Beauty

Beauty
 * Beauty ** is the quality we ascribe to things that when perceived cause within us delight or pleasure. Whether beauty is in the eye of the beholder or the thing beheld depends to some extent on the kind of beauty being considered. In practice we seem to experience these various kinds of beauty simultaneously. We may, for example, find some people beautiful because we love them, who also happen to be beautiful in philosophical sense.
 * Philosophical Beauty ** is a disinterested good meaning that the experience of delight occurs without any empathy between the beholder and the beheld. Beauty in this sense rests in the object beheld. //I saw a baby, who did not know and was delighted by the experience. That’s a beautiful baby. //The ancient Greeks studied the objective qualities of beauty noting qualities such as symmetry, clarity, simplicity, and vividness. They formulated the Golden Ratio (Approximately 1 to 1.61803399) that expresses symmetry with mathematical values. Dr. Stephen Marquardt devised a mask based on the golden ratio to guide him in the reconstruction of injured faces. These three women are beautiful in the philosophical sense because their features fit the mask's guideline exactly —beauty in the object beheld. Philosophical beauty transcends the particulars of culture in that it appeals to people without regard to their culturally held values. See [|The Beauty of the Golden Ratio]
 * Cultural Beauty ** refers to qualities that delight some people in a particular culture or group. As such, this kind of beauty is to a greater degree the product of empathy and in the eye of the beholder. Fashion fads and popular trends mark the changes in cultural beauty. Notions of beauty in a cultural sense may reflect social or political values of the group or as in this example, a particular time in popular culture.


 * Endearing Beauty ** refers to the delight we take in a person because of the relationship we share. The joy that parents experiences in seeing the their baby illustrates. Endearing beauty requires empathy, which distinguishes it from philosophical beauty. If you love someone because they are beautiful, it’s philosophical beauty. If someone is beautiful because you love him or her, it’s endearing beauty. Endearing beauty will wax and wane with the relationship.


 * Inner Beauty ** refers to those non-physical qualities that delight when the beholder experiences them. Compassion, integrity and humor illustrate. Spiritual Beauty refers to the delight we take when we behold a person who is both whole and holy. People who are spiritually beautiful seem to radiate a sense of joy and contentment because of their relationship with God.