Beauty

Subjective (0) — Objective (100) · one of the 20 worldview axes

The six statements

Each axis is measured by six statements answered on a five-point scale. Statements 1, 2 and 5 pull toward Subjective; 3, 4 and 6 toward Objective.

  1. Beauty is not a real feature of things; it is a feeling in the person who perceives them.
  2. No one is factually wrong about which music, paintings, or poems are beautiful; it is all personal taste.
  3. Beauty is a real quality that belongs to things themselves, not merely a feeling in the observer.
  4. Someone who sincerely prefers a toddler's scribble to a masterwork has made a genuine aesthetic error.
  5. Beauty standards vary so widely across cultures and centuries that there is no universal standard to be found; only local traditions of taste.
  6. A concerto played in perfect proportion is not just pleasing to some listeners; it is genuinely, objectively beautiful.

Toward Subjective (7)

Between the poles (3)

Toward Objective (51)

339 thinkers have no sourced position on this axis and are omitted rather than guessed.

Find your own positionAll 20 axes