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Why Beauty Matters. The Philosophy and Pursuit of Beauty.

December 12, 2011

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Why Beauty Matters by Philosopher and Writer, Roger Scruton.

If you love and appreciate art concepts, this is a documentary you will not want to miss.

Beauty has been central to our civilization for over 2000 years. From it’s beginnings in ancient Greece, philosophy has reflected upon the place of beauty in art, poetry, music, architecture and everday life. Philosophers have argued that through the pursuit of beauty we shape the world as a home, we also come to understand our own nature as spiritual beings. But our world has turned it’s back on beauty and because of that we find ourselves surrounded by ugliness and alienation.

I want to persuade you that beauty matters, that it is not just a subjective thing, but a universal need of human beings. If we ignore this need we find ourselves in a spiritual desert. I want to show you the path out of that desert. It is  a path that leads to home.

The great artists of the past were aware that life was full of chaos and suffering but they had a remedy for this, and the name of that remedy was beauty. The beautiful work of art brings consolation in sorrow, and affirmation in joy. It shows human life to be worthwhile… ~ Roger Scruton

Plato wrote that Beauty is a sign of another, and higher, order.

By the eye of the mind, you will be able to nourish true virtue and become the friend of God ~ Plato

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  • Michelle Snyder

    It is wonderful to find someone pursuing this subject. According to historian Duncan-Enzmann, and my post-grad research, the concept of beauty was cherished by our ancestors in prehistory. From reverence for the sun came the symbol for its warmth and beauty – the Sun Child, who became the Sun Goddess Helen. (ancestor of Helen of Troy) A “helen” was the term for the golden mean, the standard of natural beauty, expressed in nature as the 1.168 proportion. By 4500 BC Helen’s people, the Vanir, extended from what is now Norway to Africa, and this culture lasted several thousand years. Pythagoras and his followers revered the golden mean, and it became known as Sacred Geometry. Philosophically,  humans need beauty, visually and spiritually. The Golden Mean is comfortable to look at, and when used in ergonomic design, is comfortable to sit in. This attack of the ugly is a blight, it is sad, and we should respond by producing beautiful things.