humanities.philosophy.objectivism

Is beauty intrinsic? No.

Beauty, unlike physical properties of things, electromagnetic waves,
gravity, etc is not an objective reality, i.e. it does not exist
outside of our mind and consciousness.Therefore, it's neither a
substance floating in the skies and getting attached to things,
thereby reveling itself to us, nor is it and intrinsic property of
things that emanates from them on a certain wave length and renders
them beautiful for us at all times and under any conditions. If that
was the case, we would all regard Sears Tower in Chicago as a
beautiful building (I, actually, do :o)). Fortunately/unfortunately,
we don't. I know lots of people who regard it as an ugly trapezoid
box...

So, then is beauty subjective? No.

The popular saying "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" does not say
anything about beauty being subjective. Just because we all often feel
differently about beauty of certain things does not prove that beauty
is subjective, either. Yes, it is personal, but not subjective in the
philosophical sense. If it was subjective, that would mean that
perception of beauty in its degrees, as well as perception of ugliness
in its degrees, is solely a product of your personal consciousness and
has nothing to do with a given object. In that case, we would have no
common esthetical notions of beauty that we do undeniably have. In
that case fashions would not exist, and artistic performances wouldn't
gather any crowds. Art, as such, wouldn't exist.
Would you be able to perceive beauty if you grew up devoid of your
senses (vision, hearing, touch)? No.

So, is beauty objective, then? Oh, yes!

While sense of beauty IS a product of our consciousness, it is not
formed independent of the reality of objects, our culture, ambiance,
other people's influence. We look at an object, listen to music, etc
and perceive certain harmonies in it that we feel are beautiful or
not. The perception is formed by the factors that I've mentioned
above. They form a relationship between your mind and the object -- an
objective relationship. In the absence of these factors (let's say you
grew up in a wolf pack) your sense of beauty cannot be formed.

skysi

P.S. Feel free to bust this :o)