Editing Beauty (section)

== Overview ==
Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of [[aesthetics]], one of the major branches of philosophy.<ref name="StanfordBeauty" /><ref name="Britannica">{{cite web |title=Aesthetics |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/aesthetics |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=9 February 2021 |language=en |archive-date=February 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228161617/https://www.britannica.com/topic/aesthetics |url-status=live }}</ref> Beauty is usually categorized as an aesthetic property besides other properties, like grace, elegance or the [[Sublime (philosophy)|sublime]].<ref name="BeautyandUgliness" /><ref name="BeautyinAesthetics" /><ref name="Levinson">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Jerrold |title=The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=3–24 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/LEVPAA-3 |chapter=Philosophical Aesthetics: An Overview |access-date=February 10, 2021 |archive-date=February 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210170443/https://philpapers.org/rec/LEVPAA-3 |url-status=live }}</ref> As a positive aesthetic value, beauty is contrasted with [[ugliness]] as its negative counterpart. Beauty is often listed as one of the three fundamental concepts of human understanding besides [[truth]] and [[Value (ethics)|goodness]].<ref name="BeautyandUgliness">{{cite web |title=Beauty and Ugliness |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/beauty-and-ugliness |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=9 February 2021 |archive-date=December 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224063952/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/beauty-and-ugliness |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kriegel |first1=Uriah |title=The Value of Consciousness |journal=Analysis |date=2019 |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=503–520 |doi=10.1093/analys/anz045 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/KRITVO-6 |access-date=February 10, 2021 |archive-date=January 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220111180343/https://philpapers.org/rec/KRITVO-6 |url-status=live  |issn=0003-2638}}</ref><ref name="BeautyinAesthetics">{{cite web |title=Beauty in Aesthetics |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beauty-aesthetics |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=9 February 2021 |archive-date=January 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113093113/https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beauty-aesthetics |url-status=live }}</ref>

Objectivists or [[Philosophical realism|realists]] see beauty as an objective or mind-independent feature of beautiful things, which is denied by ''[[Subjectivism|subjectivists]]''.<ref name="StanfordBeauty"/><ref name="DeClercq2013"/> The source of this debate is that judgments of beauty seem to be based on subjective grounds, namely our feelings, while claiming universal correctness at the same time.<ref name="Zangwill"/> This tension is sometimes referred to as the "antinomy of taste".<ref name="Britannica"/> Adherents of both sides have suggested that a certain faculty, commonly called a ''sense of taste'', is necessary for making reliable judgments about beauty.<ref name="StanfordBeauty"/><ref name="Zangwill">{{cite book |last1=Zangwill |first1=Nick |editor1-first=Jerrold |editor1-last=Levinson |title=Oxford Handbook to Aesthetics |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199279456.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199279456-e-18 |chapter=Beauty |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199279456.003.0018 |access-date=February 16, 2021 |archive-date=January 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220111214528/https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199279456.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199279456-e-18 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[David Hume]], for example, suggests that this faculty can be trained and that the verdicts of experts coincide in the long run.<ref name="StanfordBeauty"/><ref name="DeClercq2013"/>

Beauty is mainly discussed in relation to ''concrete objects'' accessible to sensory perception. It has been suggested that the beauty of a thing [[Supervenience|supervenes]] on the sensory features of this thing.<ref name="Zangwill"/> It has also been proposed that [[abstract objects]] like stories or mathematical proofs can be beautiful.<ref name="DeClercq2019"/> Beauty plays a central role in [[works of art]] and nature.<ref name="Gorodeisky"/><ref name="Zangwill"/>

An influential distinction among beautiful things, according to [[Immanuel Kant]], is that between ''adherent'' beauty (''pulchritudo adhaerens'')<ref group=note>Translated in ''Zangwill'' as ''dependent'' beauty</ref> and ''free beauty'' (''pulchritudo vaga''). A thing has adherent beauty if its beauty depends on the conception or function of this thing, unlike free or absolute beauty.<ref name="Zangwill"/> Examples of adherent beauty include an ox which is beautiful as an ox but not beautiful as a horse<ref name="StanfordBeauty">{{cite web |last1=Sartwell |first1=Crispin |title=Beauty |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauty/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |date=2017 |access-date=February 10, 2021 |archive-date=February 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226100643/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauty/ |url-status=live }}</ref> or a photograph which is beautiful, because it depicts a beautiful building but that lacks beauty generally speaking because of its low quality.<ref name="DeClercq2013">{{cite book |last1=De Clercq |first1=Rafael |title=The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics |publisher=Routledge |date=2013 |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/GAUTRC-4 |chapter=Beauty |access-date=February 10, 2021 |archive-date=January 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113095319/https://philpapers.org/rec/GAUTRC-4 |url-status=live }}</ref>