Beauty

This page is about the pleasant phenomenon. Beauty is also a quark (subatomic particle) flavor (the name of an attribute of quarks), and the name of a kind of quark of that flavor. For the Christina Aguilera song see Beautiful (song).

Many see natural beauty in the folded petals of a rose.

Beauty is the phenomenon of the experience of pleasure, through the perception of balance and proportion of stimulus. It involves the cognition of a balanced form and structure that elicits attraction and appeal towards a person, animal, inanimate object, scene, music, idea, etc.

Contents

1 Beauty and aesthetics

2 Beauty and human appearance

3 Theories of beauty

4 Effects of beauty in human society

5 See also

6 External links

Beauty and aesthetics

Understanding the nature and meaning of beauty is one of the key themes in the philosophical discipline known as aesthetics.

The composer and critic Robert Schumann distinguished between two kinds of beauty, natural beauty and poetic beauty: the former being found in the contemplation of nature, the latter in man's conscious, creative intervention into nature. Schumann indicated that in music, or other art, both kinds of beauty appear, but the former is only sensual delight, while the latter begins where the former leaves off.

A common theory says that beauty is the appearance of things and people that are good. This has many supporting examples. Most people judge physically attractive human beings to be good, both physically and on deeper levels. The phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" suggests that what one person finds beautiful won't always be what another sees.

"Beauty as goodness" still has whole classes of significant counterexamples with no agreed solution. These include such things as a glacier, or a ruggedly dry desert mountain range. Many people find beauty in hostile nature, but this seems bad, or at least unrelated to any sense of goodness. Another type of counterexample are comic or sarcastic works of art, which can be good, but are rarely beautiful.

It is well known that people's skills develop and change their sense of beauty. Carpenters may view an out-of-true building as ugly, and many master carpenters can see out-of-true angles as small as half a degree. Many musicians can likewise hear as dissonant a tone that's high or low by as little as two percent of the distance to the next note. Most people have similar aesthetics about the work or hobbies they've mastered.

Beauty and human appearance

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Venus de Milo, front and back.

Studies done largely in the US have found that facial symmetry may be important because it is evidence that the person grew up in a healthy way, without visible genetic defects. Other studies have also shown that the length and height of the cheekbones may contribute strongly to beauty. These studies were conducted by scientists who asked volunteers to rate a series of photographs on the basis of beauty. The attributes common to all images rated beautiful were then picked out.

One traditional, subtle feature that is considered an indication of beautiful women of most cultures is a waist-to-hip ratio of about 70% (waist circumference that is 70% of the hips circumference.) The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) theory was discovered by psychologist Dr. Devendra Singh of the University of Texas at Austin. Physiologists have shown that this ratio accurately indicates most women's fertility.

Theories of beauty

The earliest theory of beauty can be found in the works of early Greek philosophers from the pre-Socratic period, such as Pythagoras. The extant writings attributed to Pythagoras reveal that the Pythagorean school, if not Pythagoras himself, saw a strong connection between mathematics and beauty. In particular, they noted that objects proportioned according to the golden ratio seemed more attractive. Some modern research seems to confirm this, in that people whose facial features are symmetric and proportioned according the golden ratio are consistently ranked as more attractive than those whose faces are not.

Different cultures have deified beauty, typically in female forms. Here is a list of the goddesses of beauty in different mythologies.

Even mathematical formulae can be considered beautiful. <math>e^{i \pi} +1 = 0<math> is commonly considered one of the most beautiful theorems in mathematics (see Euler's identity).

Another connection between mathematics and beauty which played a prominent role in Pythagoras' philosophy was the way in which musical tones can be arranged in mathematical sequences, which repeat at regular intervals called octaves.

Beauty contests claim to be able to judge beauty. The millihelen is sometimes jokingly defined as the scientific unit of human beauty. This derives from the legend of Helen of Troy as presented in Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, in which her beauty was said to have launched a thousand ships. The millihelen is therefore the degree of beauty that can launch one ship.

Effects of beauty in human society

A survey conducted by London Guildhall University of 11,000 people showed that (subjectively) good-looking people earn more. Less attractive people earned, on average, 13% less than more attractive people, while the penalty for overweight was around 5%.

Another recent study (http://harcourtassessment.com/hai/images/dotcom/sciencedirect/j.intell.2004.03.003.pdf) contends that not only are physically beautiful people perceived to be more intelligent than unattractive others, there is evidence to support the belief that they actually are more intelligent.

The term "beautiful people" is used to refer to those who closely follow trends in fashion, physical appearance, food, dining, wine, automobiles, and real estate, often at a considerable financial cost. Such people often mirror in appearance and consumer choices the characteristics and purchases of wealthy actors and actresses, models, or other celebrities. The term "beautiful people" originally referred to the musicians, actors and celebrities of the Californian "Flower Power" generation of the 1960s. The Beatles reference the original "beautiful people" in their 1967 song "Baby You're a Rich Man" on the Magical Mystery Tour album. With the close of the 1960s, the concept of beautiful people gradually came to encompass fashionistas and the "hip" people of New York City, expanding to its modern definition. Beautiful people usually enjoy an image-based and/or financially-based prestige which enhances their aura of success, power, and beauty.

External links

Dictionary of the History of Ideas: (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-28) Theories of Beauty to the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Dictionary of the History of Ideas: (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-29) Theories of Beauty since the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Beautycheck.de (http://www.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/phil_Fak_II/Psychologie/Psy_II/beautycheck/english/) A large research project on facial attractiveness in German and English