Aesthetic relativism is the philosophical view that the judgement of beauty is relative to individuals, cultures, time periods and contexts, and that there are no universal criteria of beauty. For example, statuettes like the Venus of Willendorf or the women in the paintings of Rubens would have been considered ideal forms of beauty when painted, but today may be regarded as over-weight, while contemporary standards of beauty (such as those that feature on the covers of contemporary fashion magazines) may have been considered less than ideal in Rubens' time. A nymph with morning glory flowers by Lefebvre. ... Relativism expresses the view that the meaning and value of human beliefs and behaviors have no absolute reference. ... Venus of Willendorf Venus of Willendorf, also known as the Woman of Willendorf, is a 11. ... Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower Alte Pinakothek Pieter Pauwel (Peter Paul) Rubens (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640) was the most popular and prolific Flemish and European painter of the 17th century. ...

Aesthetic relativism is a variety of the philosophy known generally as relativism, which casts doubt on the possibility of direct epistemic access to the "external world", and which therefore reject the positive claim that statements made about the external world can be known to be objectively true. Other varieties of relativism include cognitive relativism (the general claim that all truth and knowledge is relative) and Ethical Relativism (the claim that moral judgments are relative). Aesthetic and Ethical relativism are sub-categories of Cognitive Relativism. Relativism expresses the view that the meaning and value of human beliefs and behaviors have no absolute reference. ... Common dictionary definitions of truth mention some form of accord with fact or reality. ... Cognitive relativism (also called epistemic or epistemological relativism) is a philosophy that claims the truth or falsity of a statement is relative to a social group. ... Moral relativism is the position that moral propositions do not reflect absolute or universal truths. ...

Philosophers who have been influential in relativist thinking include:

• David Hume, particularly his "radical scepticism" as set out in A Treatise of Human Nature
• Thomas Kuhn, with regards to the history and philosophy of science, and particularly his work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
• Friedrich Nietszche, in moral philosophy and epistemology
• Richard Rorty, on the contingency of language

Philosophers who have made influential objectivist accounts include David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian, as well as an important figure of Western philosophy and of the Scottish Enlightenment. ... A Treatise of Human Nature is a book by philosopher David Hume, published in 1739–1740. ... Thomas Samuel Kuhn (July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American intellectual who wrote extensively on the history of science and developed several important notions in the philosophy of science. ... Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, including the formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature and scope of knowledge. ... Richard McKay Rorty (born October 4, 1931 in New York City) is an American philosopher. ...

• Plato, and in particular his Theory of the Forms
• Immanuel Kant, who argued that the judgment of beauty, despite the standards of which being unique to individuals, is a universally practiced function of the mind.
• Noam Chomsky, whose "nativist" theory of linguistics argues for a universal grammar (ie, that language is not as contingent as relativists have argued that it is).

The question whether or not such agreement pre-exists social conditioning is an ongoing one, and mirrors the broader nature versus nurture debate within the social sciences, and within science and philosophy in general. (For example, an informed and educated public might have been informed and educated in different ways, and their tastes might then have been quite divergent.) The extent to which taste might be explained in fundamentally sociological as distinct from aesthetic terms, is a matter of ongoing debate. For other articles with similar names, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Plato spoke of forms (sometimes capitalized: The Forms) in formulating his solution to the problem of universals. ... Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804), was a German philosopher from Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). ... Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... Nature versus nurture is a shorthand expression for debates about the relative importance of an individuals innate qualities (nature) versus personal experiences (nurture) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits. ... Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Taste (sociology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

On the relationship between aesthetics, sexual attraction and reproduction see . For Schopenhauer, the criteria for sexual attraction are (in women from the perspective of men) beauty, youth and health; and (in men from the perspective of women) status, strength and wealth. This is because these are believed to be the optimal conditions for the reproduction of the species: the well-being of the potential offspring is always the key concern, although one or both of the partners may be quite unconscious of this. For other uses, see Reproduction (disambiguation) Reproduction is the biological process by which new individual organisms are produced. ...

References

• Arthur Schopenhauer "On the Metaphysics of the Love of the Sexes", in The World as Will and Representation ("Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung")
• Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
• Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity.