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1. Beauty is a value

There is no doubt that beauty is a value. Value comes from people's distinction, choice and evaluative judgment about things. There are two types of judgments, namely positive type and negative type. There are also two types of value judgments, for example: beautiful/not beautiful (ugly) good/not good (bad) good/not good (evil). The value in aesthetics comes from the choice and choice given by the subject regarding the meaning of the object. Estimate. In the selection and evaluation of value, not only the object is mapped, but also the subject itself. Value can not only be selected, but also compared; therefore, value has degree - that is, quantitative difference. The extreme non-beauty is ugliness, but between non-beauty and ugliness, there is non-beauty and non-ugliness. Various categories of beauty can also be compared to show the difference from degree to meaning, such as: graceful, elegant, exquisite, profound, sublime, great, etc.

2. Beauty cannot be observed by physical means

The category of beauty originally emerged from people’s positive judgments of things. But beauty is neither an object nor a specific quality of an object. What beauty represents is an unreal attribute of things. What are non-existent attributes? We say that something is big, small, light, heavy, long, flat, square, round, black, white, yellow, or green. These can all be measured and specified through physical means. These properties are observable physical attributes; therefore we That is, they are the real properties of things. But if we say something is beautiful or ugly, sublime or funny, vulgar or elegant, etc., these attributes are not observable by physical means, so they are not the actual physical attributes of things. The determination of whether things are beautiful or ugly comes from the judgment of the subject as the evaluator. Properties such as beauty and ugliness sometimes seem to exist in the object itself, but in fact they are just attributes that reflect human nature. This attribute is not inherent in the thing itself, but is due to the special formal meaning that humans attach to certain characteristics of things. In epistemology, the British philosopher Locke distinguished the properties of objects into two categories: the first type of properties is a real object that has nothing to do with people; the second type of properties is related to human observation and is a relatively real object. ——Such as sound, color, smell and taste. Then, beauty and ugliness can be regarded as the third type of nature that is different from the first type and the second type.

3. The basis of beauty is perception

“Beauty” is a vague value indicator in language. There is ambiguity in the deep structure of this sign, which is why it is difficult to define. The reason for this deep ambiguity lies in the following two aspects:

On the one hand, beauty is an expression of certain feelings and emotions experienced by the subject; but on the other hand, this The expression is made in a way that evaluates the object, so it seems to come from the object itself. In other words, when I say that object A is beautiful, I seem to be pointing out that object A has a property, which can be expressed by the symbol "beauty"; but in fact, this statement is my statement about myself. A statement of a feeling state of oneself. Object A excites my eyes, ears and mind, makes me happy, and moves me. In fact, when I say A is beautiful, I am stating: I feel, I think - A. It's beautiful. It can be seen that the basis of beauty is perception. Without the perceiver, there is no beauty. It is worth noting that the word aesthetics originated from the German word "Asthetik", which comes from the Greek; its root is - perception. . Therefore, Hegel once said that the more precise definition of the word aesthetics is the science of feeling and feeling. "① Perception is purely personal. No matter what kind of beauty, if you have not personally felt and experienced it, you have the right to refuse to recognize it. No authority, no science, can prove it through logic or other super-perception Evidence can make people believe that a thing is beautiful. As a value judgment, beauty cannot pass three paragraphs of argument. This is the difference between it and the two values ??of goodness and truth. Both goodness and truth are universal. It is regulated by the principle of meaning; only beauty exists only in individual perceptual perception. Therefore, the structure of beauty itself has an irrational level.

Another example is the pure blue color in the sky, which seems to have been consciously selected and clarified by the Creator; the giant dangerous rocks on both sides of Kuimen in the Three Gorges that seem to have been split with a sharp ax and then polished; the rocks in the fields and gardens that seem to have been carefully cut Exotic flowers and plants made of inlays, as well as marble patterns that look like a splash-ink and freehand painting, etc. This is the root of why these natural objects are stunning and why we consider them to have a special kind of beauty. All in all, the reason why natural objects are beautiful is that the subject obtains a supernatural and rational discovery in them. But this deep structure of supernatural rationality comes from human cultural consciousness. Therefore, people who lack this kind of cultural awareness cannot feel the inner harmonious and unified rational structure of natural objects, and cannot perceive the beauty of nature (even if this beauty is right next to them).

5. The value of beauty is transcendent

Let’s discuss artistic beauty again.

In Greek, the word art has two meanings:

(l) Beautiful works;

(2) Creation, skill, and craftsmanship. The original meaning of art in ancient Chinese is to plant and to govern ("Guangya? Exegesis"). Those who are good at planting and managing have skills, so they also have the connotation of skill and beauty. The semantics of art in Chinese and Western languages ??all explain the origin of the name art etymologically, which is very thought-provoking. In fact, works of art are artificial technological artifacts with aesthetic value. From here we can get some inspiration. When we praise a beautiful work of art, it often contains two meanings: 1. Superficial meaning: the expression form of this work is very beautiful; 2. Deep meaning: the production technique of this work is very beautiful. These are two different evaluations. The former is for objects and works; the latter is for people and authors - artists. Through this dual evaluation of artistic beauty, we can understand the ancient paradox in aesthetics: Why can beautiful art express the above ugliness? For art, the problem is not the ugliness of the object, but the need to express the ugliness with excellence. In fact, if an artist can show superb expressive skills for ugly objects - no matter whether it is a snake, a fly, a wolf, or death or murder (Rebin's famous painting "The Death of Ivan the Terrible") , crime ("Lady Macbeth})), horror, or hell, his works can all shine with a kind of superb beauty, making people gain a strong and profound aesthetic experience. We can explain this peculiar aesthetic experience in terms of the hierarchy of meaning. Ugliness is only the ugliness of the subject matter, which only constitutes the surface form of the art work; beauty, however, comes from the artist's wisdom and expressive power, which forms the deep structure of the art work. From this we can realize that the value of beauty is transcendent. In natural beauty, it transcends nature and reaches a rational structure that seems to be personified. And in human art, it transcends humans, as if returning to its true nature.

6. Human culture is selective in its aesthetic objects

But on the other hand, we must pay attention to the conflict and coordination between aesthetic values ??and other cultural values. Although many works are beautifully made, we feel uncomfortable after viewing them. The reason is that the works reveal things that are unacceptable for a cultural value. In this case, no matter how skilled the representation is, people will still dislike it - imagine a lifelike model of a genital. Michelangelo's "Domesday" painting for the Vatican Basilica was covered up for many years because he painted a depth that humanity was ashamed to see at the time. "A Dream of Red Mansions" and "Jin Ping Mei" were banned books in China for the same reason. In terms of expression methods, the creative value of artistic works can be evaluated more objectively according to the difficulty of expression; but in terms of the objects of expression, human beings' choices are very subjective. In fact, works of art often come under strong critical pressure from socio-cultural value traditions.

7. Aesthetic value covers three levels

Recognizing the multi-layered nature of aesthetic experience can make us notice a serious oversight in traditional aesthetics, which is: only " "Beauty" is regarded as an aesthetic value category, but they fail to realize that the value of artistic beauty includes a series of evaluation ladders of varying degrees. Among them, there are at least two important categories that are higher than beauty and cannot and should not be ignored. These are "profound" and "sublime". Although the concept of profundity has long been used to judge artistic works, especially literary works in terms of ideological and cultural depth, it has not yet been included in a formal aesthetic category. As an aesthetic category, "sublime" has been formed as early as the Greek and Roman times, but its true meaning has always been vague. In the time of Augustus

The Roman Caecilius wrote "On the Sublime" (27 BC - 14 AD), but this book was later lost; later the Greek Longhi Nuss continued with a book of the same name, On the Sublime. In this book, he regarded the sublime as a quantitative category whose meaning is close to what we often call "great". (But the word great in Chinese has both a quantitative definition - "big" and a qualitative definition - "wei", which means extraordinary.) In the works of Kant and the 18th century British writer Bock, the sublime This category has once again attracted attention. Bock regards the sublime as something that exists outside of beauty and has nothing to do with beauty. He believed that the sense of sublimity comes from the feeling humans get when appreciating works of art that depict pain and ugliness. The profound point of his theory is that he noticed the consistency between aesthetic experience and human moral emotions; but in general, his theory is vague and superficial. Kant advanced Bock's theory in his early aesthetic work "Inspections on the Sense of the Sublime and the Beautiful" (1764). Kant argued that night is sublime and daytime is beautiful. Sublime things excite us, beautiful things make us admire. Sublime things are often grand, while beautiful things are often small. Actions that require no effort are effortless and graceful, while going through hardships and hardships makes people feel noble. Women's wisdom is beautiful, men's wisdom is deep, and this depth is another form of sublimity. Kant's treatise is written entirely in a light prose style that is beautiful but lacks depth. In his view, the difference between sublime things and beautiful things is only a quantitative difference. But I think the difference between beauty and sublimity is not just a difference in degree (quantity). Graceful, profound, sublime, they evaluate different aspects of the object.

——Beauty evaluates the form;

——Profundity evaluates the rational meaning of the work;

——Sublimity evaluates the morality value.

I think works of art that combine these three can be called "great". Here, we can see the correspondence between these three aesthetic categories and the three levels of art: the level of formal syntax - graceful; the level of ideological meaning - profound; the level of moral and cultural hidden meaning - sublime. Beauty evaluates expression and form, while profundity and sublimity, as aesthetic values, embody the inherent value, character, and value ideals of art in culture. In this sense, the traditional three concepts of truth, goodness and beauty are actually integrated in the aesthetic experience of art.

8. Sexual selection is the starting point and end point of human body beauty

Human body beauty constitutes an intermediary area in the transition from natural beauty to artistic beauty. Human body beauty can also be divided into two levels, one is the beauty of the natural body, and the other is the beauty of the modified form and the cultural beauty that shows character, thought, education, and demeanor. From the first level, human body beauty is a kind of natural beauty; from the second level, human body beauty is not only natural beauty, but also a manifestation of cultural value, a reshaping of one's self, and a Cultural beauty. From the historical point of view of beauty, human self-decoration may be the original origin of civilization and art. Here, we can see the logical development of the concept of beauty: natural beauty--gt; (natural) human body beauty--gt; (human body) decorative beauty--gt; artistic beauty. Let's first discuss the first level of human body beauty, namely The beauty of the intuitive form of the human body. Hegel said in his "Aesthetics", "The pinnacle of natural beauty is the beauty of animal life.

When people lack outstanding features that are attractive to the opposite sex in their natural appearance and body, they often use decoration and makeup to create a certain eye-catching appearance. In this kind of decoration and makeup, the natural beauty of the human body is transformed into an artificial beauty due to the needs of socialization. In fact, the origin of this kind of human body decoration often marks the origin of artistic beauty and civilization. Its history, archaeologists tell us, can be traced back to the time of the cavemen 500,000 years ago - decorative bone beads and ornaments were found next to their bones. Darwin also once described various strange customs of human beings decorating their own bodies: For us, the first thing we praise for beauty is appearance, and it is the same for uncivilized people. Their faces are the first to be disfigured. People all over the world have the hobby of piercing their noses and inserting rings, holders, feathers or other decorations into the holes; people all over the world have their ears pierced and put on large and small decorations. The ears of the Botocudo and Lenguas of South America are so large that the back of the lower ear touches the shoulder. In North and South America and Africa, the eye is pierced either in the upper or lower lip. The Botok's lower lip piercing is so large that it can accommodate a wooden disk 4 inches in diameter. ① Almost no part of the body that can be deformed will be spared. The level of pain must be extreme as many surgeries (including tattoos) take years to complete. So the idea of ??transformation must be urgent. The motivations vary. Men probably painted their bodies with colors to make them intimidating in battle. Some of the disfigurement may be related to religious rituals; or as a sign of entering puberty, or to indicate a man's status, or to distinguish between different tribes. Among savages the same form of disfigurement has been passed down for a long time. So whatever the original cause of the disfigurement, it soon came to be valued as a completely different symbol. But self-admiration, vanity, and attempts to win the admiration of the opposite sex seem to be the most common motives everywhere. ②

10. Facial expressions can express people’s personalities

The external decorative art of the human body transforms the beauty of the human body from natural beauty to cultural and artistic beauty. But this kind of beauty, as far as it is directly related to human sexual psychology, obviously belongs to a vulgar level; but on the other hand, human beauty can also reach a higher level. At this level, people obtain a kind of sublime beauty not through external decoration, but through the cultivation and cultivation of spiritual and inner qualities. This is so far little known and is therefore all the more worthy of study. A person's appearance is innate, but a person's appearance is acquired, and it can be controlled and changed. A person's facial expressions, posture and behavior show a person's soul and emotions; and long-lasting and habitual expressions can be deeply imprinted on the face and become an acquired appearance, showing the inner mental outlook, character and personality. Darwin also pointed out this. He said: Anyone who admits the principle of sexual selection will lead to the obvious conclusion that the nervous system not only controls most of the existing functions of the body, but also indirectly affects certain mental attributes and the continuous development of various physical structures. ①Kant also said: People think that a completely regular face, which the painter asked him to sit as a model for, may not be qualified as beautiful. Because the face may not have strong features that indicate character. Of course, if this feature is exaggerated so much that it destroys the idea of ??a standard (fit-for-purpose form), it becomes a caricature. But experience shows that a very standardized face may often reveal an extremely mediocre person in terms of character. I guess... if there is not a strong and prominent expression characteristic from the mental aspect, then although this may constitute a faultless face, it will not produce a person who is called a genius. Because genius is always a series of talent advantages that tend to be strengthened from the normal relationship between mental abilities. ②Here, Kant’s so-called “face makeup that conforms to the rules” actually refers to the kind of small and lively style that has natural beauty, natural beauty, well-proportioned and fair complexion.

He believes that this kind of natural beauty of appearance, especially for men, is not true beauty. This is a very profound insight! Because for human beings, there is a higher level of beauty - the beauty that Kant calls "genius". In fact, it is the beauty of good manners that shows talent, cultivation, and character. It is something that humans should pursue and can also pursue. Arrived. There is no doubt that expressions express a person’s personality. In particular, people's gaze often depicts their personality characteristics. The triangle area between the mouth lines and the nose is the most characteristic expression area for speech, laughter and various expressions. According to the various changes of lines, people can clearly grasp the most subtle emotions - smile, ridicule, seriousness, contempt, dissatisfaction, excitement, anger, etc. A certain frequent expression will become a habit and condense into lasting lines and expressions on the face. This expression is what people usually call expression or appearance. Appearance is a typical expression of character, and a beautiful character must have a beautiful appearance (this does not mean that the natural appearance is superior). Appearance transcends the natural structure of the human body and face, and shows a spirit that may be upright or evil, powerful or good or sinister, or sharp or slow, or witty or stupid, or childish or sophisticated. In this sense, we can say that appearance shows character. A mature face is a comprehensive symbol of character and personality. The density of experience, the thickness of knowledge, the depth of thinking, whether one has creativity and personality, as well as whether one is stupid or clever, kind or sinister, all of these can be shown in a person's appearance, especially his eyes and expression. This kind of appearance is both innate and acquired, shaped by character, spirit and personality. American politician Lincoln once said a famous saying: "A person should be responsible for his own appearance after the age of 40." Japanese economist and educator Shinzo Koizumi also once said: To be good at an art or to complete a certain career Gentlemen, their appearance naturally has a certain temperament and style that most mediocre people do not have. Reading can also change your appearance. People who read and know how to think deeply will certainly look different from those who do not read at all. Studying the works of great writers and thinkers with great concentration will indeed make a person look and behave differently from others. People who have accomplished something great have their own demeanor. Even if you don't have an in-depth conversation with him, just standing with him can make people feel this. This is the so-called imagination of personality. This is a very insightful argument! This beauty of appearance and temperament has gone beyond the simple natural beauty of the human body. It is acquired beauty, a kind of cultural beauty that can be acquired through personality cultivation. In this regard, we can cite two great examples among the modern Chinese: one is Sun Yat-sen and the other is Zhou Enlai; their appearance embodies the typical beauty of human spiritual character. From their demeanor, we can recognize the extraordinary, fortitude, wisdom, depth and perseverance of character and spirit.