the Failure of Intention

[ahhpeanutbutter]

Nature does not intend to be beautiful. The animals plants and landscapes that we enjoy were the result of random geological, meterological, and boilogical processes. A grove of old growth ceder is pleasing to eye, but you cannot ascribe any intention for it to be that way outside of a trees biological imparative to grow tall and large to reach as

Comments

[violet_soda]

The old saying "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" might apply here. And accuounting for slight variences in taste and/or prefrences it seems like there is a cross-cultural preception of what is aesteticaly pleasing. For instance a Swiss girl who has never seen Mt. Rainer looks over the alps and marvels at their vast beauty, the same as I did on my first trip to Mt. St. Helens. Or a Chinese boy looks up at the stars on the same night as a boy in Russia and both think they are the most amazing sight they have ever beheld. Before there were cities and man imposed his will over the landscape, we had only nature to marvel at, thus establishing a somewhat universal point of refrence.

So even if nature did not intend to be beautiful, perhaps we find it to be that way by default. Maybe if everything on the planet were completely flat except for pink and green dirt hills(a geological impossibility, and very ugly, I know) and sulfur geysers then would the Chinese and Russian boys then say "Those were the most glorious beautiful dirt hills I've ever seen," and would the Swiss girl sniff the air wistfully and think: "The sulfur smells especially sweet tonite."?

Maybe we just think nature is beautiful based on our frame of refrence.