Hi Platt
thanks for the link, very interesting stuff! Ok i'm more in tune with what
you're getting at now, the essay is very emotional, and I'm sure there is a
new "need" in modern societies, to search for beauty, which I think comes
from unhappiness with life in general. It amazes me though, you don't need
to look very hard to find beauty in nature, it's just ( that word again) a
matter of taking the time to look, it seems that only the big big overt
shows of beauty manage to catch the eye of most of us. Everyday beauty seems
to pass us all by.
The passages below, are what really interest me
"The Greeks saw beauty as self-evident, enshrined even in geometry....
Beauty was seen as a virtue, deserving devotion. Its existence was
unchallenged, and unchallengeable, if not very well defined or rigorously
reduced to logic."
Many of the attributes which we now so easily identify as being beautiful,
begin to arise in early Greek Culture, one instance I can think of, is our (
societies) view of what constitutes a handsome man.. this as John Rohmer
demonstrated goes all the way back to one staue of Alexander the Great,
created by a greek sculptor of Alexanders era, this sculpture, has all of
those features, a strong square jaw, wide eyes etc that we now see value as
being a necessary part of handsome.
Early Greek arts influence on our current views of what is beautiful, should
not be forgotten.
"In scientists' tests, humans prefer a grassy plain, with luxuriant but not
chokingly abundant nature, running water and widely spaced but sheltering
groves of trees, one of which is seen as special if not sacred. In the
comfortable distance are large animals. The point of view seems to be
somewhat elevated, as if from a second-floor window.
In other words, it's a chimpanzee's view of paradise. It's a savanna with
few places for predators to hide, plus abundant nourishment, seen from a
nest safely above the fray. No accident that it is a human archetype of
landscape beauty, evolutionary biologists believe."
This also aptly shows a biological root for many of the feelings we may have
toward beauty.
This search for beauty seems to be a search for "high quality" situations
which are preferable for survival, ie lush vegetation, could be seen as a
greater possibilty of food in abundance, a high quality situation for all
humankind. So there may well be certain deep rooted feelings which are
common to all of us. In another thread I have stated that quality, or the
awareness of quality, is a major evolutionary force, and it does not take a
great leap of logic to align beauty with quality.
As for elegance, my own feeling is that this arises out of something which
has a parallel in beauty, but also has something extra, harmony of form, or
indeed harmony of thought as many mathematicians and scientists claim
certain theories and formulae to have a certain elegance...
I am going to have to get back to you to expand upon this, when I've sorted
it out in my own head!!
I am most interested to pursue this thread as I feel there really is
something tangible here regarding awareness and evolution.
Rod
on 2/25/02 6:24 PM, Platt Holden at pholden@sc.rr.com wrote:
> Hi Rod:
>
> If interested you might try the following link to the article in the
> Washington Post about the resurrection of beauty:
>
> http://www.aldaily.com/
>
> Check the second item under "Articles of Note." Click on "more."
>
> Perhaps you will explain the difference between "elegance" and
> "beauty" as you see it with some examples.
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