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In Western culture, Plato and Aristotle are two characters that are essential to know and
study. These two men were the most influential philosophers, and both were Greek. Their
thoughts were recognized to such an extent that they became to be the representatives of Western
thoughts until these days. An interesting fact is that Plato was Aristotle’s teacher, so naturally
Aristotle was deeply influenced by Plato during that time. According to the studies, it tells that
they shared and agreed in concerns about the nature of good, reality, and more. And also, it is
known that they emphasized the importance of logic and reason in understanding the world. But
despite their shared interests, they didn’t agree on all their ideas. Philosophy was a study that
could embrace all the areas, from math to art. And since beauty was a very popular topic in those
times, there were also diverse thoughts and views about it. Some records show us that Plato and
Aristotle had their own view of the nature of beauty.
Similarities
From the perspective of Plato and Aristotle, both claim that beauty is objective. To
explain the objectivity of the beauty, Plato and Aristotle says that the value of the beauty is not
defined by the sense of the beholder.1 The other agreement that both had is the idea of that
beauty has an order and harmony. According to the studies of Plato’s theory of beauty, it says
that Plato continuously thought that the beauty and harmony are similar to each other. And
harmony means the perception of unity in variety.2 In other words, Plato considered symmetry
and harmony as an important factor of beauty. Aristotle also had likely thoughts of the nature of
beauty. So, he approaches to the beauty stating that it consists in the presence of a well-defined
1 “Beauty”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, last modified Fall 2024,
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2024/entries/beauty/
2 Grube, “Plato’s Theory of Beauty”, 273-274
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order.3 To put in other way, Aristotle emphasized the proportion of the parts and the arrangement
of it when evaluating something as beautiful. So, it’s clear that Plato and Aristotle had a very
similar major concept of what is the nature of beauty.
Differences
Despite that, their major idea of beauty agreed, they also had different perspectives at the
same time. When it comes to the topic of the role of the senses, Plato develops his idea stating
that the beauty that is perceived through our senses it is a vague reflection of it.4 This point of
view is closely related to his allegory of the cave. So, according to Plato’s idea, the human senses
can mislead, because our senses are perceiving just the reflection of the real and true beauty. But
on the contrary, Aristotle claims that the senses play a major role in perceiving beauty. So, he
states that the sense faculty is stimulated by the beauty and feels pleasure through that
simulation.5 In other words, Aristotle is trying to say that our senses help us to appreciate the
object of the beauty. The opposite ideas of beauty of these two philosophers are also known
when it comes to the beauty of art. From the perspective of Plato, an art is not completely
beautiful since it is an imitation of a reflected beauty. But through the lenses of Aristotle, an art
can be beautiful since it is a recreation of a beauty that was perceived through the senses, and
also one can appreciate a beauty once again through that recreated beauty in art. When Aristotle
enjoys beauty by itself, Plato tries to find the origin of the beauty and that is the crucial
difference of perspective. Therefore, sometimes people interpret Aristotle as more friendly and
open to beauty compared to Plato. In light of this information, the beauty for Plato was abstract
3 Mirus, “Aristotle on Beauty and Goodness in Nature”, 82
4 Grube, “Plato’s Theory of Beauty”, 273
5 Mirus, “Aristotle on Beauty and Goodness in Nature”, 83
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and studied in the beyond of the beauty trying to reach out to the higher truths, while Aristotle
argued that beauty is around the world, and it can be perceived well enough through the senses.
The beauty was more approachable thorough the lenses of Aristotle than Plato.
Compared in the culture today
Unlike ancient times, each individual in modern society tends to have unique and
differentiated thoughts among people. Therefore, such perspective as beauty is objective can’t be
accepted. The beauty in culture today is viewed and interpreted as subjective. So, it means that
beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And since beauty has become subjective, harmony and order
is not an important matter anymore as it used to be for Plato and Aristotle. Considering these
perspectives now it became difficult to discuss beauty with others. From one side, it could be
seen as positive cause it looks like there is freedom of opinion. But when the subjectiveness is
expanded the order gets collapsed because there is no agreement of opinion. And the other major
difference between now and back then is that in modernity the personal response to beauty is
more emphasized and it counts as a part of beauty. While in times of Plato and Aristotle, people
concentrated more on the influences that beauty gave to them. And lastly, the culture today
focuses on the beauty perceived through the visual, while in ancient times the beauty celebrated
the moral and intellectual.
Plato’s and Aristotle’s perspective of beauty was objective and concrete. In contrast,
modern culture points out individual and subjective ideas. However, no matter the differences,
the study of beauty takes a big place in humanity in many aspects. (939)
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Mirus, Christopher V. “Aristotle on Beauty and Goodness in Nature.” International
Philosophical Quarterly 52, no. 1 (2012): 79–97. https://doi.org/10.5840/ipq20125216.
Sartwell, Crispin. “Beauty.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, March 22, 2022.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauty/.
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