We’ve always been told, “Beauty is in the Eye of the
Beholder”; i.e. a subjective, personal, internal state. While that’s “true”
there is more to it — maybe the most important part, beauty’s objective nature.
Sociology
This blog offering is plagiarizing the scientific principles of Sociology to
support the concept that beauty is also objective; i.e. create a hypothesis,
predict behavior, observe repeated behavior patterns as objective evidence, and
the evidence either supports or refutes the hypothesis.
Hypothesis
Beauty is a common, near universal, repeatable cognitive experience that
people, in significant numbers, find esthetically pleasing and will seek being
exposed to — will seek experiencing.
The hypothesis can be objectively tested by measuring human
behavior, without reliance on having to measure anyone’s internal subjective
state. We can see and measure the behavior of people seeking beauty.
Test Sample
Our test sample of beauty is randomly eroded rock [see previous blog post for
evidence]. A benefit of this test sample
is that it is not beautiful as the result of a deliberate human act. We can
assume the randomly eroded rock did not consciously create itself for the
pleasure of humans; i.e. there’s no bias in the test sample.
[BTW in the case of human observed randomly eroded rock
beauty, synonyms for beauty include awe, wonder, splendor, etc.]
Sociology: observed behavior as objective evidence
Humans stumble on beautiful randomly eroded rock, recognize it as a kind of
beauty that will be widely appreciated, and create national parks such as Zion,
Arches, Bryce Canyon, etc. The
confirmation of their hypothesis is the measurable behavior of millions of
people showing up to experience the beauty.
And the visitors are so confident
in their good taste and the surrounding beauty, that they take selfies to send
back home to family and friends.
 |
| Selfies with Randomly Eroded Rock Beauty |
When I Google “the most beautiful national parks” I get
answers such as…. https://travel.usnews.com/rankings/best-national-parks-in-the-usa/
“Today, 61 national parks in the United States draw more than 300 million visitors a year to unique natural wonders and unforgettable terrains.”
“Today, 61 national parks in the United States draw more than 300 million visitors a year to unique natural wonders and unforgettable terrains.”
The objective nature of beauty is also important to artistic
effort. Because of beauty’s objectivity, artists are able to [at least partially] predict and take
advantage of a viewer’s reaction.
This is true even when the artist innovates beyond current “critical
standards” of beauty; e.g. Vincent Van Gogh.
And so on. Point made.
Ooops, there’s more….
Sunsets
One of my fav sociology examples is people who go to the coast to watch the
sunset.
Sunsets include more than mere
beauty. They include a sense of
ending/beginning, cosmic connection, transition, transcendence.
Maybe it can be asserted that all natural beauty has a touch
of the transcendent to it. Yet sunsets
seem more insistent about it. But we’re
here for beauty. [Thoughts on
transcendence may be another blog. Maybe
not.]
People are drawn to sunsets regardless of their complexity. They’ll show up for ho-hum sunsets. So it seems like just the idea of a sunset is
enough. They’ll walk to the water’s edge or out to the end of the pier to get “closer”
to the sunset.
 |
| Sunset viewers at the end of a tall pier |
Actually, how close you
are to the sunset is controlled by geometry: the curvature of the earth and the
altitude of your eyeballs.
BTW when standing at water’s edge the horizon and therefore
the sunset is about 3 miles away. For
some reason I was hoping it was farther away, as if farther away added to the
grandeur.
Hopefully that factoid doesn’t
dull your response to your next sunset. ;--)
Cheers, Kurt
No comments:
Post a Comment