Approaches to Nature Aesthetics: East Meets West Page: 34
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CHAPTER 2
ONTOLOGICAL DISCUSSIONS OF NATURAL BEAUTY
The Subjective Perception of the Beauty
In accordance with a schema developed by Galileo and Descartes, characteristics
of things are divided into two categories: primary properties and secondary properties.
Quantifiable features such as length, width, and depth are regarded as primary properties.
There are no subjective differences in the process of measuring the quantifiable features.
On the other hand, secondary properties depend upon the perception of individuals.
Tastes, color smells, textures, sounds, and other unquantifiable features were originally
included in this category. Because of the development in science, some secondary
properties can now be considered primary. For example, it is possible to define color in
terms of the numerical values of wavelengths. However, G. E. Moore states that the value
of the wavelength is not sufficient to describe yellow:
We may try to define [yellow], by describing its physical equivalent; we may state
what kind of light-vibrations must stimulate the normal eye, in order that we may
perceive it. But a moment's reflection is sufficient to shew that those light-
vibrations are not themselves what we mean by yellow. They are not what we
perceive. Indeed we should never have been able to discover their existence,
unless we had first been struck by the patent difference of quality between the
different colours. The most we can be entitled to say of those vibrations is that
they are what corresponds in space to the yellow which we actually perceive.61
Color reflects personal perceptions more than other physical properties do. Therefore, it
is still possible to be included in secondary properties. In general, aesthetic features are
61 Moore, Principia Ethica, p. 10.34
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Toyoda, Mitsuyo. Approaches to Nature Aesthetics: East Meets West, thesis, December 2002; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3305/m1/38/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .