\u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u03cc\u03c2\u2019 comes to mind: \u2018the beautiful and the good (or virtuous)\u2019. It was used to describe a gentlemanly (no women, unfortunately, those times) ideal personal conduct. \u2018Beauty\u2019 to those Greeks was one of two highest values.<\/p>\n

This resonates with me, personally. I think anybody should try to feel whether it resonates to him\/her, personally. There is no need for a \u2018grand design\u2019 behind it that one can discover and that then, without personal involvement, will impose how things are, or how they are not.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a personal responsibility. That\u2019s mainly why a reduction is not straightforwardly appropriate. The responsibility stays even while we don\u2019t get the result for free.<\/p>\n

It means one has to work on it.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, much of what we call \u2018beauty\u2019 demands a special openness. Including natural beauty. Cultural beauty (music, painting, fashion\u2026) even demands special time and effort in a learning process.<\/p>\n

Of course, beauty can go together with an atrocity. Then it\u2019s beauty + atrocity. Very pitiful. Even so, no reason to devalue beauty as such. With this in mind, I dare say:<\/p>\n

Beauty is to me an \u2018end value\u2019.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meaning: its value is unconditional. Beauty does not need to be an instrument to anything else in order to be deeply valuable. Money, for instance, always is [see: \u2018From deep meaning to post-capitalism<\/a>\u2019].<\/p>\n

A question to \u2018counter\u2019 my own statement: is beauty not instrumental to human well-being?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes it is, but the question itself is incomplete. To cut short:<\/p>\n

Beauty IS human deep<\/u> well-being.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At least the beauty that I am talking about. No merely superficial stuff.<\/p>\n

Real<\/em> beauty is beautiful because<\/em> it is attractive to a total person, thus also because<\/em> it enhances his deep well-being.<\/p>\n

One step further: beauty is<\/em> \u2018in the eye (read: mind) of the beholder. It is<\/em> his experience. It is<\/em> his deep well-being, which is also nothing more nor less than an experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same thing.<\/p>\n

Whence beauty?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From depth of human soul.<\/p>\n

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To me, a world without beauty is hardly a world worth living in. Some tend to reduce beauty to an \u2018evolutionary trick\u2019 something like a mechanism concocted by nature only to lure us into existence and even more: keep us here\u2026 This reasoning may be correct. However, the \u2018only\u2019 is loathsome because it\u2019s not the Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n

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