What Is Beauty?

Kant and Hume both identify beauty as the pleasure that a person receives from a given object. Both emphasize the role of pleasure in beauty and the fact that beauty is subjective. But neither of these accounts gives beauty any higher status than that of entertainment. Kant is also critical of Santayana’s account of beauty, which argues that beauty does not entail any moral or social obligations. In other words, beauty is only a matter of taste and the individual’s individual sense of well-being.

Plotinus’ definition of beauty is a bit more complicated, making beauty a matter of ‘formedness,’ or the definite shape of an object. While beauty isn’t the end in and of itself, it does serve as a necessary ingredient to a good thing. But it is also a necessary element to the pleasure that a person receives from an object. Thus, Moore’s definition of beauty is not very useful for deciding what constitutes beauty.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that Schiller’s definition of beauty has a certain level of ambiguity. He often uses the terms art and play interchangeably, although they are not synonymous in his work. He uses beauty to integrate and ascend, but he is less concerned with transcending physical reality. Regardless of its definition, Schiller’s work does have an intellectual underpinning and has a strong social impact. A business with a sense of purpose is more likely to attract creative talent and foster an effective work environment.