The Semiotics of Ideal Beauty examines whether there can ever be an objective measurement of beauty or whether the concept and appreciation of beauty will always remain in flux as cultures evolve and establish new standards of physical attractiveness.
Semiotics
This is the study of signification, i.e. the process whereby signs communicate meaning to the observer and allow that person to understand the way the world works.
As we grow up or live in a culture, we learn to understand both the surface objective realities (the denotative meanings) and all the hidden, implied or assumed meanings that underpin what we see (the connotative meanings). Hence, we might see a person wearing a particular uniform. Because of our experience, we have a set of rules which predict who will wear this type of uniform and in what circumstances. We therefore take these rules of expectation, apply them to the immediate instance, and base our social actions on that judgement. |
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For example, if we encounter someone wearing a nurse's uniform, we might judge the wearer to be:
- a nurse if the context is a hospital;
- an actress if we see the person on the stage of a theatre and there is no suggestion that a real injury has been sustained.
Idealisation
Ideal in this context means a "perfect form of". Plato was the first philosopher in the Western tradition to consider which standards determine when any given form was perfect or ideal. He distinguished between:
- the visible world, i.e. what we see and hear, and opinion and experience which change and are uncertain; and
- the intelligible world, i.e.:
- reason which is well-developed but still less than perfect knowledge, e.g. science and mathematics may contain some assumptions and postulates that cannot be fully justified; and
- intelligence which is knowledge of the highest and most abstract categories and forms of concepts and things.
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