Do you agree beauty lies in the eye of the beholder?

Answer 1

(See Related Questions after reading this answer) Beauty is neither in the eye of the beholder nor the thing which is considered beautiful - this saying is useful to demonstrate that objects are not, themselves, intrinsically beautiful, but it fails to convey the true nature of beauty.

If we study matter and energy we find that things, objects, do not exist. Patterns do which our mind designates as patterns to comprehend them.

My hand does not exist, "hand" is just what I call a particular pattern which behaves a certain way, has certain potential etc.

So how can a painting be beautiful? It isn't a thing to be beautiful.

At no point does the painting end and you begin, physically speaking. That is a distinction we make so we can perceive and comprehend, it is not real.

So beauty is simply a larger pattern which includes both the eye/mind, and the (in this example) painting.

So if person A looks at a painting and thinks it's gorgeous, and person B looks at it and thinks it's ugly, then here is how it works out (simplified greatly of course):

If beauty is the pattern ^^==, and ugliness is the pattern ##==,

then person A is ^^, person B is ##, and the painting is ==.

If that is not clear, take another meaning question, the meaning of morality. Is it wrong to cut someone's hand off?

Why? Is it wrong because of the knife, or the hand?

The answer is both.

If you change human physiology to where cutting off a hand doesn't hurt, but tickles instead, and the hand grows back in 30 minutes, it's no longer bad. On par with using a whoopie cushion on someone.

The knife needs the hand and the hand needs the knife, they invoke concepts like pain, disfigurement, disability etc into this world in exactly the same way that beauty would not exist without the mind/eye, and the painting.

Beauty is not one or the other but a collaboration of both. They are two aspects (or poles as Alan Watts would say) of the same unified thing.

AnswerBeauty has to be in the eye of the beholder. It is the beholders perception that counts to the individual person. Someone can tell you that some object is beautiful. If you don't agree then it is not beautiful to you. It is only your own perception that determines what is beautiful to you. Be an individual and determine for yourself what you find to be beautiful. Answer

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - that is beauty is interpreted in the mind of the viewer. This is called the perceptual view of beauty.

However, the eye of each beholder is not that different between beholders. There are universal, cultural and individual aspects to the way the beauty is seen by the eye. Symmetry and Proportion are universal beauty, while other attributes could be more culturally situated. Individual preferences plays a far lesser role than perhaps thought. Graphic designers will typically study universal aesthetics first, then learn how to research their target audiences to uncover the cultural aesthetics of that audience.

There is some interesting research in evolutionary science on universal was cultural aesthetics. Some psychology research has also used fMRI to explore beauty and aesthetics effect on the brain.

Answer 2

I do agree. I think beauty is only in the eye of the beholder. Someone can think something looks ugly, but maybe you think it's beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and you are the beholder of the beauty.

Answer 3

Of course it is. You can't have someone else think it's beautiful for you. You decide if it's beautiful or not. Like everyone says, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not someone else, because you are the beholder.