What is beauty? Is beauty used mostly as a referent for objects created by people? If so, is the amount of beauty in an object a function of the time put into something? What things can be beautiful? Is beauty a concept tied primarily to things and people, or can ideas be beautiful as well? Is elegance a form of beauty? Since mathematical equations of specific merit are often considered elegant, to what extent can a mathematic principle or equation be considered beautiful? Is it the expression of the mathematics that has the beauty or is it the concept itself? How do the two interrelate? Can beauty be quantified? If we say something is not beautiful, what is lacking? What measures do we use to mold objects in our lives into things of beauty? How do we account for the vastly different conceptions of beauty standards throughout time, culture, and geography? Can a purely abstract notion be beautiful, or does there need to be a moment of fruition in order for beauty to be achieved? Once something has been deemed beautiful, and the aesthetics of a time or place change or shift, how do we account for the loss of beauty that takes place? How is beauty related to symmetry and asymmetry? To what degree can these ideas be said to define and relate to one another? Is beauty a measurement of effort, talent, desire, education, all subconsciously expressed in a given creation? Is beauty found or created? by who or whom? Who or whom are the arbiters of beauty? What standards are used in this judgment? Is the idea of beauty necessarily co-opted by social principles, mores, and norms? Are all people individually adequate at judging beauty, or does the larger group have the final sway? To what extent does the judge of the aesthetic define beauty? How are these definitions reflective of and in tension with social mores of the present? What do they say about the norms of the past, and how do the two relate? What does a culture's beauty standards say about its people? What can be gained from staring at the same trinkets of awe that have been stared at for thousands of years? Recent research has shown that the physical human beauty standards used cross-culturally over a vast stretch of time can be partially explained by looking at and comparing ratios both of the body and the face. This suggests there is a biological component to beauty. How does this biological component of beauty clash with, reinforce, and help to define social standards? To what extent can beauty standards used in judging the appearance of people be extrapolated to other objects? If there is a correlation, can similar ratio-based explanations be used to explain or even create an ideal standard of universal beauty? If biology does play a role in the determination of beauty, how is the vast difference in personal taste accounted for? How are the standards of social beauty malleable? What forces help to shape or change them? How do these same standards help to define our landscapes, including our urban, rural, interior, and psychological spaces? How do we account for so-called modern or post-modern art, art that is abstract, often asymmetrical in the extreme, difficult to understand, banal, or even purposely ugly? How does the notion of ugly or unattractive help to define the beautiful? How do these same definitions categorize and restrict our understanding and appreciation of the beautiful? What items are subject to this type of scrutiny? Can we say that refuse is beautiful? How much of something must be permanent to be beautiful? What about music? What forces help to shape what is pleasing to the ear? Are they the same forces that shape our visual determinations? Can food taste beautiful? What senses are involved in determining beauty? How do we know when things match, in terms of color, shape, and size? What parts of our brain and personality are used in these assessments? To what extent does sex and sexual attraction help, hinder, and define beauty both in terms of human standards as well as more abstract forms of artistic expression? How does the human shape figure into discussions of and idea(l)s of beauty, the beautiful, and the aesthetic?
