![]() ![]() While other cultures promote spray-on tans and taking the sun to show that they can take time off work to go to a sunny holiday location in the middle of winter. In some cultures, having light skin shows that you have wealth because you don’t need to work in the fields. This belief has led to countless challenges for women and men over the years. The Glorious Myth of Beautyīeauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some things are just plain ugly, tragic, and horrible to experience. There’s no way to argue about this because it’s a fact. What I want to bring to light is that most people agree about what’s beautiful and strive for them. I’m not saying that you can’t disagree about what is beautiful. What one person sees as beauty another can see as something repulsive. Yes, it is true, we don’t experience life the same as each other. It has been perpetuated by centuries of social conditioning. Well, think again! Some phrases become popular and cliche, like “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Thomas said he would not believe unless he touched the wounds of Christ, he was refusing to leave beauty out of the picture, for without beauty, truth and goodness are mere fideism, mere moralism.Have you ever thought that beauty is something that you can define? Understood rightly, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" simply means "Taste and see the Lord is good." When St. ![]() For this reason, beauty has the power to pacify, to sublimate, and to terrify. ![]() Proportion, harmony, and symmetry might be found floating around in the blue, ethereal realm of the forms, but beauty is only known through profound confrontation. Rather, beauty is the point at which knowledge of God must be tasted, not merely acknowledged by way of rational assent. In this, the true meaning of “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is not that every man is free to determine beauty on his own terms. If Tom tells Harry, “I was cold today and a stranger gave me the coat off his back,” Harry might reply, “What a good man!” However, if Tom tells Harry, “I saw a beautiful woman today at the flower shop,” Harry cannot reply, “What a beautiful woman!” When it comes to beauty, we say, “I have heard Beethoven’s 7 th is beautiful,” or, “I have heard Friedrich painted beautiful landscapes,” but unless our eyes have actually beheld the beauty in question, we can only report what we’ve heard. On the other hand, we are generally unwilling to grant a thing is beautiful unless we have laid our own eyes on it. “There’s a good mechanic over in Lakeside where you can take your car,” I say, even though I don’t him from Adam. Similarly, I am willing to recommend a certain auto mechanic to my friends even if that mechanic has not serviced my car, simply because I have heard credible testimony about the mechanic from others. We come to believe a man is a good man by the testimony of witnesses, even while we have not met him personally. The irregular place of beauty among the three transcendentals owes to the fact that beauty must be experienced directly, while we are willing to acknowledge truth and goodness via proxy. In various treatises on the subject, Roger Scruton argues that between truth, beauty, and goodness, beauty is something of an odd-man out.
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