Empirical explanation

Is anyone aware of an empirically valid reason why the human mind is so coercively preoccupied with beauty?

No, I am not at all interested in any existential or metaphysical fluff. I can’t seem to find anything of a scientifically backed nature for this preoccupation of the mind.

as a function of reproduction…

-Imp

An addiction of sorts?

FTLOF … come on Imp … throw me a frigging bone here.

Do you have empirical backing for this statement, it does seem like a plausible explanation. Looking for credibility here, not just speculation.

Whatcha got brother? Hand it over.

I think that is an antecedent effect of the greater cause, but I could be wrong.

Often times, certain hormonal responses in the brain, especially if they involve dopamine and/or adrenaline will cause addictive conditions. Rage and sexual fixation are two that I know have been studied.

Because it’s defined as an ideal, and we’re both inherently predisposed to idealism and indoctrinated to it socially and educationally.

But what of something of the like of “The Statue of David” or “The Sistine Chapel” … ?

Those are almost uniform works of beauty, I can’t think of ever finding someone who couldn’t appreciate the “beauty” of those works … I think beauty in some mechanism supersedes social indoctrination.

I said we were both inherently predisposed to it as well as indoctrinated socially.

It’s for reproduction purposes. Symmetry and large breasts for example are good indicators of someone who is probably healthy, and can sustain a child. There are many more examples.

do you make it your lot in life to shag unattractive women?

-Imp

If you want evidence then just ask yourself How, why, what, where, and when. Be brutally honest and you will have your emperical evidence.

Warning: Emperical evidence varies for each person. It may cause heart attacks, strokes and uncontrollable urges to gamble and have sex with the person next to you.

Look how you put me in a bind, not very brotherly of you Imp.

I’m an ugly male. 6’, roughly 200 lbs, gray hair, blue eyes and a large Sicilian nose, with a number of noticeable scars … I don’t exactly attract the “model” beauty type of female, regardless my proclivities towards that end.

I think I would likely fall into that “pity f***” category quite honestly.

That’s not empirical evidence, that is subjective conjecture.

Mas,

Your question is about a concept as subjective as any possible answer. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I think smears hit the key point. What is beauty is 95% social constructs. It may be that we are hardwired to recognize certain desirable attributes for many possible survival needs and that what seems to be a ‘universal’ appreciation of beauty is merely a by-product of that, but there are no studies that would allow a blanket statement about anything as subjective as what is beauty.

If you say it is beautiful, then it is - right along with the rest of humanity.

No, no, no … not the point tent man … it’s not what is beauty … that’s a moronic question …

Why the fixation? Why does the brain find greater significance with beauty than with ugly or horrid? Empirically speaking, what occurs in the brain that creates the platform for all the constructs? The brain itself seems to be in a want of beauty …

and here you answer your own question…

just remember that the world is what you make it…

-Imp

And you don’t trust yourself to be honest? Thats all empirical evidence for what you ask, is honest facts. Since the only evidence on any possible study would have to come from answers people choose to give. You are just cutting out the middle man and getting to the meat quicker. Answer honestly and you have your evidence. You don’t need 50 other people and a person with a dubious PHD to give you the evidence you seek.

I created absurdity? You sound as if you are arguing for quantum entanglement.

Although, my daughter is a beautiful human specimen, almost painfully, so in some obtuse sense, it could be said that I helped make beauty in the world.

You still aren’t giving me empirical support for why the brain fixates on beauty as highly significant. (I’m asking primarily because it is a known personal flaw.)

you have said you like the way certain women look. based on empirical data. you said you don’t like the way you look. based on empirical data. you said your daughter is beautiful. based on empirical data. for what? because of what? reproduction.

-Imp

Mas,

I question whether the brain has any particular center of excitation we could label beauty. It could well be a by-product of other more basic recognitions such as potential food, (sexual opportunity has already been mentioned), security, or other basic survival patterns. I would argue that beauty is strictly a social construct, and that the mind is excited by attraction-repellancy equally.

It finally comes down to dog philosophy: If I can’t eat it or f*** it, piss on it. That is the brain “platform”. I don’t think the brain cares about beauty or ugliness.