Beauty

            
             An interesting thing to me seems to be the idea of beauty and what is beautiful. These come across as possibly being one of the most abstract of all ideas, except perhaps love. How can beauty be defined if indeed it is at all possible? Is beauty a characteristic, an emotion or what? It seems an important enquiry to make; as to the nature of beauty itself. .
             We should start at the beginning; it's illogical for a person to start anywhere else on a journey. So, the first idea I would put forward is that of a beautiful woman. Picture two people in a conversation, one called Stuart, and one called Nic. They are conversing about the nature of beauty and how it can be defined. Stuart has presented Nic with a beautiful woman:.
             Stuart: "Does this woman appear beautiful to you?".
             In this instance (and for the sake of taking the argument one step at a time), he replies:.
             Nic: "Yes, very".
             This does not surprise Stuart, since he selected the woman based on the common opinion of what is beautiful.
             Stuart: "I see, and tell me, what can you specifically tell about this woman right now, from looking at her? I mean, you can obviously see nothing of her character, or her nature, so what is it you see, and base your judgement upon?".
             Nic: "I see her face and her body, she has a very attractive body, and a very pretty face".
             Stuart laughs.
             Stuart: "You aren't wrong there my friend! Okay, and these facts qualify her beauty to you, yes?".
             Nic: "I suppose they do, yes".
             Stuart: "Okay, now here is a painting by Roland Wheelwright, as you can see it is simply of two individuals sat on some rocks by some cliffs and a body of water. I think this is beautiful, do you agree?".
             Nic: "I do, definitely".
             Stuart: "Good, now, rather than go on to show you examples of all beautiful things, I will tell you some things that I have found to be beautiful, and you can tell me if you agree, ok?".
             Nic: "Ok".
             Stuart: "I find a concerto by Beethoven to be beautiful; I find the act of birth to be a beautiful thing; I even find a naked flame beautiful in some, peculiar way; do you agree with me in saying that these are all beautiful things?".