What is beauty?

[AnnieE]

http://www.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/phil_Fak_II/Psychologie/Psy_II/beautycheck/english/zusammen/zusammen1.htm

[cindianna_jones]

To sum up, our study shows clearly that the most attractive faces do not exist in reality, they are morphs, i.e. computer-created compound images you would never find in everyday live. These virtual faces showed characteristics that are unreachable for average human beings. 

Despite this fact, people living in modern post-industrial societies are exposed to these kinds of artificially created and manipulated, 'perfect' faces every day, e.g. via TV advertising or fashion magazines. The result may be that we all may become victims of our self-created, completely unrealistic ideal of beauty. 

I've often wondered how much our society's overwhelming infatuation with the perfect woman influenced my young mind.

Cindi

[AnnieE]

To sum up, our study shows clearly that the most attractive faces do not exist in reality, they are morphs, i.e. computer-created compound images you would never find in everyday live. These virtual faces showed characteristics that are unreachable for average human beings. 

Despite this fact, people living in modern post-industrial societies are exposed to these kinds of artificially created and manipulated, 'perfect' faces every day, e.g. via TV advertising or fashion magazines. The result may be that we all may become victims of our self-created, completely unrealistic ideal of beauty. 

I've often wondered how much our society's overwhelming infatuation with the perfect woman influenced my young mind.

Cindi

It's influenced my mind greatly, then again so has modern day philosophy(19th century to current), art, and intellectuals of all types. However, I won't get caught up in perfection, only improvement.

[Jeannette]

To the human eye beauty symbolises life. We adore Beauty because we truly and naturally believe that life is beautiful. We inherently understand that beauty and life are synonymous to eachother. We find all things beautiful have life enhancing influence upon us. In fact beauty is an expression of balance, harmony and growth or perpetuation. These are the essential attributes of life, or one can say the conditions for life. We commonly believe that life has divine origins. And if there were no divinity then we would not be able to contemplate it so fervently and religiously. So, if life is from the divine then beauty, the best we see in life, must be a glimpse of the actual source of all life.