Aesthetics: Between universal law and the beholder's eye

Source: Beauty dependent on circumstances: the complexity of the aesthetic experience

Though the general rules of art are founded only on experience and on the observation of the common sentiments of human nature, we must not imagine, that, on every occasion, the feelings of men will be conformable to these rules. Those finer emotions of the mind are of a very tender and delicate nature, and require the concurrence of many favourable circumstances to make them play with facility and exactness... When we would make an experiment of this nature, and would try the force of any beauty or deformity, we must choose with care a proper time and place, and bring the fancy to a suitable situation and disposition. A perfect serenity of mind, a recollection of thought, a due attention to the object; if any of these circumstances be wanting, our experiment will be fallacious... The relation, which nature has placed between the form and the sentiment, will at least be more obscure; and it will require greater accuracy to trace and discern it.

(David Hume, *Of the Standard of Taste*, Hakibbutz Hameuchad 1984, p. 14)

Explanation: Why beauty cannot be measured in equations

Any attempt to reduce beauty to mathematical rules is futile, primarily because emotion plays such a major role in aesthetic judgment. The time—evening or morning, noon or night; the place—indoors or outside, mountain or valley—all affect our sense of beauty. Frame of mind—sadness or joy, impatience or serenity of mind; attention—distraction or focus; noise (visual or auditory) or quiet—will completely alter any aesthetic experience.

Perspective: From the Greek golden ratio to Kant's philosophy

From the days of Euclid, the father of geometry—a 4th–3rd-century BCE Greek who lived in Alexandria—down to our own day, a debate has raged over the meaning of beauty. The Greeks calculated beauty according to mathematical standards, with the "golden ratio" (1.618) embodying beauty through proper proportions. God, in their view, is beautiful, and whatever is beautiful is divine. In the modern era, beauty became an autonomous faculty, disconnected from science or theology. Beauty is bound up with the senses and moral concepts; thus, the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant argued that the broader the social consensus regarding the beauty of various objects, the more that beauty can be called objective (Critique of Judgment, 1790).

Going Deeper: Beauty in the eye of the beholder: the science of optics and subjectivity

An English scientist named Charles Wheatstone (1838) coined the famous phrase: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Wheatstone did not mean that emotion makes beauty subjective, but rather the physical structure of the eye. A person with strabismus (a squint), impaired depth perception, or a dominant eye will see different things in a painting, making these objective physiological factors that generate subjectivity. Some researchers claim that great painters suffered from visual impairments that uniquely enabled them to paint so wonderfully. (The website Mada Gadol, Baktana [Big Science, Little Details]—"Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder").

Culture: The IDF beard controversy: beauty, uniformity, and identity

In 2015, a dispute erupted between the IDF Personnel Directorate and many soldiers. The military decided that beards would be prohibited in the army except for strictly exceptional medical or religious reasons. Many soldiers and their parents objected and protested, even petitioning the High Court of Justice, which upheld the military's decision. A man's beard is considered handsome, conveying a sense of maturity, responsibility, and strength, and women are often drawn to bearded men. A beard distinguishes an individual and reinforces a sense of strong character, which is why many militaries seeking uniformity ban growing a beard, treating it as if it were a decorative accessory. Finally, in 2025, the ban was lifted entirely, along with restrictions on nail polish for female soldiers.