Is beauty relative?

Question

How can a beautiful object, building, person, thing be recognized? Is it desire or envy that defines what we find beautiful? Can one observe something beautiful without also wanting it? Why do museums sell copies of their collection and why do we buy them? Is our belief in physical human beauty a qualitative survival strategy? Do we extend that onto objects, buildings, poetry, vistas? Is beauty measurable (by tracking the release of brain chemicals or by other physical means)? Do different cultures have rules for what is beautiful? Are these rules relative or universal and a function of being "human"? Do we define an object, painting, song, line of text as beautiful simply because it survived through the ravages of time and taste? If we bought or now own something, did we consider its beauty in deciding to keep it? Or is the randomness of surviving enough to define an object as beautiful? Why do we preserve some things and destroy others?

Answer 1

(Nice one, nonoseknows! ;)

There are two types beauty: the "artistic" and the "biological", but the distinctions is not easy to make.

The biological beauty is not relative. There are certain characteristics that are appealing to us despite our cultural background. The most important one is symmetry. We find symmetrical things calming, easy to observe, appealing, so to a certain degree beautiful. It doesn't matter if the symmetry is found in a living being (an animal or a human) or in an object (a vase, a car, tree). This has its roots in natural selection: symmetrical things are better survivals. Symmetrical horses ran faster. Human runners with highly symmetrical ears are better runners that runners with less symmetrical ears. High symmetry of the body is related to good health and indicates higher probability of "good" genes.

Artistic beauty is relative. In part it is founded on the biological beauty, but is strongly influenced by the culture to which it belongs. Things which are beautiful to a certain culture maybe considered ugly by an other. For example: blackened teeth were at one time in Japan considered beautiful, white teeth are beautiful to the modern western culture. And the times and preferences change too: a full, downright fat woman was considered beautiful in the 17th century paintings, but in the late 20th century it was fashionable to be thin, thin, thin. Or the sun tan: to be pale or not to be? In short, things change and the reason behind the change can be very complicated.

Feelings too define beautiful. Beautiful is good, healthy, generous, holy, lovable, forgiving, gentle, loving, forgiving, protective etc. This is one factor of relativity: you may think that a song A is horrible disco junk from the 80s, but to me song A maybe beautiful, lovable, because it is a hit from that summer when I first fell in love. So an object of aesthetic valuation can be made beautiful by an association. Or ugly: you think that dogs are the most beautiful creatures in the world. I think they are ugly, an abomination since I was attacked by one when I was a kid. Feelings of nostalgia tend to make things beautiful.

I think that to an average man the most meaningful factor in defining an object beautiful are feelings, but that it requires a long and thorough explanation why a certain person considers certain object beautiful. There are general cultural principles and general biological principles and a set of individual preferences based on that individuals personal history. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

As to your question whether desire makes something beautiful I would quote a novel i once read: "Oh sire! Earth which is molded into a new form by the hand of man, is no longer particularly beautiful. But that, which you leave to be even though you could touch it, retains its beauty. And that, which you cannot reach, is the most beautiful of all." (The translation is my own, so...;) I think that the rarity of an object makes it more desirable and desirability can make object more beautiful. In part this is because the human eye gets used to an object that is seen often or constantly (a break from the rule- principle). A blond Scandinavian in Italy is exotic and vice versa and what is exotic is often considered beautiful. In ecological point of view this maybe because it promotes breeding with a very distant gene pool ;)

Certain fields of aesthetic action have their own codes of beauty. A dog breed has its standards that are (possibly) unique to it. Sometimes these codes are not considered relevant by the outsiders (modern and contemporary art!). What is considered beautiful by a group may not be beautiful to the general public. Interestingly cosmetic surgeons have templates for beautiful faces.

When we buy a copy, a poster etc of a museum piece, we buy the image, the idea, the memory of that object. Museums make them to make money, we buy them to remember and in a symbolical way to own a piece of an object that moved us aesthetically.

Answer 2

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder!
Whats beautiful to me maynot be so to you. So its relative like most other things.What we find beautiful we might desire, but not necessarily so.We can appreciate beauty for the sake of it too.So it might not be desire driven necessarily. eg. i may think someone to be beautiful without desiring it, desire for many is not just driven by external beauty. As for museums selling copies, its not really to do with beauty or the lack of it. Thats just to do with its antiquity, signs of long lost past maybe, or something that became extraordinarily popular not necessarily for its beauty eg Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.Many people dont find that beautiful but its famous nevertheless and most would die for a copy!
Beauty loses value if we try to measure it. Even if we arrive at some quantitative method of measuring it, it would not be objective, coz human element will enter it. So different people are attracted to different things & different people.For some fair skin is beautiful , for others its dark that attracts. It may vary from culture to culture definitely. In Pakistan, fair complexion is usually taken as a beauty prerequisite whereas from what i know of many cultures, a tanned skin is bteh rage and people resort to different methods to acquire it. All relative, not univeral.
Canbe coz it survived thru ravages of time & taste but then again not necessarily so.
We decide to keep things coz we attach some value to it, that value maybe monetary, emotional or any other value. A thing does not have to be beautiful for us to want to keep it or hang on to it. it can be a card sent by a favourite relative several yrs ago! We do buy and keep stuff for reasons other than beauty also.
Humans & emotions go together.Thankfully!

Answer 3

Beauty is relative. Beauty is a product of art. Art is defined as anything that humans do that is not out of the fundamental purpose of either survival or reproduction. Therefore, since it doesnt have any outright purpose, Art is a product of whim. Whim is highly relative between one human and another (what you feel like doing this instance is not what i feel like doing.) To summarize:
whim > art > beauty.

In conclusion, beauty is relative since whim is unique to individual persons.

(one aspect of your question is correct by this arguement: the randomness of surviving is enough to define an object as beautiful i.e. "its beautiful because as of this moment, i think its beautiful and there is no reason for me thinking so")

Answer 4

Yes. Beauty is defined by the culture, biology and your own personal ideas of beauty which can be shaped by the two previous ones and every once and a while there is a maverik who can see beauty where others cannot. I admire these people.

Answer 5

Every single thing that exists is relative - time, atmosphere, words, energy, beauty...

Nothing escapes relativity,
Einstein proved that.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Relative to what????
A monkey thinks her offspring is prettier than mine.
Everything is relative to itself..

Answer 8

Is the space pope reptellian?

Answer 9

Absolutely and nothing relative about that.

Answer 10

Don't believe that is right