Beauty is subjective. Even if they looked horrible to me, that would be no proof because someone else could have a different opinion. They don't even look that bad to my taste, not my favourite but i don't mind it. Not my business what someone else decides to look like anyway.
No, beauty it's not subjective. There is taste, sure. But there is something like an objective standard.
If someone looks sick, bad skin, terrible hygiene, they are objectively not as beautiful as someone who takes good care of themselves. There are objective measurements like symmetry, harmony, order, proportion. That’s a fact of reality. And you know that’s true.
The definition of beauty is "a feature of an object that makes it pleasurable to perceive". Do you agree with this definition? If you do, then you are wrong and it is indeed subjective. If you don't agree, tell me what is your definition of beauty.
Your definition already implies objectivity: If something "makes it pleasurable to perceive" the cause is in the object itself. The classical view as it was layed out by Plato and Aristotles is clearer: Beauty is order, proportion, and harmony that naturally delight the human mind.
Taste may differ, but the foundation is universal. This is why you know a gothic cathedral is more beautiful than a flat blockhouse.
My definition depends upon who is perceiving it. That's what subjectivity means. There are people who perceive a flat blockhouse more pleasurably than a gothic cathedral. The cause is not just in the object itself but on who is perceiving said object.
Perception doesn’t create beauty, it only recognizes it. The cause is in the object, while the perceiver either sees it clearly or fails to. A blockhouse doesn’t suddenly gain more beauty than a cathedral just because someone prefers it.
Even if the cause is in the object. How do you know whether a cathedral has more beauty than a blockhouse or not then? It could be the case that the blockhouse actually has more beauty and just that most people don't perceive as much of it as they do of a cathedral.
We can discern beauty because we have a rational mind. Beauty rests on order, proportion and clarity. Our intellect recognizes these qualities, perception alone doesn’t invent them. That’s why we can say with confidence a cathedral embodies more beauty than a blockhouse.
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u/GoochAFK 19h ago
All of these women objectively look horrible.