I've had a number of great conversations with people lately on the nature of beauty and art, and how objective or subjective they are. Then I had this idea for a series of blogs that would keep the conversation going. So here's some thoughts to get us started. Please respond in the comments section if you have any thoughts on the topic whatsoever. I am fascinated by this, and I want to get some dialogue going.
For this 1st part, I want to pose a very simple question that I think is a key starting point for a discussion like this:
Is there anything, anything in the entire world that you would consider to be 100% objectively beautiful? Meaning, there's just no room for argument or disagreement. It's beautiful, and if someone doesn't find it beautiful, they must have something wrong in their heads.
Personally, I would say yes. A very simple, but perfect example would be a rainbow. I don't know about you, but I've never heard anyone say that a rainbow is ugly. I've never even heard anyone say something like, "Yeah, I guess rainbows are alright, if you're into that kinda thing." The beauty of a rainbow is inarguable, and if there is anyone who doesn't see the beauty in it, then their sense of aesthetic pleasure is either seriously dulled or somehow distorted.
Agree or disagree? Thoughts to add? Discuss amongst myself.
2 comments:
Honestly, Mr. Taylor, I'd have to say that there isn't anything objectively beautiful.
To take your example of the rainbow, for instance: your assertion that failing to recognize a rainbow's beauty is a distortion involves a presupposition that is not necessarily borne out. It becomes a bit of circular reasoning, since it predicates its proof on being already proven; it is presented as evidence at the same time that it is advanced as proven.
The comment also tends to view the differently-abled as somehow incapable of exercising "sound" aesthetic judgment. For those who are, say, color-blind, does a rainbow really have the same beauty? What about for the unsighted? Can they really be blithely grouped together as aesthetically incompetent as you (inadvertently, I know) imply?
That's a good point about the circular reasoning, Geoff. I hadn't thought about it that way.
So I'm curious, setting aside, for now, the issues of blindness and color-blindness, what would be your response to someone with no known vision problems, who, as they looked at sunset with you, said, "That's ugly"?
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