Is there objective beauty? March 29, 2008
Posted by Nate in Uncategorized.Tags: apologetics, beauty, objectivism, subjectivism
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To get a little more insight on a conversation I am having over at Rick Gerhardt’s blog I pose this question?
Is beauty objective or subjective?
Current conversation: First post, Second post, third post
I weighed in as well see what you think
And now I am active!
I just wanted to quickly jump in and out of the fray to say that the law of non-contradiction actually HAS been shown to be less than full-proof. The universe does appear to adhere to this law- until your move into the quantum level. There all ideas of something being one thing, and not simultaneously another, break down. They really do.
So the “law of the universe” that was being called upon here is based on outdated science.
To say the law of non-contradiction is not a law of man is also, in my mind, misleading. Because, case in point above, it’s only is “a law” because it appears to be consistently self-evident to finite, fallible man. But look what happened- suddenly quantum mechanics teaches us that the old law is broken. But we cannot blame the universe for this, because it WAS man’s understanding of the law, based on his limited observation, that was at fault. The universe didn’t change, man’s understanding did.
Last point: I definitely think that beauty is a subjective enterprise- believe me, I’m a web designer, I should know. What some people appreciate in design, others will detest. That’s just way it goes for enculturated human beings- which we all are.
To address Rick’s note that nature never seems to offer color clashes, that too, I would argue, is a misleading statement. Our appreciation of beauty is formed by out natural surroundings. In fact, we later judge beauty in art and design according to the framework we’ve build by observing nature. But that’s the way it works- observation equals appreciation, not the other way around. And believe me, someone who grows up in the Sahara has a different understanding of natural beauty than someone who grows up in rain-soaked Seattle, Portland, or Vancouver.
For those who don’t know me, I follow Jesus of Nazareth and am very involved in the emerging church discussion, coming out of a decidedly Evangelical background. I appreciate Rick’s awareness of Modernism’s flaws, but I feel that he (and many other Evangelicals like him) still place far too high a confidence in our ability to lay things out in near, orderly, unchanging lines.
I say, embrace the mystery. Relish in the goodness of God; a goodness that moves and breathes in ways we can only begin to comprehend.