Essay Example on Beauty Beyond Looks: A Reflection on Definition

The definition of beauty appears rather insignificant and straightforward to some people. Some may think of beauty as an attribute on something or someone that is not ugly. That is scouring on the surface of the essence of beauty. Beauty is more than good looks in different aspects of time and space. It is essential to discern the middle ground of what beauty is in the multiplicity of definitions and theories of beauty. However, beauty can be looked at, generally, as something that possesses an allure as an attribute.

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The need for beauty fulfills both the individual's inner reflection along with their physical appearance. Beautifying primarily entails creating a personal sense of sufficiency. To foreground the underlying significance of beauty manifestation in human life, everybody holds different viewpoints that justify their perception of beauty (Paris, 2019).

Therefore, beauty is a unifying discipline that everyone ought to achieve as it is available from both physical and natural sources. The dimensions that beauty adds to life are essential in everyone's daily life activities. It brings the feeling of active involvement in life, resulting from an individual's emotional response. People should, therefore, engage in gaining beauty due to the multiple advantages it adds to the human life structure.

In his writing, Paris states that beauty is not static, and its definition takes on different historical times and countries (Paris, 2019). Women practice foot binding, whereby they break all their metatarsals and phalanges for the toes to wrap around the foot (Putnam, 2017). Some societies perceived that as dehumanizing, while that is how a beautiful woman looked like in China. Historically, beauty was seen as a perception in mind. In the third to the fifteenth century, the Greeks came up with The Great Theory of Beauty, widely accepted by many philosophers (Blackwood, 2018). The theory applied to how people perceive differently different aesthetics, such as their architecture, sculptures, landscapes, and the beauty of living organisms.

Similarly, at a touch of beauty, individuals develop various abilities to meet aspirations as well as the passion that, in turn, validates the reasons for living to their dreams. Also, an individual's professional lives that involve fashion designing activities can only be facilitated by a powerful sense of beauty that must be induced. Paris adds that beauty develops more appeal to "the male gaze" (Paris, 2019). In such scenarios, people deal with beauty like other typical physical manifestations hence affirming the underlying reasons in the rising number of people using makeups to increase physical beauty. The feeling has a large impact on one’s thoughts of sufficiency.

Beauty can be seen as something that promotes a particular emotion, such as love and excitement. For instance, watching the Victoria Falls as water majestically cascade the beautiful cliffs and hitting the boulders in the plunge pool is breathtaking. That is an emotion sourced out from looking at what is beautiful. The same applied to the current society where everyone is at liberty to choose whom they want to spend their whole life with; they decide beautiful people, i.e., someone who brings out a particular emotion from them through their good looks (Putnam, 2017).

Beauty can also be perceived as that which is appealing to the eyes. This definition includes someone who is groomed and looks young and fresh. This is why many cosmetic procedures emerge, such as face-lifts and jaw realignment for people to fit in the façade of what society calls "beauty." Plastic surgeons work wonders to make people beautiful and according to The Meaning of 'Meaning' by Hilary Putnam, "beauty is a work of a Genius" (Putnam, 2017). Moreover, works of art that appeal to the eyes and tell a particular story can also be categorized as beauty.

The notion of beauty can be expressed through pure aesthetics. The definition finds a middle ground between ethics and aesthetics. Various writings, including the Bible, note that beauty lies in the heart. Beauty, in this case, can be expressed through good deeds such as being kind. In The Meaning of 'Meaning,' beauty can also be described as that which surpasses looks and vitality (Button, 2017). It does not matter if the person has excellent body features or not. This definition enables anybody to be beautiful without trying.

Therefore, the aspect of beauty breeds quality, making it an essential element that individuals should consider when trying to establish a feeling for sufficiency (Putnam, 2017). It is due to the ability of beauty in facilitating instant interaction along with collaborative projects in a manner that it can attain completeness. The goals are only achievable through laying realistic frameworks that will, in turn, get clearer to individuals as per the projection of the preliminary studies of the need for beauty (Putnam, 2017). Besides, an explanation of designs alongside arrangements of actions that strive for beauty is a significant action as they boost a proper comprehension of how one can strive to access a life of completeness.

Conclusion

On balance, the concepts of beauty can be comprehensive since beauty is perceived as something pleasurable. The element of beauty has profound impacts on human decisions in everyday lives. The option of choosing or dropping something is always facilitated by the aspect of beauty embedded into it. For instance, people turn away from something that is not pleasing, be it a piece of land or someone simply because they are deprived of the essence of "beauty." It is the very concept in which artists use in their paintings for people to appreciate their art. In marketing, marketers have applied the same strategy of using pleasurable people and sceneries for people to consume their products.

References

Blackwood, J. (2018). In the shadow of Alexander the Great: censorship, ideology, and contemporary art in Macedonia. Bloomsbury Publishing. https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/228312/in-the-shadow-of-alexander-the-great-censorship-ideology-and-contemporary-art-in-macedonia

Button, T. (2017). Review of Naturalism, Realism, and Normativity By Hilary Putnam. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/262827/Button-2017-Philosophy-AM.pdf?sequence=1

Paris, P. (2019). Moral beauty and education. Journal of Moral Education, 48(4), 395-411. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057240.2019.1584554.

Putnam, H. (2017). The meaning of 'meaning.' Philosophical papers, 2.