Abstract
The concept of beauty has been abused in contemporary popular aesthetics, which attributes the beautiful to the superficial experience of human body and fails to understand the spirituality of true beauty. In contrast to beauty in everyday sense, true beauty exists in ecstasy, a holistic experience integrating body and mind, in which people may feel a transcendental sense of reality. Different from pathological illusion, the ecstatic sense of beauty signifies nature's manifestation in human life and testifies to the intrinsic harmony between humankind and the universe. Through the lens of ecstasy, this article examines true beauty in three dimensions: reflections on the conceptual abuse of beauty and traditional idealist aesthetics, mania theory's description of aesthetic phenomenon, and the distinction between aesthetic and pathological phenomena in ecstatic experiences. Overall, the ecstatic sense of beauty is the experiential basis of true beauty. It represents both the universe and the human being's advanced spirituality. Once occurred, it will fundamentally change the subject's outlook.
First Page
146
Last Page
154
Recommended Citation
Li, Hongxiang. 2019. "On the Experiential Basis of Beauty." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 39, (4): pp.146-154. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol39/iss4/10
