Are Beauty And Happiness Connected?
Beauty is often defined as the aesthetic quality of objects which makes these objects aesthetically pleasing to see. Such objects may include sunsets, landscapes, beautiful humans and works of art. Beauty, with aesthetic appreciation and art, is probably the most important subject of aesthetics, at least among those who write about it or read about it. Just as humans give importance to their physical appearance, so does beauty, and aesthetics are an attempt to evaluate that beauty.
Aesthetics scholars have various definitions of beauty. philosophers define beauty according to cultural and personal experiences. According to these definitions, beauty can be subjective and dependent upon the aesthetic experience of a beholder. It can also be considered as something objective and universal.
According to the philosophers, beauty is not an essential characteristic of objects, but only an aspect of an object which is given the appropriate qualities by the beholder. This is different from the thesis that beauty is a relation between things which could be perceived objectively, such as color, shape, and size. The two types of thesis in aesthetics are the essential characteristics and the essential qualities of things which can be perceived objectively. Thus, the term ‘essential characteristic’ can be used to define art as well.
An essential characteristic is something which a beholder would find pleasant to behold. In this case, the aesthetic experience of a beholder can be considered as a defining characteristic of beauty. The essential qualities are things like color, size and shape which are found in objects irrespective of their original forms and arrangement. In this way, even objects with no inherent physical form can be considered aesthetically pleasing, as they would have been seen as pleasing by the beholder.
Then there is the aesthetic object. An object is beautiful if it satisfies an aesthetic need of a beholder. Aesthetic need is defined as the need to be surrounded by aesthetically appealing things. Aesthetic need is also related to personal taste and so the beauty of certain objects can be chosen by a person depending on his or her own personal aesthetic requirements.
In conclusion, beauty and attractiveness are not mutually exclusive terms. They can be considered as two sides of the same coin, each with its own inherent or distinguishing qualities which can all be attractive and/or pleasant. This includes both physical attributes of the body and the attitude or the disposition towards them which makes them attractive. Therefore, both physical beauty and the happy emotional states associated with it can make us happy.