During the twentieth century, the pursuit of beauty as the primary goal of the arts has come under increasing scrutiny. As a result, many artists abandoned traditional projects in favor of more urgent ones. Amid the growing environmental crisis, beauty plays an increasingly vital role. It is essential for all design projects.
Historically, the notion of beauty has been associated with pleasure, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The idea that colour depends on the perceiving mind, for example, was popularized by John Locke. In a similar vein, British empiricists treated colour as a phantasm of the mind. Using this method, the British were able to disassociate color from its aesthetic qualities.
Although philosophers such as David Hume, William Berkeley, and John Locke agreed that beauty is an intellectual concept, they disagreed on how it is defined. In his Essays, Moral, Political and Literary (1758), Hume argued against tyrannical notions of taste. He explained that taste is an individual sentiment, and that an individual should acquiesce in his own sentiments. He clarified that beauty is not a quality of things, but rather a combination of qualities that give meaning and pleasure.
The classical conception of beauty is a primordial Western concept, and is embodied in classical literature, neo-classical architecture, and classical music. This conception consists of an arrangement of integral parts into a coherent whole, with the intention of creating order and harmony. It is sometimes expressed in mathematical ratios.
Throughout the centuries, the political and economic associations of beauty have had a significant impact on the understanding of the concept. These associations have often been problematic. For instance, they have influenced anti-capitalists, and the Nazi aesthetic politics reflected in films of Leni Riefenstahl. These associations have also been addressed in the social justice movements of the late twentieth century. However, in the early twenty-first century, there has been a resurgence of interest in beauty, largely centered on the work of art critic Dave Hickey. In the 1990s, feminist-oriented reconstruals of beauty were also a trend.
Aquinas’ explanation of beauty explains the rules of aesthetics as byproducts of good design, and satisfies the criteria for a unified theory of beauty. It answers Kant’s humanism, and allows beauty to exist empirically in the physical world.
Another approach to the concept of beauty is the ecstatic neo-Platonism of Plotinus. In his writings, he describes trembling as all delight. He also discusses the fact that beauty calls out love. He writes about longing, wonderment, and delicious trouble. Moreover, he provides a cosmological perspective on beauty, making the idea of beauty matter more than merely an aesthetic one.
The question of whether beauty is real or imaginary has also been an important issue in philosophy. For instance, Aquinas’ explanation of beauty offers an answer to the question of how the physical world is a reflection of God’s glory, and therefore whether the world is beautiful. He argues that the Divine Goodness of God is revealed in beauty, and that the imperfection of the world dims the revelation.