I had a philosophy lecture on beauty a while ago.
Well, Beauty was still left undefined then. I had this idea for a while that beauty is not just 'looking good'. There is another dimension of our perception of Beauty. My proposition was beauty is our appreciation of effort. Let me explain.
Dance performances. We are fascinated not only (I hope) by the dancers' flashy costumes or their attractive faces but also their elaborate, patterned movements. Why? Because we know that they have done rehearsals to achieve that. We know because there is no way that such feat can be done without a lot of practice. A lot of effort has been put in to achieve that. Same reasoning follows for drama performances
Another example. My Biology teacher catchphrase is: 'Isn't it beautiful?' every time she sees nature-related (duh...) pictures. We, her naughty students, of course often make fun of that because even pictures of worms, reptiles and insects that most people think are gross; she will still say they're beautiful.
I somehow can relate to that. I believe in God, so I say that the way God design nature is beautiful. I'm not only talking about appearance here, your classic dimension of beauty. I'm talking about complexity and organisation. How cells can have such elaborate mechanisms. From their plasma membranes down to their organelles and nucleus; all are orchestrated so incredibly. We're only talking about a single cell here. Your Amoeba maybe. We haven't considered something more complex: animals, plants, humans. If you do not believe in God you can say that the work of evolution is so great to finally achieve current level. A lot of effort has been put in, be it God's or evolution's, take your pick. We who witness that can but agree 'Isn't it beautiful?'
People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. True, because there are many dimensions of beauty, one of which I spent hundreds of of words explaining, so people's perception of the dimensions varies. Some value appearance over the 'appreciation of effort' put in, some vice versa, some value even another dimension.
Beauty is a complex thing. Well, since complexity is a dimension of beauty, Beauty is beautiful. That is the beauty of Beauty.
Well, Beauty was still left undefined then. I had this idea for a while that beauty is not just 'looking good'. There is another dimension of our perception of Beauty. My proposition was beauty is our appreciation of effort. Let me explain.
Dance performances. We are fascinated not only (I hope) by the dancers' flashy costumes or their attractive faces but also their elaborate, patterned movements. Why? Because we know that they have done rehearsals to achieve that. We know because there is no way that such feat can be done without a lot of practice. A lot of effort has been put in to achieve that. Same reasoning follows for drama performances
Another example. My Biology teacher catchphrase is: 'Isn't it beautiful?' every time she sees nature-related (duh...) pictures. We, her naughty students, of course often make fun of that because even pictures of worms, reptiles and insects that most people think are gross; she will still say they're beautiful.
I somehow can relate to that. I believe in God, so I say that the way God design nature is beautiful. I'm not only talking about appearance here, your classic dimension of beauty. I'm talking about complexity and organisation. How cells can have such elaborate mechanisms. From their plasma membranes down to their organelles and nucleus; all are orchestrated so incredibly. We're only talking about a single cell here. Your Amoeba maybe. We haven't considered something more complex: animals, plants, humans. If you do not believe in God you can say that the work of evolution is so great to finally achieve current level. A lot of effort has been put in, be it God's or evolution's, take your pick. We who witness that can but agree 'Isn't it beautiful?'
People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. True, because there are many dimensions of beauty, one of which I spent hundreds of of words explaining, so people's perception of the dimensions varies. Some value appearance over the 'appreciation of effort' put in, some vice versa, some value even another dimension.
Beauty is a complex thing. Well, since complexity is a dimension of beauty, Beauty is beautiful. That is the beauty of Beauty.
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