Is Beauty Purely in the Eye of the Beholder?

A standard definition of beauty as it relates to perception often proves hard to come upon. Some will tell you some things are universally beautiful (such as a flower or a child), while others will say beauty results purely from a person’s personal preferences: that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The Encarta World Dictionary defines beauty as “the combination of qualities that make something pleasing and impressive to listen to or touch, or especially to look at.” * This leaves the question open to interpretation: are there some things that possess qualities to make them universally pleasing, or is ‘pleasing’ a purely subjective term?

*Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 

In discussion we decided that our cultures shape our needs and create our wants. Therefore, our cultures and individual ‘subcultures’ give beauty a personalized shape and form. Beautiful to someone in America does not necessarily mean beautiful to someone somewhere else on earth, or even to different people in the same area. For instance, using a somewhat simple example, in America the stereotypical ‘definition’ of a beautiful woman hardly matches that of Japan, Polynesia, African countries, or even that of America some years ago. Our perception of beauty has morphed over the years from one shape or form to another largely without conscious thought or effort. Even asking two people living in the same place what their idea of a ‘perfect woman’ would result in vastly different descriptions. All of our experiences and cultural stimuli have affected what we perceive as beautiful, even though we might not realize it. Our perception of beauty, at least as it refers to certain things, exists as a byproduct of our cultures, and varies from one person to another: one culture to another.

According to Socrates, there exist some definite truths in this world, if only we can define them fully. Is beauty, or at least some part of beauty, one of these things? Of course, no concrete answer to this question exists. Certain objects or aspects of life are popularly thought of as beautiful: flowers, sunny days, smiles, and sunsets, to name a few. While these things all would seem ‘definitely’ beautiful, and answer the question, the question of these objects’ universal beauty remains.

Is a flower beautiful by nature whether or not someone perceives it as beautiful? To a man dying of thirst, the most beautiful thing on earth would consist of a simple cup of water, and he would probably overlook a flower, while someone raised thinking flowers poisonous and harmful may view them as frightening or horrible: ugly, in other words. But does this disprove the statement, or only clarify the possibility of beauty regardless of perception or culture? Is a flower, ultimately, any less beautiful because of the greater situational beauty of water? Does the perception of a flower as ugly make it actually any less beautiful, or render the perception false? No concrete answer exists, but in my opinion some inherently beautiful things do exist. The true question remains whether or not we as people can grasp that beauty, and understand the beauty regardless of our cultural perceptions of beauty.

Our cultures and psyches shape and define what we define as beautiful, as beauty consists of something ‘pleasing’ to our senses: both a want and a need. However, inherently beautiful things exist regardless of these perceptions and the ‘eye of the beholder,’ if only the beholder can accurately see through his culture and truly see the beauty.