What is Beauty?

Pin said:
Now imagine them in hell!

Not so beautiful anymore.
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DISAGREE!
(Lol)
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Wyote said:
"On inauguration day, he gave a hard pass to the bible and a hard press against his morals"
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I'd want the events of my presidency to be explained in a manner befitting Dr. Seuss.

Peaceful diplomats did not come out to play so our military presence grew ten-fold that day.

National healthcare still wasn't a policy proposal, so the President used every tool at his American disposal.

The first lady didn't smile enough, so on the White House lawn Mr. President auctioned her stuff.

"Would you like to know where your tax dollars are spent?" "I do, I do, Mr. Pin President."
 
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Ren said:
It would be cool to hear your thoughts and hopefully arrive at a satisfactory definition of what beauty is. :)
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For me, beauty is a perspective. It is also a way of seeing, rather than a judgement. It isn’t intrinsic - I can look at the same ‘event cluster’ from many different angles, and only some of them are beautiful. For example the sunset that fills my soul one moment can be the nightmare that blinds me when I’m driving the next moment. When something seems beautiful it feels ‘right’ as though it is fulfilling its place in being rather than resisting it - but this is not an objective statement, at least by me, because my own perspective and perception is part of this event cluster and is intrinsic to its rightness. That rightness is always accompanied by happiness, joy even. This is true even if there are negative sides to the situation too. I may override those feelings on practical, rational or moral grounds by consciously shifting perspective.

I don’t have an easy definition of what I mean by ‘right’ because it depends on the content of the event cluster, including myself as I am at the time. It’s qualities may include surprise, economy of expression, intense emotional impact, harmony, logical succinctness, sweet disharmony, sweet sadness, self-forgetfulness, sexual interest, exquisite justice, etc, etc. Rightness isn’t a binary thing - there are degrees of rightness. When I experience beauty, there is usually an intense relationship between the configuration of the event cluster and the meaning it conveys to me - again bearing in mind I am part of the cluster, and this is a perspective.

A bit of a ramble around the topic so I’ll stop there, I think.
 
Ren said:
Hi guys,

Lately I've been quite interested in the philosophical field of aesthetics, which is usually defined as "the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty." Which leads to the following question: what exactly is beauty? How do we understand it? People have an intuitive understanding of what the word beauty refers to, but tend to disagree wildly on how to define it.

It would be cool to hear your thoughts and hopefully arrive at a satisfactory definition of what beauty is. :)
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Clearly you don't need us to define this for you when you can just look at and speak to @neko.
 
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