Beauty

Why is it that people, including new borns, have a sense of beauty? Infants relax when hearing harmonious music. Adults can be captured in an emotional rapture by great music. Infants respond beautifully when looking at a warm and smiling face – a truly beautiful thing. Visual beauty is recognized by all: consider the works of art that have stood the test of time and changing social environments. Mathematical structures, theories and algorithms have a simple and logical beauty that can be recognized by all. The scientific laws as discovered by Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, and others have a logical truth and beauty. And let’s not leave out the signaling of olfactory and tactile beauty: it “smells” good, it “feels” good.

 But why is this recognition of beauty universal? Are we born with it or do we learn it? Certainly, Eastern art and tastes differ from that of the West. But the difference lies in the manipulation of common elements which include proportion and symmetry. We all sense discordant notes, bad art, rotten and smelly food and rough surfaces. I believe that we are all hard wired to recognize and appreciate beauty in terms of proportion and symmetry.

 Why should this be so? Beauty serves no utilitarian purpose. Beauty doesn’t help us change a tire, vacuum the rug, or write a computer program. The results of our utilitarian efforts can result in a recognizable thing of beauty, but beauty doesn’t necessarily guide our hand or our brain. Many times beauty results as the product of our efforts. Did evolution give us this recognition of beauty? I think not. I assume that humans in the far distant past did recognize the beauty in a sunset, the awesome display of the moon and stars in a cloudless night, and the melodious humming or chanting of the human voice. I am left with a possible answer: God infused His creation with beauty to reflect and draw us to His magnificence, grace, and beauty.