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Question: What is beauty!? Is it just a pattern!?
What makes us beautiful, or thing pleasant to view, smell, or hear!? I recently noticed my mother planting some flowers out on the corner of our house, red and white flowers, but what I noticed was that she placed them in a specific order, 3, red, followed by 1 white!. Is it the pattern that makes it beautiful!? Is it an perfectly symetrical body on a person, without any oddities, that is beautiful!? How about the music we listen to!? It follows a certain rythem, always keeping to the same beat, like a predictable sine or cose wave on a graph, is pattern, what makes something pleasant!? In everyday life we skip through so many patterns, yet they are so obvious that we disregard them!. Whats makes a beautifully trimmed and aligned row of flowers, different from that with a small imperfection, which some may consider as 'wabi-sabi'!. Is there a higher level of this pleasantry!? As we study math, we start from predictable linear functions to quadratic functions, all simple and follow a easy-cont!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Beauty is about proportions and good proportions is whats pleasant in our eyes!.
theres a universal measurement for beauty its the ratio 1:1!.618
this measurement was true for faces, and everything else beautiful, you know the da vinci painting the with the man having his legs spread and arms, that has the ratio!. if you look at your fingers and see that theres 3 set of bones, that also applies to this ratio!. beauty is proportions and symmetry basically
for some reason if you have this ratio it means that something is either good or functioning properly, just like how we will look for a partner, if she has a beautiful body it means that she is more than capable of bearing a child, beautiful breasts mean that she can produce healthy milk!.
and this also makes you think about, are attractive people tend to be better than non-attractive ones!. why do you think most singers that have beautiful voices also have a beautiful face with exceptions of a few!. no wonder hollywood is full of pretty people!.
edit: people immitate beauty every single day!. by the clothes they were to accentuate other areas, from make up that would either make you cheeks puffy or eyes more deep, not to mention plastic surgery
edit2: like i said, if something is beautiful its good, and anything good is worth learning more about, we look at a sports car, its looks good, were curious what makes it look good, we discover nice design, paint job, v8 engine, its awesome right!. we learn from it and this helps us improve as humans that we need to do better and make better things, thats the rigth direction for us!. like looking at the moon, its shiny and beautiful, this makes us curious, so we look into it, now we know that the moon has a lot to do with us, they turn night to day, helps the growing of crops!. we learn from beauty so hopefully we can apply it in our lives!.
edit: about the comment on beauty is in the eye of the beholder is true to an extent, we make use of what we know or what we currently have if something is alienating to us, its either too futuristic or we have no use for it in our current environment!. so beauty can also be defined considering our present environment!. its like giving a caveman an ipod, what does he know about music!? not to mention he doesnt even know how to use it yetWww@QuestionHome@Com
I think that beauty is in the eyes of the seeker!. When you are looking for beauty or even when it just strucks you, it is what you think is beautiful compared to what other people think is beautiful!. If you are right it has to do with patterns then it is still in the eyes of the seeker, the pattern that catches the persons eyes, makes their heart drop!. Beauty is a complex and sometimes fake thing, no one person can describe it!. I admire your thinking though your mind is very open!Www@QuestionHome@Com
Beauty!.!.!.
Anything that appears to you and gives you a sense of happiness!. It can be a sight, smell, anything that makes u happy!. It Can be a quiality like gracefulness, or a beautiful woman, or beautiful musicWww@QuestionHome@Com
Beauty is an ugly woman who brings you a hot cup of tea and a cookie and listens to you when you need to talk!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
"Beauty must be defined as what we are, or else the concept itself is our enemy!."Www@QuestionHome@Com
You were right!. Beauty is a ratio 1:1!.618Www@QuestionHome@Com
Beauty is what appeals to one's senses!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
beauty is just a very universal attraction values!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
It is definitely some of those things; it is everything that satisfies in material form or in mere idea alone an /individual's/ set of abstract concepts that constitute their particular set of ideals!. Of course, as with any abstraction, it can be related to another concept similar in form, reduced to its simpler components where appropriate!. The beauty in beauty itself is that it is and always has been evolving both as concept, objectively and for the recipient, subjectively!. It can be geometric, amorphous, chaotic or orderly; it can be defined, emulated and can regress to an idea of former times!. The boundedness of beauty, I think you're seeing it quite beautifully, is that it as a concept is bounded just as much as space, as a concept is bounded!. Or time!. Beautiful!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor touched!.!.!.but are felt in the heart!."
Helen Keller
Helen Keller, deaf, blind, mute!. She only possesed the sense of touch and smell!. Yet she perceived beauty!. What are the mathematics of her perceptions!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Beauty has been mystifying philosophers throughout the history of man!. So my attempts will be feeble of course, but here are some ideas!.
Symmetry is beloved by nature, the great artist!. But complete symmetry is rare and so has a tendency to look plastic!. Another feature of nature is repetition with variation, which is what makes an English Garden so attractive, it changes to keep your interest without loosing the "thread!." A thread or theme is often a source of attraction, hence the ubiquitousness of fetishes!.
Most thinking people would say that a "hidden thread" or a pattern below the level of conscious observation is a powerful technique of beautifying something!. Your mom's 3 and 1 pattern becomes less attractive once you are aware of it, typically!.
Which brings up the question of awareness!. Awareness is what puts most of the aesthetic into post-modern and 21st century art, because it is the art of the knowledgeable, not the casual eye!. To most people recent modern art seems a joke!. They cannot see even a hint of the thread, so there is no "bait!." The aphorism that sums this part up is:
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I was thinking about this recently too!. I really didn't come to a conclusion that satisfied me!. Some of what I considered I also read in Aristotle but it is all marred by one problem that I refuse to settle on: the value of 'innate'!.
Similar to what you are saying, where Aristotle and I are willing to agree!. Beuaty is found in a well executed composition of parts that are pleasing to the senses!. That is to say that the colour green is quite pleasing, but by itself is not neccesarily beuatiful!. When it is skillfully blended into an image of the ocean carressing a white sand beach, it becomes beuatiful!.!.!.!.
I am not happy to suggest that green has an inate value of pleasing!. In that I am not happy to suggest that anything has an inate value of anything!.
Possibly each part has associated values of pleasingness!. That green colour associated with tropical paradises conjours up relaxing feelings associated with those relaxing places!. Add in cultural norms and what not, mix other shapes and colours with associated positive emotions, find someone who has skills to manipulate these objects of associated positive emotions and voila, something beautiful is created!.!.!.!.!. Certainly, it seems, that beauty comes from a composition of parts!. But, as it seems you were also asking, why that particular composition!?!?!? Aristotle has answers for that too (it's in 'The Poetics' if you're interested)!. But I don't!.
good question!. I didn't give you an answer, but it's fun mixing up the concepts with someone!.
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Universal always makes me a little queesy!. It seems to lead to intelligent design!. I suppose 'common enough to appear universal' would make me happier, whatever!.
in response though!. I think a great deal of beauty comes more from conditioning than opinion!. Beuaty is not so much in the eye of the beholder than in the dogma of society!. Consider the changes in a 'beuatiful woman' over the years!. Or even a beautiful car!. A sunset has a romantic value of beauty, a sports car a masculine value of beauty!. We are often 'told' what we ought to find beautiful!. Somwhere within those things there may be an answer to what is beautiful!. I think that in the common sense, beauty is what is in vogue!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I do not know about relating beauty with math or arithmetic but I do know this, the definition of beauty varies from person to person depending on factors like age, race, gender, influences, etc!. what's beautiful to you may not be to others, take the body shape of women for example, in the western part of the world, skinny women are considered beautiful/sexy but in other parts of the world, like Africa, skinny women are thought to be malnourished and big women are very sexy/beautiful!.
Oh and another thing, the kind of beauty that we see in posters, billboards, magazines, etc!. , you know the skinny/muscular, light skinned, "perfect nosed," beautiful eyed, unblemished skinned people, are mostly a concoction by the media and force fed to our minds as "beautiful"!. Maybe these are the "patterns" you speak of!? So my realization is that "beauty" is what media has spoon fed to our minds or what we consider as beautiful based on our gender, age, culture, influences, etc!.!. You might say that they are what guides our patterns of defining beauty!.Www@QuestionHome@Com