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Originally Posted by Michael Chui  Falling within a region doesn't imply degrees at all. (It doesn't say anything about degrees.)
Consider your classic Venn Diagram. Does the presence of regions imply degrees? |
Not in a Venn diagram, no, but a Venn diagram doesn't have axes which imply scale.
But that's ok, I misinterpreted.
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Originally Posted by Michael Chui I cannot take two people, put them side by side, and say, "You're more beautiful." I can't compare two paintings like that, or any other artwork.
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As I said, that feels too isolating. It's as if you're going down a checklist and saying, "Got dimples? Check. Got blue eyes? Check. Got blonde hair? Check." And from that concluding, "Yep. Score is above 60. That's in the beautiful range." You've separated everything out such that you aren't expecting the holistic entirety anymore anyways. It's not the person that's beautiful; it's their dimples, or lack thereof. |
But I still do perceive the holistic beauty. Or more accurately, I
feel it. And the conscious process is the opposite of what you've stated. Awareness of the feeling comes first, and then if I want to, an analysis of what causes the feeling can take place. So it's a matter of feeling that something is beautiful, and then trying to determine why. What makes it so?
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Originally Posted by Michael Chui Did you honestly have a picture of the sunrise in mind just before you saw it? |
No, but I did know what it would look like. Not an exact picture, but still an expectation.
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Originally Posted by Michael Chui Hrm, but that's not how he meant it, as I thought I'd conveyed. Like the sunrises, both women were very beautiful. Different, true, and beautiful for different reasons, but that did not diminish either for it. By responding with the question, "How do you compare two sunrises?", he was saying that a sunrise is as beautiful as another sunrise. They aren't the same, but that takes nothing away from either. |
Sorry, I guess I was being a little pedantic
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Originally Posted by Michael Chui Does beauty depend on narrative? |
My immediate answer is no, but I'm not sure why, or that I even understand what you mean by narrative. Do we tell ourselves a story (including a story told purely in emotions) when we perceive something beautiful? Or do we perceive something as beautiful because something similar has featured prominently and positively in stories we've heard again and again?
In the latter case it definitely plays a very strong part. If someone tells an emotional tale of the beautiful lakeside cabin they stayed at during summer, nestled at the base of snow-capped mountains, then we're likely to find a similar location quite beautiful. But would we find it beautiful if no-one had ever said it is beautiful? I honestly don't know.
I'll stop there because I don't know if I'm going anywhere near where you were headed