Discussion Do you see Beauty in Nature

[Darkover]

"Look! This is so beautiful!" When checking out a flower or some view from atop a mountain.

but looks are only surface level on the inside it's ugly

and Animals must hunt, kill, and consume one another to survive. The weak are often preyed upon, and the struggle for survival is relentless. The animal kingdom, often romanticized for its beauty and simplicity, is in reality a battleground where suffering is the rule rather than the exception. This endless cycle of violence and consumption paints a picture of a world where cruelty and pain are the norm, much like the traditional concept of hell.

 

[lovelesslifeless]

Anything is more beautiful than the depressing, dull grey brutalist architecture that's been popping up everywhere.

Plus, I see nature as mostly symbiotic. As humans we can easily learn to live alongside nature, especially with the wealth of knowledge we have today.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Sure- there are some stunningly beautiful things in nature. Same as there are stunningly beautiful people out there. Doesn't mean they're nice!

It's a tricky question really. Should we detest and avoid the films Harvey Weinstein and Roman Polansky were involved in- because both are convicted sex offenders and caused pain to others?

Can you really be enjoying that chicken sandwich knowing it likely lived an awful life and was slaughtered for your own enjoyment? Plenty of people can. We're pretty good at compartmentalized thinking. Otherwise, we'd likely be too guilt ridden to do anything.

Plus, the idea of good and bad, beautiful and ugly are human concepts. We don't actually know how other beings feel. I'm not sure an antelope detests a lion. It just instinctively knows to try and stay out its way. Even when it's being eaten, I kind of doubt it's having an existential crisis about how unfair the whole thing is. Of course, it may do.

But yeah, things can be beautiful but horrific at the same time I think. Niagra falls is incredible to look at. Wouldn't be so much fun to fall in.

 

[Holu]

Anything is more beautiful than the depressing, dull grey brutalist architecture that's been popping up everywhere.

Plus, I see nature as mostly symbiotic. As humans we can easily learn to live alongside nature, especially with the wealth of knowledge we have today.

In a weird way, I love the cramped single rooms of a 20 story concrete and steel building. In some way, despite being about as detached from nature as possible, it still is naturally comforting, since your enclosed and high up, two things which make for a safe sleeping place. Additionally, it tickles that human efficiency part of my brain, since they essentially exist to house a large portion of people close to where they can work. In a sense the buildings are the embodiment of what humans are, a defiance of nature while still falling victim to natures compulsions. At least to me since I kinda view humans as the cancer of nature, in that we have grown so much that it spiraled out of hand + we siphon and destroy everything without a care that eventually we too will die when nature dies.

Somewhere, somehow, there's a beauty in the horror of that.


Edit: since I voted nature beautiful I figured I should say something I like about nature. I like ice, like icebergs, or snow, or icicles, or snowflakes. All manners of ice. It's just cool(ha get it).

 

[Mirrory Me]

I think nature looks rather peaceful and mystic- I wonder how it would feel to be one of those trees in the backyard.

 

[ebsyyy]

Of course. I don't see how you could not think that unless you lived your whole life in a concrete box. Every country has great nature in one way or another.

 

[BoulderSoWhat]

I don't think nature "by itself" is objectively beautiful or not, I think these kinds of judgments can only come from minds that can think of things as beautiful or not. So I'm in the neutral camp I guess.

However, left to its own devices, with or without humans, the universe is very capable of being a cosmic horror story.

Green-banded broodsac: The brain-hijacking parasite that creates disco zombie snails

This parasitic worm crawls into the eyestalks of snails, takes over its brain then pulsates to make the mollusk look like a dancing caterpillar.

www.livescience.com

"Look! This is so beautiful!" When checking out a flower or some view from atop a mountain.

but looks are only surface level on the inside it's ugly

and Animals must hunt, kill, and consume one another to survive. The weak are often preyed upon, and the struggle for survival is relentless. The animal kingdom, often romanticized for its beauty and simplicity, is in reality a battleground where suffering is the rule rather than the exception. This endless cycle of violence and consumption paints a picture of a world where cruelty and pain are the norm, much like the traditional concept of hell.

I was trying to remember a quote I've seen time to time and I found it!

"The pleasure in this world, it has been said, outweighs the pain; or, at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader wishes to see shortly whether this statement is true, let him compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other." - Arthur Schopenhauer

 

[ijustwishtodie]

No, nature is absolutely awful. When people say that nature is beautiful, they're only referring to the scenery and imagery that nature provides. If nature was just breathtaking and relaxing scenery, nature would be beautiful. However, nature is more than that as it also involves animals hunting and killing each other brutally

 

[AbusedInnocent]

"The pleasure in this world, it has been said, outweighs the pain; or, at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader wishes to see shortly whether this statement is true, let him compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other." - Arthur Schopenhauer

lmao he's absolutely correct, what I find funny about philosophical pessimism is it's undoubtedly right but you can't think about it constantly and still live a normal life, I prefer to just keep it in the back of my mind and remain blissfully unaware of it until I actually have to debate someone.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

I feel like most of the people saying that "nature is beautiful" are mostly focusing on the beautiful aesthetic photos and images of it that you see online or the bits of it that you may see if you live in the city. There are a lot of ugly aspects of nature too, from its cruelty and even some nasty looking aesthetics. Nature has beautiful aspects too, of course. I don't think that nature can be simplified down to either being evil or beautiful, hence I chose to vote it being neutral.

 

[Mirrory Me]

I feel like most of the people saying that "nature is beautiful" are mostly focusing on the beautiful aesthetic photos and images of it that you see online or the bits of it that you may see if you live in the city. There are a lot of ugly aspects of nature too

Yea, like dog shit and other garbage.

 

[LiuKang]

"Look! This is so beautiful!" When checking out a flower or some view from atop a mountain.

but looks are only surface level on the inside it's ugly

and Animals must hunt, kill, and consume one another to survive. The weak are often preyed upon, and the struggle for survival is relentless. The animal kingdom, often romanticized for its beauty and simplicity, is in reality a battleground where suffering is the rule rather than the exception. This endless cycle of violence and consumption paints a picture of a world where cruelty and pain are the norm, much like the traditional concept of hell.

I love nature.

Industrial society is horrible, I hate every second of it.

 

[ladylazarus4]

I do. I think it's beautiful even when it's aesthetically ugly or brutal. Even when things die/are brutally killed, even when wildfires leave wastelands, because it always returns to homeostasis and I think that's beautiful.

 

[nir]

Brutality and beauty can coexist.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Most of the time, no. Even when I do, I am still also aware of the dark side of nature. For every beautiful sunset or sunrise it's just another reminder of time passing by and leaving me miserable in the wake. Neat panoramic views in general get ruined by my fear of heights. Every beautiful forest or mountain or beach or really anywhere outdoors is filled with a complex yet terrifying ecosystem of all kinds of horrifying and disgusting insects, Arthropods, and other such nasty creatures. Even cuddlier animals are still an unfriendly reminder of the torture of existence and survival.

In conclusion, nature sucks. I'd rather watch cartoons and play video games.

 

[revontulet]

Absolutely. Especially forests are beautiful places. I like to be in nature more than in the city area and i'm not big fan of big cities. Megacities like Moscow, London etc are a nightmare to me.

 

[enduringwinter]

Only when there's something human on top of it

 

[wCvML2]

Quite a mixed bag. There are ugly parts like feces-eating insects and fungi and there are beautiful parts like tress and flowers. Depends on what you look at.

 

[WithTheFlow]

Nature is only beautiful if we anthropomorphize it. So, ironically, the dualists who assert that humans are uniquely separate and evil compared to the rest of nature, typically view nature through the lens of concepts derived through human socialization.

In reality, no natural entity which we know of has any sort of heightened consciousness comparable to our own. Non-human nature thrives off of primal instinct. Non-human nature doesn't care about human concepts of torture, pain, or suffering. The lion doesn't contemplate the pain it will cause the zebra; it only contemplates the most effective way to murder the zebra. This is the same with all other non-human life.

For these reasons, I'm neutral in regards to non-human nature. It's only beautiful insofar as a human mind is ascribing human concepts to its chaotic and ultimately nihilistic essence. It's more apt to say that it is the human imagination, not nature, that is beautiful.

 

[Plentiful_Despair]

I don't see true beauty in anything living, because it is always decaying, fighting for survival, having to destroy each other to survive. I can enjoy looking at some mountains or waterfalls.