THL1501
Assignment 2 Semester 1 2024
Detailed Solutions, References & Explanations
Unique number: 163577
Due Date: 16 April 2024
QUESTION 1 (2 ANSWERS PROVIDED)
Defining terms such as "beauty" and "aesthetics" has been a challenge throughout the
history of philosophy and continues to confound us today. Marcia Eaton’s book Basic Issues
in Aesthetics (1988) addresses the difficulties in defining these concepts and the
implications they have for our understanding of art and our aesthetic experiences.
Eaton begins by noting that the theories of beauty and art go back to the ancient Greeks,
with Socrates grappling with questions about beauty and art that continue to elude us today.
One of the primary challenges in defining beauty is the lack of agreement on what it actually
means. Eaton highlights this by presenting the example of people using the word "beautiful"
to describe different things, such as a film, a song, a sunset, or a car. The fact that
individuals use the term "beautiful" to describe such diverse objects suggests that there is
no universal understanding of beauty. This lack of agreement leads to the saying, "Beauty
is in the eye of the beholder," indicating that beauty is subjective and varies from person to
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