Single Idea 5928

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

Full Idea

In order to avoid the difficulties that beset both a purely objective and a purely subjective view of beauty, I find myself driven to one which identifies beauty with the power of producing a certain sort of experience in minds.

Gist of Idea

Beauty is neither objective nor subjective, but a power of producing certain mental events

Source

W. David Ross (The Right and the Good [1930], §IV)

Book Reference

Ross,W.David: 'The Right and the Good' [OUP 1930], p.127


A Reaction

This makes beauty a relational quality, rather than an intrinsic one. Ross's theory won't avoid the many usual problems about relativism. Do we define colour similarly, as a power in objects to produce certain sensations?