Often, when I write or talk about beauty, someone counters by talking about   
   “inner beauty.” They appear to be of the impression that the two are   
   somehow incompatible with each other. I do not see why there should be any   
   kind of relationship –    
   positive or negative – between being physically attractive and being a good   
   person. Some people will be both; some people will be one or the other; and   
   some people will be neither. We are dealing with two completely different   
   things, and I see no    
   reason why they would have any kind of relationship to one another at all.   
      
   Then there is the saying “beauty is only skin-deep, ugliness goes down to   
   the bone.” That also is completely wrong. I was ugly in school, but I am not   
   ugly now. The reason is not improved self-esteem or anything of the sort; the   
   reason is that I do    
   lots of exercise. My ugliness problem was solved through an improved   
   lifestyle, which could not have been done if ugliness went to the bone.   
   Whereas there are any number of people I know who are beautiful all the way   
   through and have been for as long as    
   I knew them.   
      
   We also see claims such as that outer beauty is relative and inner beauty is   
   universal. This likewise is wrong. While most people would agree that Stalin   
   was a bad person and that Mother Theresa was a good person, in most cases it   
   is not nearly as clear-   
   cut. Some people think that Reagan was a man of great character, and others   
   think that Reagan was a jerk. “Inner beauty” can be just as relative as   
   anything else.   
      
   The real question to ask is relative – to what? On matters of personal   
   goodness, it appears to be a matter of values. If you are a conservative you   
   will like Reagan; if you are a liberal you will not.   
      
   This leads me into uncharted territory. What is the basis of taste? It has   
   been fashionable since the times of the Roman Empire to state that “de   
   gustibus non disputandum est” (“there is no dispute on taste”). Where do   
   people's tastes come from?    
   Why are the tastes of many so different? What is the root of taste? Is there   
   any logic to it, and if there is such a logic, what is it?   
      
   For a long time, emotions were dismissed as being illogical. However anyone   
   familiar with psychology knows that there very much is logic to emotions, even   
   if it is not linear logic. Ayn Rand, who rejected psychology, also said that   
   there is a rationality    
   to emotions. All things have one or another kind of logic. The same should be   
   the case with taste.   
      
   Most people will agree that Sistine Chapel is beautiful, and that Piss Christ   
   isn't. Some things are universal, and some things are relative. Judith   
   Langlois conducted a study that showed a face with a particular set of   
   proportions to people cross-   
   culturally, and everyone found it beautiful. At the same time a study that   
   showed 500 faces to 20,000 participants saw each face getting picked as the   
   most beautiful at least once. There is absolute beauty and there is relative   
   beauty. The same, as I    
   have argued above, is the case for personal goodness, or “inner beauty.”   
      
   So that while absolute beauty will appeal to everyone, relative beauty will   
   appeal to some and not others. We also see the same with “inner beauty.”   
   Both can be relative, and both can be absolute.   
      
   Both inner beauty and outer beauty are good things, but ones that are totally   
   unrelated. They do not correlate positively, and they do not correlate   
   negatively. Some people will have both; some will have one or the other; and   
   some will have neither. As    
   for taste, it should have as much reasons for it as anything else. The real   
   task at hand is finding out what is the root of taste.   
      
   https://sites.google.com/site/ilyashambatthought   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)