“Truth is beauty, and beauty, truth” —John Keats

I’ve been on a kick lately trying to understand what informs the concept of “taste.” When we say someone “has good taste,” what do we mean?

I’ll have more to say on taste later. But this thread of curiosity led me to reading on aesthetics and what constitutes beauty. Sir Roger Scruton’s Beauty is a great introduction to the subject, one I just finished earler this week.

In this short lecture, poet laureate Dana Gioia investigates the subject.

Is “beauty” a physical characteristic? Does it just mean something that “looks nice”? Something deeper is going on here that’s worth exploring.

Experiencing beauty happens in 4 stages:

• The arresting of attention
• The thrill of pleasure
• A heightened perception of the shape or meaning of things
• The moment vanishes

Initially we’re attracted to an unstateable something about the beautiful. The work of art, the pleasant mountain valley, the few lines from CS Lewis that get stuck in our brains. Then comes the pleasurable sensation; we want to stay in that place and absorb it. We notice something about the beautiful thing that seems to connect to a richer underlying reality — as when a mathematical fractal resembles the braided river or the veins in our bodies. Then before we can capture it the moment disappears, leaving us wanting to find it once again.

He also discusses the tension between beauty and practicality, suggesting that beauty has the power to transform and inspire, fulfilling a deep human longing.