How could anyone like that?

NPR commentator and resident philosopher Alain De Botton asks the question “How could anyone like that?” How is it that people have such different aesthetic sensibilities? Isn’t there one Beauty? The following is a synopsis of this fascinating radio spot.

De Botton points out that the Romans coined the phrase “Tastes are not to be disputed.” We call something beautiful, he says, when we detect in it qualities in which we ourselves or society are deficient. For instance, we may find a more or less blank canvas beautiful when our own life is messy and chaotic. We shy away from what we fear and move towards what we crave. Thus, our aesthetic taste tells us what we lack inside as much as what we like inside.

Take for instance a person who is attracted to grand, ornate and gilt furniture. While we might assume such furniture would be desired by the well-off, it is actually quite the opposite. Such style is generally not favored by people who feel rich inside, but by people trying to flee poverty and humiliation.

Likewise, people with a minimalist aesthetic (De Botton gives the example of architect John Porcin) often indicate that a person isn’t calm inside but is oppressed by fear of disintegration and panic.

Or consider — most interesting to me in light of this recent post — people who favor the rustic, pretending to be a simple country folk. De Botton postulates that the excessive modernity and ubiquitous technology in our life leave us longing for qualities of the old and rural.

Diversity of style is a natural consequence of the manifold nature of our inner needs, he says. The two great dogmas of aesthetics — that there is only one acceptable style, or that all styles are equally valid — are both equally preposterous.