Importance of Beauty
Beauty is frequently defined as a subjective quality of certain objects, which makes those objects aesthetically pleasant to see. Such objects come in the form of sunsets, landscapes, beautiful humans, works of art and many other artistic creations. Beauty, along with beauty, is perhaps the most important theme of aesthetics, among the various branches of modern philosophy. It is the subjective aspect of beauty that differentiates it from aesthetic appreciation or the deeper aesthetic contemplation.
According to the French philosopher Saint Augustine, beauty is defined as the proportionate ratio between the parts in nature. He argues that there are four important elements in nature, each of which is associated with one or more other elements. A perfect and real beauty, he says, exists when all these ratios are in harmony. Beauty then is defined by the proportion between the most appealing and natural aspect of an object to its size, shape, color and other physical characteristics. In general, beauty can be seen to consist of a particular aesthetic quality or aspects.
We might think that our technological civilization is the pinnacle of all beauty. However, there are still some aspects of beauty which are timeless and are related to our technological know-how, culture and context. For example, when people discuss beauty on the social media platform, we tend to speak of different aspects of beauty, such as beauty in nature, beauty in clothes and beauty in architecture. All these different perspectives of beauty have their own value and relevance. What is beautiful to one might not be appealing to others. In fact, beauty is subjective and not quantitative.
It would seem therefore that we should concentrate on certain aspects of beauty which are quantitative and seek to quantify beauty in terms of numbers, such as the number of page views on a blog or social media website. However, beauty is much more than page views. Beauty is found in the way things look, in the feeling that you get in certain situations and in the enjoyment that you get from life. Beauty encompasses aspects of social media websites, fashion and architecture and even the everyday mundane things like commuting to work.
This is what makes fashion and the whole concept of beauty so interesting. Fashion is one aspect of beauty which is objectified in a particular way and can be measured. The other aspects of beauty are subjective and it is through the beauty concept that we find our own personal definition of beauty.
The beauty industry has developed its own concepts of beauty in terms of its own brand image, style, and competition. A few decades ago, only supermodels were considered to be ‘good’ models and the runway seemed to be a place for the rich and famous to go to display their wares. Nowadays, the world of fashion seems to encompass us all and beauty in fashion and accessories is no longer simply about looking good but also about doing good. A new term, ‘Social Media’, has been created to describe this concept. Social media is where we find people using the internet to talk about and critique various facets of life – be it their looks, health, relationships or social media. If you want to get into the limelight then start talking about your looks, your health, your relationships, your social media and you will be surprised how quickly you will be noticed.