Editing Beauty (section)

=== Western 19th and 20th century ===
In the Romantic period, [[Edmund Burke]] postulated a difference between beauty in its classical meaning and the [[Sublime (philosophy)|sublime]].<ref>Doran, Robert (2017). ''The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant''.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 144. {{ISBN|1107499151}}.</ref> The concept of the sublime, as explicated by Burke and [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]], suggested viewing Gothic art and architecture, though not in accordance with the classical standard of beauty, as sublime.<ref>Monk, Samuel Holt (1960). ''The Sublime: A Study of Critical Theories in XVIII-century England''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 6–9, 141. {{OCLC|943884}}.</ref>

The 20th century saw an increasing rejection of beauty by artists and philosophers alike, culminating in [[postmodernism]]'s anti-aesthetics.<ref>{{cite book|author=Hal Foster|title=The Anti-aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture|year=1998|publisher=New Press|isbn=978-1-56584-462-9}}</ref> This is despite beauty being a central concern of one of postmodernism's main influences, [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], who argued that the Will to Power was the Will to Beauty.<ref>{{cite book|author=Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche|title=The Will To Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mM9vDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR31|year=1967|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-394-70437-1}}</ref>

In the aftermath of postmodernism's rejection of beauty, thinkers have returned to beauty as an important value. American analytic philosopher [[Guy Sircello]] proposed his New Theory of Beauty as an effort to reaffirm the status of beauty as an important philosophical concept.<ref>Guy Sircello, ''A New Theory of Beauty''. Princeton Essays on the Arts, 1. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.</ref><ref>Love and Beauty. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.</ref> He rejected the subjectivism of Kant and sought to identify the properties inherent in an object that make it beautiful. He called qualities such as vividness, boldness, and subtlety "properties of qualitative degree" (PQDs) and stated that a PQD makes an object beautiful if it is not—and does not create the appearance of—"a property of deficiency, lack, or defect"; and if the PQD is strongly present in the object.<ref>Kennick, William Elmer (1979). ''Art and Philosophy: Readings in Aesthetics; 2nd ed.'' New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 535–537. {{ISBN|0312053916}}.</ref>

[[Elaine Scarry]] argues that beauty is related to justice.<ref>{{cite book|author=Elaine Scarry|title=On Beauty and Being Just|date=4 November 2001|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-08959-0}}</ref>

Beauty is also studied by psychologists and neuroscientists in the field of [[experimental aesthetics]] and [[neuroesthetics]] respectively. Psychological theories see beauty as a form of [[pleasure]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Reber |first1=Rolf |last2=Schwarz |first2=Norbert |last3=Winkielman |first3=Piotr |title=Processing Fluency and Aesthetic Pleasure: Is Beauty in the Perceiver's Processing Experience? |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Review |date=November 2004 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=364–382 |doi=10.1207/s15327957pspr0804_3 |pmid=15582859 |s2cid=1868463 |hdl=1956/594 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Armstrong |first1=Thomas |last2=Detweiler-Bedell |first2=Brian |title=Beauty as an Emotion: The Exhilarating Prospect of Mastering a Challenging World |journal=Review of General Psychology |date=December 2008 |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=305–329 |doi=10.1037/a0012558 |citeseerx=10.1.1.406.1825 |s2cid=8375375 }}</ref> Correlational findings support the view that more beautiful objects are also more pleasing.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vartanian |first1=Oshin |last2=Navarrete |first2=Gorka |last3=Chatterjee |first3=Anjan |last4=Fich |first4=Lars Brorson |last5=Leder |first5=Helmut |last6=Modroño |first6=Cristián |last7=Nadal |first7=Marcos |last8=Rostrup |first8=Nicolai |last9=Skov |first9=Martin |title=Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=18 June 2013 |volume=110 |issue=Suppl 2 |pages=10446–10453 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1301227110 |pmid=23754408 |pmc=3690611 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marin |first1=Manuela M. |last2=Lampatz |first2=Allegra |last3=Wandl |first3=Michaela |last4=Leder |first4=Helmut |title=Berlyne Revisited: Evidence for the Multifaceted Nature of Hedonic Tone in the Appreciation of Paintings and Music |journal=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |date=4 November 2016 |volume=10 |page=536 |doi=10.3389/fnhum.2016.00536 |pmid=27867350 |pmc=5095118 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brielmann |first1=Aenne A. |last2=Pelli |first2=Denis G. |title=Beauty Requires Thought |journal=Current Biology |date=May 2017 |volume=27 |issue=10 |pages=1506–1513.e3 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2017.04.018 |pmid=28502660 |pmc=6778408 |bibcode=2017CBio...27E1506B }}</ref> Some studies suggest that higher experienced beauty is associated with activity in the medial [[orbitofrontal cortex]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kawabata |first1=Hideaki |last2=Zeki |first2=Semir |title=Neural Correlates of Beauty |journal=Journal of Neurophysiology |date=April 2004 |volume=91 |issue=4 |pages=1699–1705 |doi=10.1152/jn.00696.2003 |pmid=15010496 |s2cid=13828130 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ishizu |first1=Tomohiro |last2=Zeki |first2=Semir |title=Toward A Brain-Based Theory of Beauty |journal=PLOS ONE |date=6 July 2011 |volume=6 |issue=7 |pages=e21852 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0021852 |pmid=21755004 |pmc=3130765 |bibcode=2011PLoSO...621852I |doi-access=free }}</ref> This approach of localizing the processing of beauty in one brain region has received criticism within the field.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Conway |first1=Bevil R. |last2=Rehding |first2=Alexander |title=Neuroaesthetics and the Trouble with Beauty |journal=PLOS Biology |date=19 March 2013 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=e1001504 |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001504 |pmid=23526878 |pmc=3601993 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Philosopher and novelist [[Umberto Eco]] wrote ''[[On Beauty: A History of a Western Idea]]'' (2004)<ref>{{Cite book|title=On Beauty: A historyof a western idea|last=Eco|first=Umberto|publisher=Secker & Warburg|year=2004|isbn=978-0436205170|location=London}}</ref><ref name="PhillipsReview">{{cite web | last=Phillips | first=Mike | title=Review: On Beauty edited by Umberto Eco | website=the Guardian | date=29 January 2005 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jan/29/history.highereducation | access-date=3 June 2023}}</ref> and ''[[On Ugliness]]'' (2007).<ref>{{Cite book|title=On Ugliness|last=Eco|first=Umberto|publisher=Harvill Secker|year=2007|isbn=9781846551222|location=London}}</ref> The narrator of his novel ''[[The Name of the Rose]]'' follows Aquinas in declaring: "three things concur in creating beauty: first of all integrity or perfection, and for this reason, we consider ugly all incomplete things; then proper proportion or consonance; and finally clarity and light", before going on to say "the sight of the beautiful implies peace".<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Name of the Rose|last=Eco|first=Umberto|publisher=Vintage|year=1980|isbn=9780099466031|location=London|pages=65}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fasolini |first1=Diego |title=The Intrusion of Laughter into the Abbey of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose: The Christian paradox of Joy Mingling with Sorrow |journal=Romance Notes |date=2006 |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=119–129 |jstor=43801801 }}</ref> Mike Phillips has described Umberto Eco's ''On Beauty'' as "incoherent" and criticized him for focusing only on Western European history and devoting none of his book to Eastern European, Asian, or African history.<ref name="PhillipsReview" /> Amy Finnerty described Eco's work ''On Ugliness'' favorably.<ref name="On Ugliness 2007">{{cite web | title=Edited by Umberto Eco - Book Review - The New York Times | website=On Ugliness | date=2 December 2007 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Finnerty-t.html | access-date=3 June 2023 | archive-date=June 3, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603202148/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Finnerty-t.html | url-status=live }}</ref>