TERM PAPER

IN
PHILOSOPHY
Submitted by:
Borja, Mae Angelie Vienne M.
BS AR 4-1

Submitted to:
Atty. Paul Ruiz Braga

WHAT IS BEAUTY?

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the infinite said once the
historian George Bancroft. Beauty is the quality of something. Beauty is usually related
to works of art, but it is a quality also attributed to varied things such as persons, types
of days, certain behavior, styles of clothing, and other aspects of ordinary life. In the
past few decades where there is no agreed-upon definition of art and whether
something which is called a work of art actually qualifies as such, there is
correspondingly much debate among artists, critics, and academics as to what beauty
is.
The appreciation of beauty takes place in an aesthetic attitude. This is the state
of considering a subject with no other purpose than appreciating it. The aesthetic
attitude is purposeless: we have no reason to engage in it other than finding aesthetic
enjoyment. Is beauty universal? We do not know it through senses, indeed, the subjects
in the question are quite different and also known in different ways (hearing,
observation, gaze, touch) so if there is something in common among those subjects, it
cannot be what is known through senses. Is there really something common to all
experiences of beauty? Compare the beauty of watching a horror movie or chick flicks,
visiting a haunted house, or surfing a gigantic wave in Hawaii. It seems that in each of
those case there is no single common element: not even the feelings or the basic ideas
involved seems to match. Its on the basis of those considerations that some prefer to
believe that beauty is a label we attach to change sorts of experiences. Despite the
debates, it can be said that beauty is a quality of something that has an effect on one.
While critics, etc. may disagree on whether what one is reacting to is beauty, however
one is reacting to some quality of the particular subject, whether it be a work of art, a
type of day, or another person.

As modern society has become wordly, the traditional definition of beauty

associated with ancient religious feelings has been lost. Thus in modern society, the
matter of beauty has become mostly a technical matter. Rather than awaken certain
feelings, beauty is seen mostly in terms of formal qualities such as a certain integrity of
the subject, a combination of colors, and a type of composition or harmony. Artists and
critics mostly explain the style, materials, etc. of a work of art and why it affects a viewer
as it does rather than judge a work according to whether it embodies the quality of
beauty. Theories of beauty are in certain ways abstract. They deal with the value in
question as a whole. They seek an analysis which will hold in all cases. Thus they must
seek general truths "universals." To be sure, testing a theory of beauty falls one into the
concrete, for a theory true of all cases must be true of each. But having checked a given
case, one must move on, and on. One's basic orientation must be global. Further, one
must cover all possible cases, not just all actual ones. One cannot be bounded by
actuality when one's subject is an ideal. In this way too, a theory of beauty is abstract in
the sense of visionary. The theory's application, in contrast, produces statements about

individual cases, which in the terminology of reason are "singular" rather than
"universal.
Beauty is such a word to describe, appreciate, love, treasure a fact. It doesnt
show qualities or quantities, however it balances the satisfaction of certain things,
persons etc. It displays the life of how ones can manage a feeling through something or
someone in any way they want, to sum up, beauty is something that is worthwhile to
cultivate, for its consequences and in itself.