Emily Brady: "Varieties of Natural Beauty"

Emily Brady, Texas A&M University: "Varieties of Natural Beauty"

Abstract
In this paper, I present a conceptual analysis of natural beauty through a discussion of three kinds: (1) Formal Natural Beauty; (2) Sacred Natural Beauty; and (3) Ecological Natural Beauty. Although these categories are not exhaustive, they specify ways to understand, specifically, natural beauty, in contrast to more general theories of beauty that apply to all aesthetic ‘data’.

My pluralistic strategy steers a course between broad and substantive accounts, that is, between beauty understood as a stand-in for positive aesthetic value, and beauty defined in some more specific way. My discussion of moderate Formal Natural Beauty reconsiders the ‘scenic model’ and the role of the arts in environmental appreciation. Sacred Natural Beauty identifies religious and spiritual notions of beauty in which natural aesthetic qualities support faith and express, corroborate or strengthen religious or spiritual beliefs. Ecological Natural Beauty encompasses beauty as articulated through an ecological, holistic ontology, or when wildness and nonhuman agency especially underpin beauty. I connect each variety of natural beauty to human and ecological flourishing through the exercise of appreciative virtues.