Many of us will have come across that somewhat hackneyed phrase: beauty is in the eye of the beholder – meaning that what you or I might find beautiful, another person finds less so, or not at all beautiful. This would seem to be saying that the comprehension of beauty is wholly subjective and largely a question of individual taste or preference. There is truth in this simply because we are individuals inevitably drawn to different aspects of beauty.
In the well-known Blind Man and the Elephant story, each blind man has never seen an elephant before. One touches its tusk, another its tail and another its body. They all vehemently pronounce that whatever part they touch is the elephant. As a result, dissension arises because each is convinced that their truth is the only truth. Of course, the truth is that there is only one truth, ie the elephant, but they are all seeing it from different perspectives. Beauty too is multifaceted and boundless – it is in no way limited by how we see it.
Despite the fact that individually we gravitate towards particular manifestations of beauty, it is nonetheless true that Beauty per se has a universal appeal. In our course Walking the Path of Living Beauty – Exploring Beauty and the Beautiful, three enlightened guides – Plato, Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino lead us from the outer beauty – beauty of shape, form and colour, upwards through beautiful actions and beautiful ideas to the splendour of Beauty Itself. It becomes apparent that true Beauty has an immediate appeal to all peoples of all times.
As we explore beauty together, there are other considerations… if we are experts in a particular field, with in-depth knowledge and understanding, are we more likely to be alive to the nuanced beauties in that field in a way that you and I might not?
