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Beauty=Truth in World History
(Dear Usegroup members, I was wondering if you could possibly look
over this brief outline for a research paper. Please email me you
comments. Thank you very much).
Nathan Everett
New Bedford, MA
Beauty is Truth
Thesis Statement: The appreciation of beauty is
synonymous with the search for truth in many
cultures in world history.
Beauty - Beauty is defined by Webster's Dictionary as "the
quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or
thing that gives pleasure to the senses or
pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit" (Webster,
97), but we know it on a more personal and
intimate level by many other definitions. Beauty
is a harmony that is perceivable by the senses in
objects or persons, such as a beautiful sunrise,
binding the night to the day. It is the object and/or
catalyst of love and all emotional and creative
responses connected to it, such as the beauty which
inspires artists to paint, musicians to compose,
priests to pray, and lovers to marry. And finally, it
is the relationship (inquiry) between human
nature and the natural world that gives meaning
to the variety of human experience, such as the
beauty of life and death and all their grand
mysteries.
Truth - Fundamental concepts of human nature rely on
truth to "level the playing field" for philosophical
speculation. Truth is the ability to recognize order
out of chaos, which is to recognize reality. It is
defined by Webster's Dictionary as a "transcendent
fundamental or spiritual reality" or in another
application, it is the ability "to sense the innate
state of being of an object or event". (Webster,
1246) Truth is also, finally, the most "appropriate"
result of human inquiry. All knowledge must be
fundamentally based on Truth.
The Synthesis of Beauty and Truth - Beauty, in order to
delight the senses and thoughts of an individual
must be known. In the process of anchoring
knowledge to perception, the search for truth
becomes an essential characteristic. Therefore, the
appreciation of beauty is also the search for truth,
not merely in objects which our senses perceive but
in the totality of being which is the essence of
existence.
