Is Beauty Truth? - Battle of Minds

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15 Comments Posted

Is Beauty Truth?
If something is beautiful, is it true? Is a beautiful symphony as true as a scientific fact?

	Chana Silberstein, educational psychologist: Human history is littered with examples of ideas that were thought beautiful in their time, and continued to have a following long after their inherent ugliness—and evil—was revealed.

	Michael Katzenelson, physicist: The Kabbala describes Beauty as the synthesis of opposites, and associates it with Truth. Our human faculties for beauty and truth map nicely to this.

	Tzvi Freeman, writer: Beauty is not a thing; it is an experience. Beauty is when the mind says, “There is symmetry here and I must find it!” Ugliness is when the mind takes one look and gives up.

	Nachshon Zohari, psychotherapist: The Kabbalah calls the world we live in the World of Falsehood. Why? Because in this world our five senses experience only the outer veneer of a deeper reality.

	Alexander Poltorak, physicist: Beauty is subjective. Why, then, is “beauty” the term used by scientists to describe abstract mathematical constructs?

	Yaakov Ort, editor, activist: To the Jewish Mind, if something can be perceived as holy, then it is by definition both beautiful and true. And if cannot be perceived as holy, than it can neither be beautiful, nor true.

	Aryeh Gotfryd, applied ecologist: Sometimes truth is ugly. Perhaps I should see the beauty within the ugliness, the truth within the lie. But guess what? I can’t.

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Latest Comments:

Posted: Oct 10, 2008

Beauty and Truth

In our world today we are constantly bombarded with the idea that beauty is the most important thing. Then we also think about how much we try for perfection and we wonder, is that truth? is that what we really want? When we look around at the world the G-D has created we see natural beauty surrounding us, and the truth behind it. I think if the world would pay more attention to beauty as it is created we would all be a little happier. People are beautiful not based off of what clothes they wear or anything. We shine our beauty through our actions. Mitzvas we do and our personalities, the light from our neshama that we share. If we all payed more attention to that and to the things that matter most, we all would be a but happier. So if we look at that, as beauty then yes, beauty could be truth.

Posted By Batya Rina, Post Falls, Id
via jewishspokane.com

Posted: Sep 9, 2008

is beauty truth

in short, one must ask what is truth? are we defining truth as something that has been proven either by science or courts etc. another way of defining truth is the idea of truth being what G-d defines as righteouss and good. another question to ask is "is beauty physical, spiritual, mental etc.

the answer to the question cannot be clear because we dont fully understand what is meant by TRUTH nor can we assume what beauty really is (physical, spiritual etc).

in short the question needs to be more clear.but if you want an answer that defies my very point, "physical beauty is in the eye of each person differently and it does not make anyone good or bad.physical beauty can affect how one acts for example it could make someone a jealous person if they are unattractive or if they are attractive it could make them proud and unkind but this is NOT the rule.

may we all judge by deeds and observance alone. it says that moshiach will judge not by his eyes but from the torah.

Posted By daniel rosenberg, london

Posted: June 17, 2008

Is Beauty Truth?

Ideally- yes.

Reality- no.

Proof: Two very old friends get into a heated business dispute. They bring the case to a court and the Judge sees immediately that one of them is clearly wrong. However, instead of issuing a verdict of true judgement, the Judge works tirelessly to convince the two parties to agree on a compromise. The Judge is a smart man, and knows that if he explains the actual truth, then the one who would benefit would not agree to a compromise. He also knows that the one who loses would never forgive his former friend. So after much work and patience, a compromise is reached, and the truth is never revealed. In essence, what has happened is a sacrifice of truth (i.e. true judgment) in exchange for beauty (a.k.a. peace).

Isn't it beautiful that the friendship was saved- albeit at the expense of absolute truth? More beautiful would be if they could both accept the true judgment with pure love, but in our world- beauty and truth are too often a contradiction.

Posted By David Komer, Giva #468, Israel

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