Yes, I think this gets it pretty much right, in an area where absolute rightness is probably not to be had. One can even find a kind of beauty in 'the perfect murder' if it's carried out with sufficient ingenuity and flair. Agatha Christie made a living out of it.
I'd love to be able to pin down a bit further the extent of "some degree" in your "What is aesthetically beautiful is also to some degree culturally determined". I believe there's some evidence that aesthetics has at least in part a biological/evolutionary component, inasmuch as sexual selection teaches us to find beauty in symmetrical people who are also the most likely to be healthy breeders - and the way in which the Golden Section (by way of the Fibonacci series) turn up in many natural contexts, for example the branching of veins and branches. So, to some extent, aesthetics may be hard-wired - and this could account for some of the response to the elegant proportions of the pyramids, too. At the same time, ideally I'd like to have an integrated response that involves the whole of my being, rather than some parts of my mind being offended, while other parts are going "Cool!"
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Re: whoops!
Date: 2009-07-14 11:58 am (UTC)I'd love to be able to pin down a bit further the extent of "some degree" in your "What is aesthetically beautiful is also to some degree culturally determined". I believe there's some evidence that aesthetics has at least in part a biological/evolutionary component, inasmuch as sexual selection teaches us to find beauty in symmetrical people who are also the most likely to be healthy breeders - and the way in which the Golden Section (by way of the Fibonacci series) turn up in many natural contexts, for example the branching of veins and branches. So, to some extent, aesthetics may be hard-wired - and this could account for some of the response to the elegant proportions of the pyramids, too. At the same time, ideally I'd like to have an integrated response that involves the whole of my being, rather than some parts of my mind being offended, while other parts are going "Cool!"