Justine Fernandez

Professor Young

Eng 1000

November 4, 2014

Darwins vision on beauty

            In the Ted talk featuring Denis Dutton they talk about how beauty is something that's constructed within us. That what we perceive as beautiful isn’t because of your culture or because of what society thinks is beautiful but what happened millions of years ago. We think everything in society is beautiful. We think people are beautiful, objects and scenery. But how did we come to that conclusion?

            Today we as a society believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We think that what is beautiful depends on the person that is looking at it and where they come from which includes their heritage and country.  Denis Dutton talks about how for example when you look at an pear shaped diamond and you think that it is beautiful It is in fact because at one point or another your ancestors thought that they shape of their tools were appealing and it just carried on to us today.  It is an instinct that has come naturally to us without us even knowing that is already programed into our thought process. Beauty Is constructed through the past and how we encounter the same situations now.

            In conclusion, beauty is something that can be a combination of both instinct and a quality that we adapt through society. Not only do we have natural instincts on what we think is beautiful but over the years we develop our own idea on what beautiful means to us.  Society shapes what beauty is and makes us go along with the ideas of beauty. While our culture and where we are from also has an effect on our vision on beauty. Beauty is ultimately in the eye of the beholder and how much you believe something is beautiful.