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Single Idea 18555

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

Full Idea

The beautiful is that from which nothing can be taken away and to which nothing can be added but for the worse.

Gist of Idea

The beautiful is that from which nothing can be subtracted and to which nothing can be added

Source

Leon Battista Alberti (De Re Aedificatoria [1485]), quoted by Roger Scruton - Beauty: a very short introduction 9

Book Ref

Scruton,Roger: 'Beauty: A Very Short Introduction' [OUP 2011], p.162


A Reaction

Scruton rejects this Platonic tradition of beauty as organic wholeness, because you can't say how it would be 'worse' without invoking beauty, which makes it circular. Scruton appears to be correct.