What is Beauty?
Setup
Is a thing of beauty, as Keats wrote, “a joy forever?” Or is it, as in the view of Camus, “unbearable”? The precise nature of beauty and how to understand its role in our lives may prove elusive to most of us, but it is the everyday work of philosophers. Is beauty skin deep? Is it socially and culturally determined and, if so, what are the implications? What power does it hold over us? What is the relationship between beauty and art? This session will feature philosophers engaging in age-old debates about the meaning of beauty and how we might understand its force in our world.
- 2022 Festival
- Society
Explore More
Society
From the Supreme Court's ruling on abortion rights to public health's role in addressing gun violence to the devastating human toll of the war in Ukraine, this year's Aspen Id...
The nature of beauty, and whether it’s objective or subjective, is the subject of timeless philosophical debate. Do perceptions of beauty vary culturally and generationally, o...
For people with post-traumatic stress disorder, therapy assisted by the drug MDMA may provide lasting relief, with a new way of seeing their trauma and themselves. Rachel Yehu...
The highest court often seems distanced from our day-to-day lives, but the rulings that come out of the Supreme Court are woven into the fabric of the nation. Though it aims t...
Gen-Z for Change's Aidan Kohn-Murphy on youth-led movements, his advice for young activists, and why it's impossible to lose hope.
On a weekly basis, 32 million Americans spend 2 hours at one of 30,000 laundromats across the country. What if that time and space could be used to meet people where they are...
Jessica Cruel, Editor-in-Chief of Allure, discusses why certain beauty buzzwords are banned from the magazine, reflects on the evolution of the industry, and shares her vision...
