Beauty

What is beauty? I suppose you should first ask what is beautiful. A pretty girl or complicated painting can both be considered beautiful. Plato might have claimed the closer the reality of things came to their 'ideal' form the more beautiful they become. Others associate beauty with that which is good and right (ugliness naturally being a product of evil). In our modern world we associate beauty with anorexic magazine models. Idealists may claim that "truth is beauty".

Beauty is a subjective standard; we define what is beautiful and what is ugly and these definitions vary from person to person. Is there inherent beauty in art that anyone can recognize? I think the rational mind must conclude no, there is not. Like morality and other social constructs, ultimately they are useful only so far as they are useful and no more.

What is beautiful? The answer has been known for a long time of course, but it's not me you have to ask, it's the beholder.