Friday, August 22, 2008

ὡραῖος [Beauty]

Beauty originally meant ready, finished, complete, ripe. This would be an appropriate description of a woman. What would be an appropriate description for all of the other things we term beautiful? Exceptional or extraordinary seem good words. There is a very fine distinction between the two words. Extraordinary can best be defined as not ordinary. Exceptional can be best defined as a degree of magnitude that would fall some distance from one side or the other of two tipping point that would mark a typical instance or state. This leaves room for addressing ugly as well as beautiful. Finally, instances or states can be rank ordered and quantified which is normally done anyway .There is probably a psychological study that has tested this premise. If not, it would not be difficult to construct a valid study. Who is uglier?

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