Mary-Katherine Alger
Elisha Emerson
ENG 110
14 November 2018
(Lindbeck-Dahlstrøm)
What is Beauty?
What is beauty? To many it is an aspect of something physical, whether it be art, a person, or nature. To others it is an experience, possibly related to certain objects but unique in and of itself. People have been trying to explain what beauty is for thousands of years. Most people think of beauty as just physical, while others, such as the German poet Friedrich Schiller, have attempted to explain the event of beauty as a more complicated system of different psychological needs in the brain. This also brings up the question of whether beauty even matters to the world. Although it can be argued that pure beauty may not affect one’s life much, it can be an incredible experience that enriches one’s life and brings happiness to it. A life spent appreciating the beauty of the world is a life well spent.
While what makes something beautiful cannot be as easily defined, the fact that humans have a unique experience of beauty is absolutely objective. A study done in 2011 found that, during fMRI scans, a specific part of the brain lights up when someone experiences something they find to be beautiful. Participants received these scans while listening to a piece of music or while looking at a piece of art. When experiencing art or music that they didn’t think was beautiful, the activity in this part of the brain was absent or greatly diminished. (Yong) This lends credit to the idea that beauty, and the feelings that result from it, are unique and subjective. In addition, this same response happened in all of the subjects when they found something beautiful. To quote an article that covered this study, “Beauty is in the Brain of the Beholder” from Discover Magazine, “Nonetheless, the sight of Sargent’s pigments and the sound of Bach’s notes trigger something in common – a part of the brain that lights up when we experience feelings of beauty, no matter how we experience them.” So, when we are talking about experiences of beauty or if beauty matters, we can definitively say that we are talking about a real phenomenon in the human brain.
Why do humans experience beauty? Beauty is such a subjective part of life that it is difficult to pin down one answer. However, some have tried, like Friedrich Schiller in his book, On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters. In this, he postulates that all humans have two drives inside them that are often in opposition; the sense drive, which wants immediate gratification and freedom, and the form drive, which longs for order and rationality. He described beauty as “…Whatever speaks powerfully to both sides of our nature at the same time.” Only objects or events that satisfy both of these drives at the same time can truly be considered beautiful to him. However, I would argue that this definition does not encompass all things that people find beautiful. People have found sunsets and the fall leaves beautiful long before they had the science to explain how they worked. These things were found beautiful just because they satisfied the sense drive. John Armstrong also mentions in his essay that people can find mathematical theories beautiful, but these work solely on logic and systems, and have nothing to do with aesthetic or sensual satisfaction. Therefore, beauty cannot be explained simply as the satisfaction of two drives, it encompasses much more than that. People have experienced beauty from things or events that do not fit with Schiller’s model, and instead of implying that they actually do fit the model or are not true experiences of beauty, we must create a wider, less restrictive definition of beauty.
My experience of beauty has been mostly physical in nature. Most of the things I have found beautiful were pieces of art, songs, or the beauty of nature. Even when these experiences have taught me nothing about how the world works, myself, or anything else, I still value these experiences greatly, whether it be a beautiful painting or the sunset over the ocean. These sights, while ultimately meaningless, still make me incredibly happy to have. Why is this? While it may seem strange that something so trivial could make someone happy, it seems that beauty has an inherent meaning to people. Things that are aesthetically pleasing are intrinsically valuable, even if they have no other effect than making people happy. I feel that my experiences of beautiful things make my life richer and more enjoyable.
My experience of beauty has been almost wholly visual. However, others have had wildly different experiences of beauty that I have. For some, beautiful events have been mostly about the mental or emotional side of it. Beauty can be an experience that combines not just the visual, but also the mental and emotional. I recently listened to many other views on beauty, one view of which really struck me. Tehya Casey interviewed her aunt, Brandy Honig, about her experience of the Maine coastline after coming back from Florida. She said in the interview,
“Art is one of those things that you think of as once it’s produced, it is what it is, it’s not changing. But there’s the art of something that changes, that’s never quite the same every time. The tide comes in you know about the same time of day it comes in the same way, but every single time there’s always something a little bit different. What the tide brings in with it, so I guess it’s more like moving art, which to me is just better anyway.” (2:42 – 3:10)
For her, the beauty of the ocean can’t just be summarized from the aesthetics of the ocean. It’s the experience, the movement of the sea, that truly makes it a beautiful experience. The concept of art that changes enhances the feeling of beauty from the ocean. If the ocean was always the same, then it would not be nearly as beautiful as it is. This can also be said of other things in the world. Many people believe that the bright colors of fall would not be nearly as beautiful if they were there year-round, and that the pink and yellow hues of a sunset would not be as appreciated if that was the normal color of the sky. The experience of something being impermanent can make it even more beautiful and unique.
(Malone)
Still others have had experiences of beauty that are mostly emotional, and yet can’t be neatly put into the ‘sense drive, form drive’ duality. In another one of my peer’s interviews done by Liam Darcy with his mom, Denise Darcy, she spoke about an experience she had with one of her clients at a domestic violence advocacy network. She said that,
“When I first met her, she looked like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, like you know, no light in her eyes, no smile. And then saw her about a month ago, after she made a lot of changes and a lot of effort, she’s living independently now. But she just looked like the weight of the world had been lifted, her whole appearance was different. And she started telling me how good she’s doing, and she was just a different person and it just struck me and brought tears to my eyes.” (1:54 – 2:36)
This encounter does not fit with the form drive, as there is no rationality or logic to it, and it doesn’t quite fit with the sense drive either, as there is no sense of immediate self-gratification that comes with seeing someone else get better. However, this experience was still a beautiful and impactful one to Denice. That emotional connection and legitimate empathy with another person cannot be denied, and it cannot be denied how beautiful something like that is.
Whether it be from a beautiful sunset, the changing art of the coast, or a genuine connection with another person, experiences of beauty are important. They make our lives more rich and meaningful, and can even give our lives a sense of meaning. Our experiences of beauty are wide-ranging and cannot be simply defined by rules, as each person’s experience of beauty is subjective and completely different than another’s. Finding the way our brains perceive beauty has been relatively easy, but there are still questions as to why the things we think are beautiful are beautiful. Regardless, beauty is still important to the experience of life.
Works Cited
Armstrong, John. “Can Beauty Help Us to Become Better People? – John Armstrong | Aeon Essays.” Aeon, Aeon, 14 Feb. 2014, aeon.co/essays/can-beauty-help-us-to-become-better-people.
Casey, Tehya, and Brandy Honig. “My Podcast.” Youtube, Youtube.com, 31 Oct. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch? v=VvxIUJj2DE0. Accessed 14 Nov. 2018.
Darcy, Liam, and Denise Darcy. “Beauty Podcast.” Youtube, Youtube.com, 31 Oct. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch? v=lK4gCIrv1iY&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 14 Nov. 2018.
Yong, Ed. “Beauty Is in the Brain of the Beholder.” Discover Magazine, Discover, 6 July 2011, blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/07/06/beauty-is-in-the-brain-of-the-beholder/#.W-zwSuhKjD4.
Lindbeck-Dahlstrøm, Kenneth. Sunset. 2015, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nordahl/25203013136/in/photolist-Ep72Kf- 9uLdGh-czvV2-nJhsxk-aEgYd8-7Z7UhU-24ApWfa-f3VA6v-bAmKJC-2eSMjd-ePdzJ1-qRwuaM-aLgN78-zYXD45- c31WhN-w3c9z-bUvd9i-9bZPL4-rWhm1-7wZX21-88XUa-XQGhNr-LfE5eB-eDW9sj-aEh24x-hLGgr-bi1Sf6-eFp6TH- crRQms-nEkiXY-4XCvBq-YcbBtK-boL7y6-sUQjK-6MeKg-3NbUo-4y39tu-7Z423Y-qDqAss-eFuQyj-fQ91bN-b7RhdF- a4HBWn-bX9zNZ-hTyY4G-3T16Z-2amqaCD-S43F6V-8GFBNy-Sbs4sL/. Accessed 29 Nov 2018.
Malone, Andrew. Waves Crashing. 2006, https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmalone/236356058/in/photolist-26p9CfH- mToqs-8RsN7n-9w8ty6-3ankZ-ekCzCH-8RvXsq-5gYrTd-p1Armc-d8QKxC-bNrdAk-eHsiXH-94nuA9-UsZ4un- 5gYrWu-emCtVi-6EX6Pb-ejAZ2X-asR9We-9jqMEv-kY1kXa-28FnTxN-dmJpBC-5gY5tJ-8qcjeq-5aK5V7-8dSobd- ojxDPQ-bPs5jP-bjfqWP-ojxygB-fPD7bU-28oRmwr-c5PHuY-9pvzYT-4pWVzs-9UhpdV-dqe81v-6Y4aKQ-8azMxG- 6ZAoGK-5gYmTW-Ymf5jX-gvzq7n-oWbn1q-8weaSA-2dePBh-XV4zhJ-9UhtoF-5gU9EV/. Accessed 29 Nov 2
