Why Beauty Matters
The True, The Good and The Beautiful
I have been sensitive in the last few weeks since my return from Italy about the topic of art and beauty. After walking in Rome, the Vatican and through small coastal towns, I came back to Montreal feeling a sincere lack of beauty in architecture.
This prompted a quest about the nature and purpose of art and it's place in my life. I came to the conclusion that the purpose of art is beauty. Like Plato said:
Beauty is a sign of another and higher order
In Christian theology, God is represented as the very nature of Truth, Goodness and Beauty. That in some way, anything that reflects those attributes is communicating the nature of God. I like that description of the ultimate reality. Whatever you believe about what or who God is, when we hear sublime music or come in contact with exquisite beauty in art, our soul sing. We cannot deny that experience. We are "lifted up" in a way that communicates that we can rise above our suffering and that life is worth living.
The youth feel this existential angst more than most people. No wonder suicide rates among youths aged 15-24 have tripled in the past half-century. In the last century we gave up on the idea of beauty in art, beauty in our neighborhood and our churches, I don't think it is a coincidence.
For my Christian friends who thinks that church architecture isn't important, consider this study that shows that "One in six young people are Christian as visits to church buildings inspire them to convert"...making architecture one of the most effective method of evangelization.
The youths are starving for beauty and one of the last public place left to come in contact with beauty is a cathedral or a church.
"Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder"
It is a chant we keep on repeating as if that if we repeat it again and again, it will make it more true. The idea behind this is that since different people have different taste, therefore all beauty is subjective.
Someone could look at a pile of trash and find "beauty" in it...some would say.
I disagree with this idea.
First, what people find genuinely beautiful doesn't vary as much as people pretend and secondly, imagine a grade 1 class where the students are learning multiplication tables. The range of answers will vary widely yet, that doesn't mean that there are all correct answers.
As people taste improve, so is someone appreciation of what constitutes beauty. Not everything is beautiful, some things are downright ugly. You can brainwash yourself into believing that the picture below is beautiful, but nobody in 200 years will flock like we do to Paris or Rome (Below is a Houston suburb)
Edits (added after a few conversations): In a sense, objective beauty is found in architecture, paintings and music that is not only appreciated today in a certain time in a certain place by someone...but across diverse people and across time...natural wonders fit that description perfectly. In 200 years, like I said in the comment, we will still be playing the 9th symphony of Beethoven and not "My Hump" by the Black Eye Peas.
Conclusion
Here is a very interesting video from philosopher Roger Scruton. It might give an interesting survey of the deliberate destruction of art and beauty in the last century...which has been, coincidently, the most murderous in world history.
As he says in the video:
Maybe people have lost faith in beauty because they have lost their faith in ideals.
I hope that our culture will turn this around and make Beauty as important as the pursuit of the Good and the True.
Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash
Photo by AC Almelor on Unsplash
Interesting thoughts man. I'd have to say overall I agree with you, but perhaps not fully. I think that subjectivity is the beauty and function of art, but I'm not certain that there is an absolute objectivity to art. You have some interesting thoughts on the relation of absolutism, and how they can relate to both art and ethics/morals. I haven't done much thinking about that relationship, so I'll have to take some time on it.
Anyways, I'm not sure if I agree on the 'eye of the beholder' part. I believe it plays a huge part at times. For instance, there are some songs that can bring me close to tears, and every time I listen to them I get transported by their beauty and I'm in a different world for a bit...but show those songs to say.. My wife or something, and it doesn't mean much to her. The experiences and personality traits that shape us to who we are today, influence how we see the world in unimaginable and undefinable ways.
While some things are more universally accepted as beautiful art, I'm not sure if it's fair to draw a line and tell someone that something they think is beautiful isn't, just because other people don't agree with them. And I think that's part of the beauty of art.. It's in a league of its own.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Objective art, I agree is not possible because there is an infinite number variables. Mostly my point is about the purpose of art being beauty and that beauty itself has something that stirs the soul upward rather than downward. For beauty to have an objective quality, there must be a silver lining between what constitutes beauty across time, space and even culture. This is why I compare Paris or Rome to a main street in a suburb of Houston...or why Chinese people play the 9th symphony of Beethoven.
I believe that people are naturally attracted by beauty(ei: a beach in Hawaii) and repelled by ugliness(ei: the local dumpster). The ultimate form of beauty, according to Christian Theology, is what reflect the Good and the True...which is why I think why some piece of art have transcended taste and culture through the centuries...by religious and unreligious people.
We will play John's Passion in 200 years...but we surely won't play something like "My Hump" from the Black Eye Peas.
Sorry for the late reply.
OK, I can agree more with what you said here, when you say that the purpose of art is to essentially be beautiful, even though that can take many forms. And I think I agree people are naturally more attracted to beautiful landscapes than dirty streets (I know I am, ha), but I'm a little hesitant still to say that certain things are really truly objectively beautiful.
I agree that the ultimate form of beauty is what reflects what is true and good. But not certain if you can boil it all down objectively.
I think some art is higher quality and much more accessible beautiful than other art, which is why they are "timeless". But I'm not entirely certain that someone from a vastly different culture would appreciate Beethoven, or a painting from the Renaissance period, etc.
But then again, gorgeous sunsets are beautiful, and who doesn't like them? I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm on the fence. I see where you're coming from, but personally I'm not ready to say that beauty is objective. I think.
Really good thoughts dude. I definitely agree that the subjective nature of art makes it difficult (and potentially pointless) for me to tell someone else what they should think is beautiful.
I bought Roger Scruton's book after watching that video. It all comes down to the question of objectivity vs subjectivity. Is Good and Evil objective or subjective? Is Beauty objective or subjective? What's interesting is that some experiences shake our soul, in ways we can't really comprehend. Some music, some landscapes, some paintings, etc. Maybe there's an objectivity we can't yet grasp. It's superior to us, it's by design, that kind of design science couldn't yet describe (and even if it could describe, will never explain)
Beauty(aesthetic), Truth(Logic) and the Good(Morality/Ethics) have been in a fight about their objective nature. Empirically, I think it is clear that civilizations that goe down the path of relativity end up crumbling and imploding. When we call the ugly beautiful and when Evil becomes signs of virtues...we are in deep trouble.
We know that the Holocaust was so horrendous that no sane person would say that it was not objectively evil (meaning independent from people's opinions). As soon as we unknowledge that, we cannot escape it's logical opposite. If there is something ultimately evil, there must be an ultimate good.
Beauty is harder to defend when it comes to it's objectivity yet I think that we experience in our soul the difference between genuine beauty and ugliness. Which is why people still flock in masses to great paintings and architecture or towards Hawaii...and not towards the local dumpster.
Interesting thoughts! It's funny because when I visited Montreal a couple years ago I remember thinking that there was some really cool architecture and I was really impressed by a lot of the buildings! I guess in comparison to Rome though it's less impressive :) Definitely interesting to consider the role that beautiful architecture plays in one's perception of Christianity, or any other religion.
I agree with you about beauty. I latched onto the fact you mentioned music as something touching the soul.
As it pertains to the kids today, the music is awful. Hip hop and some of the other genres are absolute death to the soul. Listening to the lyrics is bad enough...even without focusing upon them, they penetrate the psyche.
Compare that to classical music....how uplifting that music is. A great classical piece will touch your soul at the deepest level. Too bad the kids do not see that.
I love the picture of Houston...how does one see beauty in a bunch of signs that are advertising fast food places. Actually, it is rather ugly and symbolic of the corporatism that we are present locked in.
The almighty dollar (or whatever currency) is the most important thing today...a god if you will....peoples higher power.
Everything else seems secondary.
I completely agree with you, my friend, lately, let me not be a tolerant person, our society increasingly lose the real notion of beauty and the general understanding of the universe. You correctly noticed that it's not right to seek beauty in a pile of garbage, I will say even more, it is counter-indicative from the point of view of correct thinking about life values and customs. Only when we seek beauty in something great and sublime, we can find beauty within ourselves and the church with its centuries-old foundations and covenants can replace all false understandings of beauty! Thank you @cryptoctopus
الله يحفظك
Thank you, God keeps us all!
Very strong assertion here and I quite agree with you. Wonder why people dole out million of dollars to purchase art pieces? Beauty!.
This brings us to the point that what we consider as beauty is subjective. I might praise a picture for being beautiful, but it might not be beautiful to another person.
Now this next part is the part that draws my curiosity.
And it's been researched on right?
I wanted to outrightly say this is not true, but you know what? I'm gonna read and through the research since it's a little bit psychological and then I'll know how to accept this opinion.
Off to read more on it..
And oh!! Thanks for sharing this. We keep learning daily
and therefore that ugliness is also subjective. This idea is not so far from ideas that morality is also subjective and that genocide can be good and that charity can be bad depending on "our opinions". Very dangerous stuff.
There was a time that we built things that took many generations to complete, just because we appreciated back then how important beauty and symbolism is.
Beauty gives meaning and purpose to life.
I agree with this
But putting the lack of proper art as a possible cause of increase in suicides is an extremely long shot in my opinion.
We can find good art if we want too, in fact, I believe it is easier than ever to find good art today thanks to the internet.
Comparing Montreal with Rome is a little unfair haha, Rome is an historic place with incredible history, while Montreal is a normal modern city, that I am sure is not ugly at all and probably people in Montreal have better lives than people in Rome, but that when it comes to competing with Rome and with its classical looks, well there is no competition at all.
I am not sure if I agree with this.
For example, with churches, perhaps the lack of beauty in the designs is because the lack of funds.
And about neighborhoods I think that it also depends. There is ugly ones and pretty ones after all.
I don't think it's such a long shot. We are incredibly conditioned by out environments, and if everything around is essentially preaching ugliness, meaninglessness, and nihilism, that will definitely start to affect the psyche.
I visited Milan last week. There were a lot of historical places and all of them were so fascinating as you shared. Thanks for the impressive post.
The video looks like very interesting and including valuable information. I will watch it as soon as possible. I just wanted share with you this photo taken in Duomo.
@cryptoctopus,
I didn't watch the end video, but at one point I am disagree with you. Beauty and art, for me it's subjective! Trash can be a beautiful thing! Someone can say it's ugly, but as I said it has it's own beauty and that's why I said it's subjective!
Anyway Church has it's own art, once I told you I am not a Christian, but I like to visit Church in my area! Because, I like the architectural design of it and it has it's own beauty!
Whatever my eye capture, it gives positive or negative pulses to my brain and the brain takes those signals as Beauty or Ugly! For me everything has it's own art, as Plato said
Beauty is a sign of another and higher order!Cheers~
“Trash can be a beautiful thing”, would love to hear your deeper thoughts on this because it makes 0 sense in my head. Beauty affects people clearly on a deeper level in how people live their life. When you start to hear "trash can be a beautiful thing" that’s usually the downfall of a society in moral standards. What trash are we talking about here? Very curious.