The Morality of Beauty: How Aesthetics Shape Our World

The Aesthetic Criteria of Morality

I read some words recently as I went through my day, and I have no idea where they are from. They go like this: “If you crush a cockroach, you’re a hero. If you crush a beautiful butterfly, you’re a villain. Morals have aesthetic criteria.” This quote, attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche, struck me unexpectedly and led me down a path of deep reflection. Nietzsche, a philosopher known for challenging the traditional notions of morality, suggests that appearances often sway our moral judgments—what’s pleasing to the eye is deemed ‘good,’ and what isn’t, ‘bad.’ As someone who’s only scratched the surface of Nietzsche’s extensive work, I find this idea resonates with me more than I expected.

The Influence of Beauty in Personal and Professional Life

These words made me think about many different scenarios in my life when the standard of beauty dictated things. We all know someone who has great success in their field because people placed trust in them based on what they looked like, similar to the concept of love at first sight. I’m not saying that love isn’t real, just that most people don’t understand what love truly is, but let’s save that thought for another time.

Historical Consequences of Beauty

Wars were waged because of beauty. Helen of Troy was beautiful, and that beauty was the spark that caused the fall of Troy. But when you think about it, wearing a good suit and being clean enhances the beautiful characteristics you have. I have a beard, and if I don’t trim it from time to time, I hardly think about it, but I get treated differently when I trim it.

Beauty’s Role in Family and Society

We love the clean, the beautiful. We build families, and the first trigger is beauty. Each of us makes decisions based on what we consider beautiful, and beauty is subjective and in the eye of the beholder. But also, beauty is what society and culture dictate; what is considered beautiful today was not considered so a hundred years ago.

The Subjectivity and Tolerance of Beauty

But it’s not the word “beautiful” that we are after; it’s what is easy on the eyes and ears, what we consider proper and organized. Everyone has a limit or preference for what level is tolerated, and toleration is also based on what you allow yourself to tolerate, but that’s a subject in itself—what humans tolerate.

Beauty as a Moral Compass

But isn’t beauty, and what is considered beautiful, a human construct? We go through life using beauty as a gauge of tolerance. We say what is beautiful is good and what is vile is evil. By separating the two and making a mental note in our minds, we then go on to place justice, good behavior, and kindness into the same category as positive; abusive, unjust, and bad behavior as negative; and we go through life adding more into those categories so often that we start to do it without thinking.

The Illusion of Normality and Justice

Using one of my favorite quotes from The Addams Family, “Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly,” we are affected by everything around us to decide what is beautiful and decide what is our justice based on that. This quote beautifully encapsulates the subjectivity of our perceptions. So, doesn’t that mean that most complex reasons have a superficial origin, and a superficial reason has a complex one?

Redefining Beauty Through Understanding

As I am writing this, I am writing and thinking, so I fear that I might sound repetitive and ignorant, but can a cockroach be beautiful if I understand more about it and learn more about its behavior, how fascinating its ecosystem is, and how strong and good at surviving it can be? Can’t that make it considered beautiful? For example, we see butterflies from afar and we see colors and beauty, but if you go close to them, you will see an insect. Can’t we start to hate it if we learn more about it?

Beauty, Cleanliness, and Survival

So, what is beauty, where did it come from, and why does it dictate our lives? Is beauty linked to cleanliness and the realization that we as humans figured out that beauty equals clean and that clean usually is safe, while the opposite is dirty and not safe? Does it come down to being safe and surviving? Is the idea of survival at the core of what we consider to be beautiful, and did it change through the years based on our environment and what we thought would make us survive in society?

Beauty as a Cultural Survival Mechanism

I have no idea why I reached here, but isn’t what we consider beautiful just another survival mechanism that society and culture enforced and changed through the years? I think I need to think more about this, but for now, survival is the standard of beauty, and beauty is the standard of morality.

The Broader Implications of Beauty on Ethics

As we navigate the complexities of life, it becomes evident that our notions of beauty do more than just please the eye—they forge our moral compass and define our societal norms. This exploration has led me from historical anecdotes to personal experiences, and through each, the enduring influence of beauty on our ethical standards is unmistakable. Perhaps it is time for us to broaden our perspectives, to question the ingrained standards that dictate what is beautiful and, by extension, what is good.

Challenging Conventional Views on Beauty

In doing so, we might find that beauty is not just about what is visually appealing but about understanding and appreciating the underlying qualities that truly enrich our lives. As we consider these ideas, let us challenge ourselves to see beyond the surface, recognizing that sometimes, true beauty lies in the strength and resilience of a cockroach just as much as in the delicate wings of a butterfly.

Future Explorations and Invitations for Discussion

I might turn this meditation into a deeper dive in the future by educating myself more on the subject. So, if there are any papers or books that delve deeply into these ideas, I would be happy to review them. If you’d like to discuss this further, please get in touch with me through my website here or join our discussion group on Skool here. Let’s have a chat!