Beauty – An Essential Part of Modern Life
Beauty is often described as the aesthetic feature of certain objects, which makes these objects aesthetically pleasing to see. These objects may include sunsets, beaches, humans, landscapes and artistic works of art. Beauty, along with aesthetic appreciation, is arguably the most significant philosophical topic of aesthetics, perhaps one of the most important branches of philosophy all around the world. Aesthetic appreciation is typically considered as the study of beauty in art, in the form of aesthetic objects like paintings, sculptures and the like. The field of aesthetics was developed out of the natural sciences, specifically physics, and therefore the physical and biological aspects of beauty were studied and discussed, eventually leading to psychology.
Beauty is subjective and has been so ever since the advent of the scientific method of study of nature, which began in the early nineteenth century. Modern science attempted to describe, measure and qualify the different aesthetic qualities of things. However, many philosophers still consider beauty as an ideal, and a purely subjective concept. Aesthetics studies have also sought to define beauty in terms of a relation between what is perceived by the eyes of the beholder and what is produced by the mind of the creator, a relation called scholasticism.
Beauty is a complex concept, because beauty itself can be understood on many different levels. On one level, beauty can be defined as the pleasing visual experience that any object must possess, for example a painting of a beautiful scenery, or the feeling of walking through the woods after a snow storm. Beauty can also be understood on a physiological level, for example a fat mountain bike frame must satisfy the requirements of human physiology in order for it to be considered beautiful. Beauty can also be understood on an emotional level, for example the enjoyment that people get from looking at beautiful objects like flowers and candles.