Is beauty an objective quality? Painting

Is beauty an objective quality, or is it entirely subjective and dependent on individual perception? The debate over whether beauty is objective or subjective has been a central question in aesthetics for centuries. Plato viewed beauty as an objective quality, existing in an ideal form beyond the physical world. For him, beautiful things are reflections of this perfect, eternal form of beauty. Plato believed that through reason and contemplation, we can recognize the objective beauty that transcends our individual preferences and perceptions. In contrast, David Hume, an 18th-century philosopher, argued that beauty is entirely subjective, rooted in the perception of the observer. Hume famously stated, "Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them." According to Hume, beauty is not a quality of the object itself but rather a result of the emotional response it evokes in the individual. Different people, shaped by their experiences, cultures, and emotions, may perceive the same object in vastly different ways, leading to the conclusion that beauty is a matter of personal taste rather than universal truth.