Is beauty subjective?
Yes.
Side Score: 5
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No.
Side Score: 6
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point
I don't know whether this is in reference to physical beauty of a person or a more general concept of beauty (including paintings, music, landscapes, etc), but either way, yes. While there are certain biological impulses and brain wiring that predispose us to find beauty in certain things more than others, there is considerable variance among individuals, particularly when comparing two things that might be reasonably considered beautiful. Some of this is based on our own naturally programed priorities, some on our cultural indoctrination, and some on our current state of mind when observing the beauty. And I'm sure there are numerous other factors as well. Side: Yes.
No, but the lack of objective qualities does. For instance, color is something that people can experience differently (due to color blindness or other conditions), but regardless of how they perceive a color, the color itself simply is what it is. Color is simply the section of the visible light spectrum that gets reflected back to us, so it can be measured independently and objectively by anyone with the proper equipment and skill set. Can the same be said for beauty? The only way I can think of to measure beauty would be to monitor the effects certain stimuli have on our brainwaves, chemistry and autonomic reflexes. But I think it is pretty safe to say that these effects would not be universal. And unlike color blindness, the variance we would see in perception is probably not linked to any unusual biological anomalies, but rather a range of conditions linked to both nature and nurture. So while difference does not necessitate subjectivity, subjectivity is reliant on difference. When that difference is purely perceptional and cannot be unified by an outside source, then I would say it is definitively subjective in nature. Side: Yes.
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Balance, proportion, symmetry and harmony are objective criteria of beauty, all art production being an expression of class-based society. Any aesthetic can be imputed to a social class and is a product of the experience of living in class society. Further, for this reason, art which is not ruling class art must grapple with the concept of how objective values such as balance, proportion, symmetry and harmony are best used as vehicles for art which will advance human progress. We see in libertarian objectivist artistic aesthetic a foreshadowing and intimation of the future, but before a background of rank inequality and, of far greater concern, pointless and counterproductive bloodshed. Whores not wars. Side: No.
Alt: There are rules in art. If you practice, you will get better. There is a reason that people who have spent a lot of time studying visual art can produce better pictures than me. There is a reason that skilled photographers take consistently better photographs than amateurs, and that first novels seldom sell. There is such a thing as talent. There is a reason that if you take a class or go to a workshop and listen to criticism on your works, the result is usually that you are better at writing than you were before. If an effort were made to discover and structure all the factors that make up the quality of eg music such as tone, pitch, chord progression, etc, then the objective quality of music could be recognized. If you define what constitutes quality, then you can use that to determine taste. Side: No.
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