Online research in philosophy

Introduction -- The form of happiness -- Affirmation -- Beauty is everywhere -- Love of life -- Fundamental OK -- The uniqueness of each moment -- Taste -- Spontaneity -- The reality of reality -- Healing -- Beauty cures -- Creative expression -- Nature and music -- The invisible ally -- The heart of beauty -- Sharing -- The beauty of the soul -- Good and beautiful -- Aesthetics and biology -- Knowledge -- Mind and beauty -- Revelation -- Hidden resonance -- Trascendence -- Self, nature, and society -- Abuse vs. awe -- Beauty is the opposite of war.

Personal appearance and physical beauty are becoming increasingly important in our societies and, as a consequence, enter into the realm of medicine and health care. Adequate and just health care policies call for an understanding of this trend. The core question to be addressed concerns the very idea of beauty. In the following, a conceptual clarification is given in terms of beauty's meaning, value and function (i.e. beauty that is used instrumentally, and beauty that is attained). Furthermore, some relevant distinctions are drawn between physical and artistic beauty, and physical beauty in a human sense. The core idea for this is formed by a Kantian notion of the beauty concept. It is argued that beauty judgements should be understood as relative to persons and their contexts. Physical beauty should be taken seriously when it is understood in this deeper sense of being related to the shaping of a person's identity.

This paper argues that Kant's account of the "ideal of beauty" in paragraph 17 of the Critique of Judgment is not only a plausible account of one kind of beauty ("boring" beauty), but also that it can address some of our moral qualms concerning the aesthetic evaluation of persons, including our psychological propensity to take a person's beauty to represent her moral character.

This paper discusses the viability of claims of mathematical beauty, asking whether mathematical beauty, if indeed there is such a thing, should be conceived of as a sub-variety of the more commonplace kinds of beauty: natural, artistic and human beauty; or, rather, as a substantive variety in its own right. If the latter, then, per the argument, it does not show itself in perceptual awareness – because perceptual presence is what characterises the commonplace kinds of beauty, and mathematical beauty is not among these. I conclude that the reference to mathematical beauty merely expresses the awe in the mathematician about the intricate complexities and simplicity of certain proofs, theorems or mathematical “objects.”.

„Is beauty a pure perfection?“ What is the real nature beauty? This is for everyone a very important question, because there seems to be a deep interrelation between beauty and love. Is beauty merely subjectively important, or is beauty important itself ? Is it possible to love authentically “something” merely subjectively important? We distinguish certain kinds of beauty and argue that beauty has an objective nature, is important itself and is therefore an objective value. So we have to “answer” to beauty with an adequate value response. Furthermore we should notice that beauty is in some respect objectively related to other “things”. This is for example expressed in the “old trinity of Truth and Good and Beauty”. If we “see” the objective nature of beauty more precisely, we might be able to understand better Dostoyevsky’s sentence: “Beauty will save the world”.

"Beauty" is a very important concept in Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics. Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics generally had two viewpoints when defining beauty: Negatively, by stressing that "beauty" in the aesthetic sense was not "good"; and positively, by stressing two factors: one, that beauty was related to "feeling" which was not an animal instinct, the other was that "beauty" was a special texture with a particular meaning. "Beauty" in Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics may be defined as "texture (or form)" capable of communicating feeling or triggering a reaction of feeling. /// "美" 在先秦儒家美学 是个重要概念。先秦儒家美学对这个概念的界定 是从两个大的方面入手的; 否定的方法，强调审美在义上的 "美" 不是 "苦"; 肯 定的方法,—方面强调美与 "情" 有关，这种情不是外二月快感，另·方面强调 "美" 是-种特殊的形式，是·种有特定意义的 "文"。先秦儒家美学之 "美" 可以界定 为能传达情感或引起情感反应的 "文"。.

Seeking beauty in education -- The meanings of beauty: a brief history -- Beauty as educational experience -- Beauty, education and the good society -- Beauty and creativity: examples from an arts curriculum -- Beauty in science and maths education -- Awakening beauty in education.

I shall discuss several related issues about beauty. These are: (1) The place of beauty among other aesthetic properties. (2) The general principle of aesthetic supervenience. (3) The problem of aesthetic relevance. (4) The distinction between free and dependent beauty. (5) The primacy of our appreciation of free beauty over our appreciation of dependent beauty. (6) Personal beauty as a species of beauty. (7) The metaphysics of beauty.

“Beauty” is a very important concept in Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics. Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics generally had two viewpoints when defining beauty: Negatively, by stressing that “beauty” in the aesthetic sense was not “good”; and positively, by stressing two factors: one, that beauty was related to “feeling” which was not an animal instinct, the other was that “beauty” was a special texture with a particular meaning. “Beauty” in Pre-Qin Confucian aesthetics may be defined as “texture (or form)” capable of communicating feeling or triggering a reaction of feeling.

Human Beauty 3. Natural Beauty 4. Everyday Beauty 5. Artistic Beauty 6. Taste and Order 7. Eros and Art 8. Sacred Beauty Notes and Further Reading.