Full Idea
Beauty is rationally founded; it challenges us to find meaning in its object, to make critical comparisons, and to examine our own lives and emotions in the light of what we find.
Gist of Idea
Beauty is rationally founded, inviting meaning, comparison and self-reflection
Source
Roger Scruton (Beauty: a very short introduction [2011], 9)
Book Reference
Scruton,Roger: 'Beauty: A Very Short Introduction' [OUP 2011], p.163
A Reaction
This is the Kantian tradition, and I'm not finding it very persuasive. It seems to place the value of beauty in what we do with it afterwards, and he seems to make beauty a necessary stepping stone to virtue. I see beauty as more sui generis.