Beauty is frequently defined as a subjective feature of certain objects, which makes these objects pleasant to see. Such objects may include sunsets, landscapes, beautiful humans and creative works of art. Beauty, along with aesthetic sense, is today the most significant theme of aesthetician philosophy, among the various branches of academic study. According to this school of thought, beauty consists of those qualities that are in harmony with human needs and motivations. Thus, beauty comprises the pleasing visual effect, the presence or absence of which is determined by the culture and society in which an object is located. According to some aestheticians, beauty encompasses all of the qualities that are related to the objects’ psychological and physical constitution.
In his paper “The Decay of Beauty in the Twentieth Century,” Bernard Tschumi presents an idea of the beauty that is the product of an aesthetic culture that has developed through the historical processes of cultural evolution. Beauty as an object is seen as something that develops in time as a product of human creativity, with significant changes developing within each succeeding century. Beauty therefore cannot be static or determinate, with changes in the world around acting as the driving force behind changes in beauty standards and ideals. Beauty is thus subjective, a product of culture and society, and not a fixed, absolute quality possessed by a single beholder.
For a beholder of beauty, there are a number of different kinds of beauty. One can be very beautiful to one another and still remain unaltered by the object of beauty. But there are also times when beauty differs from individual to individual; for instance, a man who considers himself ugly may find other men attractive. Beauty therefore depends on the individual’s internalization of beauty: while one individual may consider a certain body part to be beautiful, another may find it unattractive.
Beauty therefore is not only a matter of physical trait. It also has to do with the attitude a person has toward beauty, whether that beauty is positive or negative. A truly beautiful person is not obsessed with the idea of being beautiful but sees beauty in all aspects. And when it comes to beauty, every aspect is valuable, because every person is valuable in some way or another. The true beauty is found in the inward light of self-awareness, which can be found only when a person realizes his or her own value and surpasses the perspectives of others.
One can judge another’s beauty by looking at their general appearance and defining a standard. But there is more to beauty than appearance: a person’s facial features are of little use to a beholder unless those features can be physically seen. In addition, beauty is an inner thing. It has to do with one’s self-image, and how that image is related to one’s behavior. Beauty is subjective, as is love, and the two emotions together make up a whole that cannot be separated from each other. It is a universal essence that can be experienced and expressed in different forms of art and literature.
If we want to be truly beautiful inside ourselves, we have to go beyond appearance to find beauty in all the dimensions of our being. We need to be able to look inside ourselves to be able to see the beauty within, so that we can act and respond in ways that are pleasing to our own spirit, but which are also pleasing to others. We can learn to be beautiful, and to love ourselves as we are. Being beautiful is not something that can be done easily; it is something that has to be developed over time. If we don’t do that, we will never really be beautiful.