Aesthetics for Birds

Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art for Everyone

A Brief History Of Beauty

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“Beauty has become a taboo topic among many practitioners of art and design,” writes Michael Spicher (Boston University) in an article for Architecture Boston. “Yet it’s clear we still need beauty in our lives. … People may disagree about which objects are beautiful (or their degree of beauty), but no one seems to disagree that beautiful, pleasurable things exist. We should strive for beauty, so that we may create or experience it.”

Spicher traces the history of thinking about beauty in the West, from its more objective beginnings in Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas, to its current status as subjective (at best). Pop on over for a primer!

Image credit: Met Museum, detail from “Maria Louisa of Parma” by Laurent Pécheux (1765)

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