TED Conversations

Shalom Burkowietz

This conversation has closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

Does beauty exist?

Does beauty exist? A simple question. To all those who see the sunsets, who enjoy the beaches, or the mere presence of a young woman, does beauty exist? Is it physical, that we can look at an object and call it 'beauty', or is it something more?

Related Talks:
0
Share:
progress indicator
  • thumb

    Christopher Scheidler 20+

    • 0
    Oct 25 2011: maybe beauty is the only thing that does exist.
    • thumb

      Karina Eisner 10+

      • +1
      Oct 25 2011: If you just posted a blank answer, your avatar would still say exactly the same thing!

      That is just the image of beauty! Bliss!
  • thumb

    Anne Dagen

    • 0
    Oct 24 2011: If it didn't we would have to invent it!

  • Paula Carrico

    • 0
    Oct 24 2011: Yes. Yes. Not exactly. Not a thing but a descriptive.

    "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced…[b]ut I know it when I see it…"

    I think one of the most interesting aspects to beauty is that as much as we attempt to define it, there seem to be too many outliers to create a definitive codex. This in my opinion is a good thing.

    I think it is important to recognize [and I think many of us do] that beauty as an aspect of cultural identity changes. I think what we embrace, what we accept, what we desire, we want to trust or have faith in we call beautiful.

    Sometimes it is also revealing to examine the negative space, the 'not beautiful' in order to understand it more. Sometimes looking at what we call obscene, ugly, disgusting or profane allows us to better know why we label things as beautiful.

    I am a fan of the dynamic systems approach. When one examines one person's life under that lens, it is very complicated. Add another and even more so. Add a whole culture of people and it becomes a mammoth task. Rather than *defining* what is beautiful though, it becomes less unwieldy to *observe* what others identify as beautiful.

    To me how we react to what we judge as beautiful versus ugly is even more interesting.
  • thumb

    Phillip McKay

    • 0
    Oct 24 2011: I have a degree in fine art and so perhaps some qualification to talk on this matter, (though art was never about beauty for me). If we are talking about the most acute form of beauty ie. attraction to the opposite or same sex, depending on your orientation, then i would suggest that beauty is an illusion. I went out with a beauty queen once and she bored me to death it was not long before her beauty faded. Mind you that early attraction was intense. I think its nature way. Laws of attraction. How do some find beauty in things which others cannot? Is the artist able to see beauty when others cannot? I love beauty. It makes my brain tingle. There is beauty to be seen in much. My bias is towards beauty through the eyes however beauty is not a hostage to the visual senses. It is a feeling that can be felt through fingers and toes, through skin and through ears. Hell we even feel it through our tongues. You can taste it!!And for all those, who are out there and dont feel beautiful/attractive? Well, there is always someone for everyone. Now i have seen some beautiful men in my time but they dont affect me quite the same as a beautiful woman. Are women more beuatiful than men? Oooops Dont go there Phil. Homosexuals obviously think not. But an awful lot of women tend to appreciate the beauty of another women. Sorry i am limiting my beauty to that encased in the human form but we are all tricked into being attracted to humans rather than say Cows. Not that cows dont have any attractive parts. Ummm? Long eyelashes for one. Now here's a word. UGLY!. How can we have this conversation without the mention of ugly. Surely the two are linked. Hmmm. I like ugly too! I'm moving on now. There is nothing more beautiful than peace and nothing more ugly than war. Those things which we like and those things that are not. So is beauty about what we like? I think so. And given our broad collective of things we like. It seems, there is much beauty in this world.
  • thumb

    Priya Shah

    • 0
    Oct 24 2011: Beauty is an emotion rather than a tangible notion. Anyone that has felt it, can understands how it exists in our worlds.
  • thumb

    Brittney Stewart

    • +2
    Oct 24 2011: Beauty can be found in anything by those willing to see it.
  • thumb

    Letitia Falk 10+

    • +1
    Oct 24 2011: in the eye of the beholder ;)
  • thumb

    Diana Sparrow

    • +1
    Oct 24 2011: Beauty is a human judgement [ I cant vouch for animals]

    It is tied into positve emotional responce to a sounds, thoughts, concepts, colours, shapes, form etc. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

    Some see beauty imformed by order and pattern some see beauty in wilder ways...our interpretation of beauty differs from person to person and will be coloured by our past experienses, our philosophies and our mood in the moment....how comfortable we are in our own skin...some of us look to beauty as a form of comfort, what we are comfortable with...i was brought up on a farm and close to nature...the different forms of bare trees in winter, fractals...i am more visual in my beauty appreciation at times.

    Some of us are influenced by societies norms and fashions of beauty. ...what we are told is beautiful and what is ugly...society over-emphasises the beauty of youth, in my opinion, being 63
Showing all 10 comments