Single Idea 6607

[catalogued under 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 4. Beauty]

Full Idea

Like the word 'good', the word 'beautiful', when deprived of contextual support, is nearly contentless.

Gist of Idea

The word 'beautiful', when deprived of context, is nearly contentless

Source

Robert Fogelin (Walking the Tightrope of Reason [2003], Ch.6)

Book Reference

Fogelin,Robert: 'Walking the Tightrope of Reason' [OUP 2004], p.153


A Reaction

If I say with, for example, Oscar Wilde that beauty is the highest ideal in life, this doesn't strike me as contentless, but I still sympathise with Fogelin's notion that beauty is rooted in particulars.