What is Beauty?
How to define beauty?
The Thomistic definition of beauty is as follows: beauty is that which gives pleasure when seen (ST I-II, 27. 1). “Seen” in this passages means seeing something that is truly there, that is, not merely in the eye of the beholder.
Jacques Maritain explains: “Beauty is essentially the object of intelligence, for what knows in the full meaning of the word is the mind, which alone is open to the infinity of being. The natural site of beauty is the intelligible world: thence it descends. But it falls in a way within the grasp of the senses, since the senses in the case of man serve the mind and can themselves rejoice in knowing.” (Maritain, 23).
For Thomas, beauty has four primary standards: actuality, integrity, proportion, radiance (ST, I.39.8c).
Note that this list is centered on the relationship of the three persons of the trinity, specifically in reference to the Son.
The Son has integrity insofar as he “has in Himself truly and perfectly the nature of the Father.”
The Son has proportion “inasmuch as He is the express Image of the Father.”
Lastly, the third property radiance (which also means brightness, or clarity) is found in the Son, as the Word, “which is the light and splendor of the intellect.”
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
