A comment on aethetics

One thinks of "The Beautiful" as some kind of absolute - perhaps involving ease of perception and such things built organically into our anatomy. [I used to think this was the basis of violet being more beautiful than red.] But the appreciation of beauty must have an important learned component. I remember well how my father would pause on a ridge in the White Mountains and exclaim with pleasure about the beauty of the view across the 'Great Gulf'. I am pretty sure those views were not appealing to me, as a youth. I think maybe we learn to enjoy sunsets.

So I found a badly waterworn 'blade' that I thought was quite beautiful, in a Japanese sort of way. But I knew no one would believe it was an old tool and most would say: "it is just a rock". That truly detracts from my ability to enjoy the beauty of this item.

Another example is a glass "arrowhead" I just found in northern Taunton. It is obviously pretty, obviously an arrowhead and, yet, having trouble believing an Indian would still be making arrowheads with glass when metal was available spoils it. Not being able to believe it is Indian, makes it not beautiful - even though it is, objectively.

Both examples show the influences of non-visual components of a visual experience. So the beauty of a physical object includes a psychological construct I put around the object that makes the object's beauty dependent on its share-ability with others.

But then, this makes up for some of the pain.