I think things become even more beautiful when you understand what they are and what they do, because then you won't only see the surface, but the deeper layers of it as well. Without science, we wouldn't see the beauty that goes on underneath that surface.
^^^^ so true!
Absolutely. I love watching waves, and some years ago I came across a mathematical equation that described the motion of a wave....it definitely enriched my appreciation, understanding better the physics of how the water moved.Originally Posted by Thrudr
Arts and Crafts
When the scope of impact is proportional to the simplicity of the design: elegance.
Therein lies the essence of craft. But art, the essence of art is born of vague intuitions
and deep yearnings. Often triggered by some subtle incongruity too nuanced to articulate,
some facade so common and well-worn that it covers over the truth like a warm
and comforting blanket.
The artist though, uniquely sees what is so readily overlooked, suspects a truth lie hidden
beneath and labors to reveal it. Even when peeling back that old blanket leaves one exposed,
feeling cold and naked,
the truth is served and it is beautiful.
Designing elegant experiments is the craft of science.
Revealing truth is the work of artists, whatever the medium.
Of course, many artists primarily seek to 'reveal' lies. Propaganda posters have to be drawn by someone, alongside certain political cartoons... But in any case, science is an art in and of itself, and science is beautiful, so the only way it could reduce appreciation of beauty is through an overabundance of it
A lie revealed affords a measure of truth.
Truthiness.
I more meant in the sense that said artists primarily seek to show things that aren't true, and portray them as being true. Including in areas such as, you guessed it, propaganda.
Since beauty is subjective, this cannot possibly be answered. But lets pretend for a minute that beauty is a quantifiable asset. I think beauty is only reduced by science of your appreciation of it is based more on wonder than what it actually has to offer. When it comes to the natural world, beauty appears to be largely made up of wonder for a lot of people. It is the same wonder that causes attraction to a person when you are intrigued by them. I think if you are prone to see beauty in the natural world with questions that require inquisition rather than ignorance, beauty is more likely to grow.
I'm not one to ever pray for mercy
Or to wish on pennies in the fountain or the shrine
But that day you know I left my money
And I thought of you only
All that copper glowing fine
Suppose Truth and Beauty are but two qualities of a multifaceted, ultimately unified thing, an unimaginably comprehensive ultimately unified thing. Call it Life, Nature, Spirit, or some such thing. The two qualities might be understood this way: the experience of beauty is a momentary perception of truth. That's how we might equate a great painter with a great scientist, by their shared capacity to bring others to a momentary perception of truth.
You have something of the Fluency Hypothesis in philosophical Aesthetics captured there. The hypothesis posits that the degree to which a person experiences beauty when confronted with a truth is a function of how fluent the person is in the terms of the presentation. Most everyone with normal vision is well-versed in the terms in which an unusually colorful sunset presents. We learn those terms implicitly, by living life with normal vision, by the influence of cultural and personal experience, etc. Seeing the beauty in a mathematical equation requires more effortful learning, but at the underlying processes are assumed to be equivalent.
Truth, beauty, eye of the beholder.
Truth is not always beautiful.
“You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written letters to no-one. But what if I find a trident tomorrow?" ~~Letters to Poseidon, Cees Nooteboom
“We still carry this primal relationship to the Earth within our consciousness, even if we have long forgotten it. It is a primal recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine nature of the Earth. It is a felt reverence for all that exists. Once we bring this foundational quality into our consciousness, we will be able to respond to our present man-made crisis from a place of balance, in which our actions will be grounded in an attitude of respect for all of life. This is the nature of real sustainability.”
~~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
"We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes--one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximal freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way."
~~Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
"Humans are not rational creatures. Now, logic and rationality are very helpful tools, but there’s also a place for embracing our subjectivity and thinking symbolically. Sometimes what our so-called higher thinking can’t or won’t see, our older, more primitive intuition will." John Beckett
Pagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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