Definitions Of Beauty And Ugliness

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

What is the definition of beauty? Is there such a definition? Or does each of us have his own explication? Maybe a person that I think is beautiful, somebody else considers ugly. You can find defects on a person that maybe don’t exist, or somebody may consider himself, ugly for no reason. A person may be too tall or too short, too thin or too fat. Everyone sees beauty from different perspectives, as Umberto Eco says that beauty and ugly are related to different cultures, and depending on the historical period. In the American Heritage Dictionary, beauty is defined as "the quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality."

In striving for rationality, reward and profit, we tend to forget the beauty or most of the people see it as a luxury. Short-term trends in fashion, art and architecture, the different kind of styles that dominate nowadays, can be something that we consider beautiful. Usually, it is easy to decide whether something is beautiful or not. It is perhaps more difficult to justify why we find that "something" beautiful; for example, talking with someone who shares our view on the beauty of a work of art. There should be criteria that can be applied to define something as "beautiful", whether it is a painting, a sculpture or a musical piece, but are there such criteria, or is the sense of beauty just objective and inexplicable?

Beauty is that fundamental esthetic value, which represents a work of art, but also defines a person. The concept of beauty is associated either with anything that we consider to be perfect or with any beautiful state. We can say that we like everything that is beautiful, without understanding why, and this happens without any purpose or use; but, in fact, we cannot argue what kind of pleasure is it about. We can assume that it is a sensory pleasure or that it is an intellectual pleasure. Beauty is present not only in art, but also in society, in nature, even in human behavior. Beauty is the highest level of perfection that can be achieved by man. As Hofmann stated, "there is no objective rule of taste, on which we can determine what is beautiful". Beauty, as an esthetic value, is, according to Alexander Dima "something for somebody". But we cannot see the "beautiful" things without seeing the "ugly" ones, because beauty and ugliness are concepts that imply each other. Although ugliness is contrasted with beauty, we do not know what is beautiful if we do not see the ugliness.

Over time beauty has been seen as a gift from nature, which can be defined according to every individual’s way of living. Great ancient philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and others, say that beauty is the gift of God. According Confucius "everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it". Voltaire on the other hand, believes that true beauty comes from the sublime and simplicity because a beautiful thing comes from a noble soul that many of us do not have. I honestly believe BalthasarGracian was right when he said that "everything that is beautiful is always reduced and rare."

With the same thought, historian and philosopher David Hume associates the beauty of things to the mood of each person, saying that "the beauty of things is in the soul which admires it". Heraclit however, sees beauty as a harmony of contraries, not to mention the great French novelist Victor Hugo, the spiritual father of the famous novels, "Notre Dame" and "Les Miserables" (The Wretched), who believes that beauty is as necessary as useful. Therefore, philosophy sees beauty as a condition related to humanity.

In Ancient Greece, beauty was called "kalós" [1] . The Greeks understood the beauty in the wide sense; comprising in this term not only beautiful shapes, colors, and sounds, but also thoughts and beautiful manners. Plato, the Greek philosopher, believes that beauty should be understood through knowledge; beauty is eternal, absolute and invariable. In his "Republic", the Greek philosopher said that those who love the arts must also protect them, because they seek to benefit mankind and society.

The ancient Greek philosophers saw a connection between mathematics and beauty; they saw a special beauty embodied such as the golden section. And more recently, researchers have found that people with symmetrical and proportioned facial features like the golden section are considered more attractive than others. So Greek and Roman artists have reached the ideal of male beauty, which was defined as tall, muscular, with long legs, large forehead as a sign of intelligence, thick eyebrows, a big nose and small mouth, and strong jaws. Symmetry means the absence of defects that could be inherited.

"Before the Romans the Greeks assumed that men and women possessed different virtues, with ambition, for example, being distinctly a male virtue and beauty being a female virtue, a particular indication of good character. The late medieval cult of chivalry, which arose in opposition to the brutal warfare of the early Middle Ages, revolved around the adoration of women and their beauty as the symbol of the pacific virtues of love, truth, and charity." (Lois W. Banner)

In the middle Ages there was a concept of beauty as moral harmony. For Plotinus, if we love the beauty of nature and art, we love the concept of beauty itself. Moreover, invisible beauty can hide even in an ugly appearance. So, according to Plotinus, beauty is what we love. Plotinus does not make a distinction between natural beauty and beautiful artifacts. He also speaks about lightning beauty, the beauty of the Sun and Gold. For St. Augustine, the world is beautiful because it is made by God, and God is the source of all beauty. Beauty, in ST. Augustine’s view, depends on the people’s illumination, because light is considered the main factor of knowledge. For St. Augustine, there is no ugliness, only asymmetrical objects.

If everything God created is beautiful, then why does the "ugly" exist? We can think of all the things that are called ugly. For example we can think of certain cities, buildings, cars, clothes and other objects of esthetics. We also can call "ugly", a painting, music, words and attitudes, or some people can seem to be ugly. But invariably, this list shows that "ugly" is in some way related to human kind. The existence of free will, which is characteristic to people, explains why "ugly" is only about people. This ugliness results from our own misdirected and undeveloped actions.

Beauty is an abstract term, whose issues are related to people’s tastes. Aesthetics is a field of philosophy that has, as a main objective, the concept of beauty. In Psychology and Sociology, the "taste" of beauty depends on whether the psychogenetic, or on the social character. The concept of beauty is influenced by a complex of feelings generated by the social environment and the individual psyche. Especially the beauty in arts, literature, and music is also strongly influenced by education, ideology, and social environment. Throughout history, the assessment criteria of beauty, perfection, harmony and color lines have changed. Real beauty is, by nature, fragile and unique, like a painting on a fresco. Beauty means health, simplicity and is very important to remember that our traits are inherited and not obtained.

I think beauty is an aesthetic pleasure or maybe not. When we say that beauty is "what we see is what we like", we give a definition of beauty, and when we say, for example, "beauty" is the choice between different parts, sizes, qualities and quantity; we formulate a theory of beauty. In the first place, a definition will tell us how to recognize beauty, and secondly, a theory requires an explanation of "beautiful". It is remarkable that many definitions of beauty do not refer primarily to the standards of beauty, but the inner perception. Beauty gives us admiration and satisfaction, while ugliness triggers in us an unpleasant sensation. Our spirit is able to recognize and perceive what is beautiful, even if we know "the laws of beauty" or not.

This term "beauty", with a difficult definition, has followed the evolution of many centuries under its eyes of criticism. Beauty is the promise of happiness, and it is the main thing that has inspired artists around the world. For centuries, beauty remains an ideal condition in fashion. Nowadays beauty is often described as a luxury; as something that man can live without, but we cannot really renounce beauty. The opposite is also true. So it is very important to cherish beauty in all branches of life: in attitude, manner of speaking, and clothing too.

If a man is beautiful on the inside he is also beautiful on the outside, because the body is an expression of soul and mind. Inner beauty is positive attitude towards you, others, and the environment. A man who is beautiful on the inside will not be able to hurt anybody nor himself or the environment. Inner beauty is that "something" that makes a man to be loved and desired by others.In fact, the most important aspect of beauty is to be self-confident in the way you look. When you feel this, you realize that physical beauty is a characteristic of the state of mind. Beauty is a harmonious combination between color, shape, texture and content. According to Kant, aspects of beauty are related to human taste. Regarding to "beauty", man is influenced by a complex of feelings generated by the social environment and the individual psyche.

Apparently, beauty and ugliness are concepts that imply each other and, usually, "ugly" is understood as the opposite of "beauty". Examining the opposites of beauty, we can see the nature of beauty from a different angle. Although ugliness seems to be the immediate opposite of beauty, the complexity of the concept generates more than one opposite, each defining beauty in a different way. George Edward Moore defines beauty in terms of the good, ugliness in terms of evil (George E. Moore: 1903).

Trying to understand beauty in terms of order, it renders ugliness as a form of disorder. Rudolf Arnheim defines it as a struggle of conflicts, in uncoordinated orders. Conflicts express features and values and therefore ugliness, as well as beauty, is a matter of cultural conceptions. For example, in the 1939 film "Gone with the Wind" [2] , produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming, the red hair is associated with prostitution and is thus considered ugly; it created a conflict with the standards of decency.

"The identification of women with beauty has a lengthy tradition in Western culture", says Lois W. Benner. This word "beauty" derives from the Latin "bellus", which is a diminutive of bonus, meaning good. It referred firstly only to women andchildren; later it was used ironically to describe men (Lois W. Banner: 10).In his work, "Fashion and Eroticism", Valerie Steele says about Gabriel Prevost that he maintained the idea that "the western ideal of physical beauty derived ultimately from the Greeks, while Christianity had introduced the ideal of spiritual beauty."