In Hegel's philosophy. The concept of beauty develops like this:

Cosmic life is an absolute conceptual process. Only the universe in its whole space and all the time of its existence is the complete embodiment of the absolute concept; But in things limited by space and time, the concept of absolute can never be fully reflected. After the absolute concept is concretized, it is decomposed into a chain of concrete concepts; And each specific concept can only be fully reflected in the infinite number of things or entities it contains, but it can never be fully reflected in a specific entity.

However, all areas of mental activity ...

All areas of spiritual activity are governed by the law of direct rise to indirect rise. Because of this law, the concept of [absolute], which can only be fully understood (understood indirectly) through thinking, initially appeared in the mind in the form of direct form or impression. Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, individual things limited by space and time are completely consistent with their concepts. It seems that a specific concept is completely embodied in this thing, while the general concept is completely embodied in this specific concept. This view of things is an illusion because of an idea.

It will never be fully manifested in individual things; But there is truth under this illusion, because to some extent, the general concept is indeed embodied in the specific concept, and this uncertain concept is embodied in individual things to some extent. This idea that the concept is completely embodied in individual things and itself contains the illusion of truth is das Schone.

In the popular aesthetic system, the concept of beauty developed in this way. From this basic point of view, the following definitions are obtained: beauty is an idea in a limited form of expression; Beauty is an individual perceptual object regarded as the pure expression of ideas, so there is nothing in ideas that does not appear on this other object emotionally, and there is nothing in individual perceptual objects that is not the pure expression of ideas. In this respect, the individual object is called a das Bild.

In this way, beauty is the complete consistency of ideas and images.

Needless to say, this basic concept [Hegel's definition of beauty] has now been recognized as unable to stand criticism; I don't need to say that since beauty [in Hegel's place] is only an "illusion" caused by the lack of insight in the views that have not been clarified by philosophical thoughts, with philosophical thoughts, the seemingly obvious appearance of ideas on individual objects will disappear completely, and the higher the development of ideas, the more beauty will disappear until we reach the highest point of ideological development, leaving only truth and no beauty at all; I don't want to overthrow this with facts: reality.

The development of the master's thought does not destroy his aesthetic feeling; These are all repeated. As a result of [the basic concept of Hegel's system] and a part of the metaphysical system, the above-mentioned concept of beauty collapsed with that system. But a system may be fallacious, and some ideas contained in it, independently, may be [correct] and can be proved to be justified. Therefore, it is necessary to point out that [Hegel's definition of beauty] can't stand criticism even if it is divorced from [his metaphysics has now collapsed].

"If a thing can fully express its concept, it is beautiful,"-translated into Mandarin, that is, "anything unique among its kind is beautiful." It is true that a thing must be outstanding to be beautiful. For example, a forest may be beautiful, but it must be a "good" forest with tall and dense trees. In a word, an excellent forest, full of broken branches and trunks and withered trees, is not beautiful. Roses are beautiful; But only "good",

When a rose is fresh and gorgeous and its petals are in full bloom, it is beautiful. In a word, everything beautiful is outstanding.

But not everything is beautiful; A vole may be an excellent specimen of a vole, but it will never be "beautiful"; For most amphibians, many fish and even many birds, it can be said that the better this kind of animal is for natural scientists, that is, the more complete its concept, the uglier it is from an aesthetic point of view. The better the swamp is among its kind, the uglier it is aesthetically. Not everything is beautiful; Because not everything is beautiful. The definition of beauty [Hegel's] is too vague, thinking that beauty is the complete coincidence of individual things and their concepts. It can only show that among the things and phenomena that can achieve beauty, only the best things and phenomena look beautiful; But there is no explanation why there are two categories of things and phenomena, one is beautiful, and the other is not beautiful at all in our view.

At the same time, this definition is too narrow "Anything that fully embodies that concept is beautiful", which means: "Beautiful things must include all the good things in the same kind; Anything good that can be found in similar things is not included in good things. " In some natural fields, there are no forms of the same thing. For the beautiful things and phenomena in these fields, we really demand this. For example, an oak tree can only have one beautiful nature: it must be dry and leafy; These characteristics are always presented on the beautiful oak tree, and there are no other good things on other oak trees. However, in animals, once tamed, there are various typical examples in the same species. In people, the typical diversity of this kind of beauty is more obvious, and it is hard for us to imagine that all the colors of human beauty are condensed in one person.

"The so-called beauty is the complete embodiment of ideas in individual things", which can never be used as the definition of beauty.

But it also contains some correctness-that is, "beauty" lies in individual and living things, not in abstract thoughts; This also contains another correct meaning for the characteristics of real works of art: the content of works of art is always of interest not only to artists, but also to ordinary people (this meaning means that ideas are "general things that work whenever and wherever"); This is because we will talk about it later.

Another statement, which is often considered to be consistent with the above statement, actually has a completely different meaning: "Beauty is the consistency of ideas and images, and the complete integration of ideas and images." This statement does reveal a fundamental feature-however, it is not a feature of the general concept of beauty, but a feature of the so-called "exquisite works", that is, the concept of beauty in artistic works: only when an artist conveys everything he wants to convey in his works can his artistic works be truly beautiful. Of course. A painter's portrait is good only if he describes the person he wants to describe completely.

Yes But "painting a beautiful face" and "painting a beautiful face" are completely different.

When we define the essence of art, we have to talk about the characteristics of works of art. Here, I think it is necessary to point out that beauty is the definition of the consistency of concept and image. It pays attention not to the living natural beauty, but to the artistic price of beauty. This definition already contains the bud or result of the aesthetic tendency that usually regards artistic beauty better than the beauty in real life.

So what is the beauty in fact, if it can't be defined as the consistency of ideas and images or the complete embodiment of ideas in individual things?

Building a new one is not as easy as destroying an old one, and defense is more difficult than attack; Therefore, I think that the correct view on the essence of beauty may not satisfy everyone; However, if the concept of beauty I have expounded-which comes from the current mainstream view on the relationship between human thought and life reality-is still lacking. If it is biased or unreliable, I hope it is not the shortcomings of the concept itself, but the method I elaborated is improper.

The feeling that beautiful things arouse in people's hearts is similar to the kind of pleasure that permeates our hearts in front of the people we love [note] We love beauty selflessly. We appreciate it and like it, just as we like our dear people.

Therefore, beauty contains lovely and precious things in our hearts. But this "thing" must be all-encompassing, can take the most diverse forms, and is the most general thing; Because only the most diverse objects, things that are not similar to each other, will we feel beautiful.

[Note] "New viewpoint" refers to humanistic materialism.

Of all the things that people find lovely, the most common one is that he thinks life is the most lovely thing in the world; The first is the kind of life he thought and liked; Followed by any kind of life, because living is better than not living:

But all living things are born afraid of death. Fear does not exist, but they love life. So, such a definition:

"Beauty is life"; "Everything we see in it, according to our understanding, is regarded as such a life, that is beauty; Anything that shows life or reminds us of life is beautiful. "

This definition seems to satisfactorily explain all the cases that evoke good feelings in our hearts. In order to prove this point, let's discuss that beauty is mainly manifested in various fields of reality.

In the eyes of ordinary people, "living well" and "living like this" means eating well, living well and getting enough sleep; But among farmers, the concept of "life" always contains the concept of labor: it is impossible to live without labor and it is also boring. Because of hard work but not fatigue, young farmers or farm girls have very fresh and rosy faces-this is the first condition of beauty according to the average person's understanding. Eat well and work hard, so farm girls are strong-

This is also a necessary condition for rural beauty. A "fragile" upper-class beauty must be "unattractive" in the eyes of rural people, and even give him an unpleasant impression, because he always thinks that "emaciation" is either the result of illness or bad karma.

But labor does not make people fat: if a peasant girl is fat, it is a disease and a manifestation of "weakness" in constitution, and people think that obesity is a shortcoming; Rural beauty can't have slender hands and feet because of hard work, which is not sung in our folk songs. In short, there is no description of beauty in folk songs that does not show the beauty characteristics of exuberant health and balanced physique, which is always the result of rich life and frequent, serious but not excessive labor. The beauty in the upper class is completely different: her ancestors can live without working with their hands; Because life is idle, blood rarely flows to limbs; The muscles of hands and feet are weaker than those of a generation, and the bones are getting smaller and smaller; And its inevitable result is slender hands and feet-the only life that the upper class thinks is worth living, that is, the sign of life without manual labor; If an upper-class woman is extravagant, it is either a sign that she is not good-looking, or that she is not from a noble family. By the same token, upper-class beauties must have small ears. As we all know, migraine is an interesting disease, and it is not without reason: because there is nothing.

Things, blood stays in the central organ and flows to the brain; Due to general weakness, the nervous system is easily stimulated; The inevitable result of all this is frequent headaches and various neurological diseases; What can I do?

Even disease has become an interesting and enviable thing, because it is the result of our favorite lifestyle. Yes, health will never lose its value in people's hearts, because if it is not healthy, it will be rich and expensive, poor and extravagant, and life will be unsatisfactory, so the rosy face and full spirit are still attractive to people in the upper class; But morbid; Weakness, fatigue and carelessness also have good values in their minds, as long as they are the result of luxury and idle life. Pale, tired, sick, and other upper-class people.

Significance: Farmers seek rest and quietness, while educated upper-class people, unaware of material shortage and physical fatigue, are often bored because of doing nothing and seeking "strong feelings, excitement and enthusiasm", which can give them color, diversity and strength in their original monotonous upper-class life. But strong feelings and fiery enthusiasm will soon make people haggard. How can he not be confused by the beauty's exhaustion and pallor, because it is a sign that she has "experienced a lot"?

Lovely is the bright face,

A symbol of youth;

But pale face, melancholy symptoms,

But cuter.

If the praise of pale and morbid beauty is a manifestation of vanity and decadent taste, then every truly educated person feels that real life is the life of mind and soul. This kind of life is imprinted on facial expressions, especially on the eyes, so facial expressions rarely sung in folk songs are of great significance in the popular concept of beauty among educated people; Often a person is beautiful to us just because he has a pair of beautiful and expressive eyes.

I tried my best to explore the main attributes of human beauty. In my opinion, all those attributes only give us an impression of beauty, because we see what life is like as we know it.

Cobb's feelings may strengthen the sense of sublimity, but terror and sublimity are two completely different concepts. But let's look at the majestic phenomenon order. We have never seen anything infinite in nature.

In order to oppose this conclusion, people may say: "the truly noble thing is not in nature, but in man himself;" We agree with this, although there are many really noble things in nature. But why is "infinite" love or "destructive" anger "noble" to us? Is it because the power of these emotions is "uncontrollable" and this uncontrollable nature evokes the concept of "infinity"? If so, then go to sleep.

The demand is even more irresistible, and it is difficult for the most enthusiastic lovers to stay up for four days and four nights; More irresistible than the requirement of "love" is the requirement of diet. "This is a truly infinite demand, because no one can deny its power, and many people don't understand love at all. Many more arduous undertakings are completed because of this requirement, not because of "all-round" love. Then, why is the desire to eat not noble, but the concept of love noble? Visible, unconquerable is not noble; Infinity and infinity have nothing to do with grand thoughts.

Niagara Falls: A waterfall in North America.

[Note] Kazbek Mountain; In the Caucasus.