Beauty is a phenomenon that affects every human being. The idea of beauty has many evocative meanings. For example, the phrase “beautiful” can refer to an attractive person or a beautiful landscape. The term can also be used to describe a particular color, shape or style of dress. It is the combination of these qualities that makes something beautiful.
The early philosophical tradition aimed to understand the nature of beauty. It included philosophers such as Plato, Euclid, and Newton. The concept of beauty can be found in classical literature and music, neo-classical architecture, and various artistic creations.
During the 18th century, the debate about beauty reached a turning point. Modern philosophy shifted the discussion from ontology to human faculties. The main contributor to this change was Immanuel Kant. He was the first major philosopher to develop an autonomous discipline of beauty. He subsequently influenced a wider Romantic culture of beauty.
The nineteenth century saw the emergence of a new culture of feeling and inalienable rights. There was also a sense of confidence in humanity’s capabilities. However, modern thinking about beauty largely ignored the natural beauty of the world. This was a consequence of political and economic associations of beauty. Moreover, the notion of beauty in the mathematical realm was undermined.
Kant’s treatment of beauty was a heroic attempt to temper subjectivity. It was an attempt to reconcile the intuition of a sense of purpose with beauty. This was done by stressing the role of the individual’s will. While Hume argued that there is a universal underlying principle of beauty, his definition of it was more subjective. He believed that the object of beauty was a reflection of the subject’s sentiment.
Later, in the twentieth century, a number of thinkers explored the problem of beauty. They were puzzled about how to make sense of it in the age of war and genocide. They were also skeptical of the distractions that might detract from its importance. The resulting critique of beauty led to a revival of interest in it in the 1980s.
The twentieth-century view of beauty is radically different from the classical conception. The main difference is that it gives greater weight to the contributions of the observing subject. The modern view of beauty also dissociates beauty from moral and justice. In the classical conception, beauty is an objective concept that is embodied in the arts and architecture. The modern view of beauty ignores these traditions and fails to account for the apparent beauty of mathematics.
The twentieth-century thinkers had a hard time figuring out how to reconcile beauty with a world of wars and genocide. They were also suspicious of beauty’s role as a distraction from other important aspects of life. In the end, the twentieth-century view of beauty abandoned the traditional notion that beauty was the most important goal of the arts.
A final aspect of the modern view of beauty is its emphasis on pleasure. For example, in George Santayana’s poem, The Age of Indignation, he gestures toward an experience that provides pleasure.