Why Beauty Isn't Synonymous With Morality

Morality describes the good, the bad and the ugly equally well. The beautiful is just that, while aesthetics are an abstract contemplation of form, structure, relationships, values and so forth.

Skinnerians might expand _________' definition to include 'objects that organisms desire' as of moral value. If water for instance is a good or benefits thirsty conscious creature does it not also benefit amoeba? Morality cannot be reduced to meaning 'things that benefit organisms by satisfying their desires or organic needs' without making conscious thought unnecessary. Perhaps the contribution of consciousness to morality would then be in construction of a trophic order to get people to the waterhole without stampeding, war or crime.

Morality is what people culturally actually do socially-that is what values they have. Those values may change over time during pagan eras with infanticide, in the present era of abortion and so forth.

One cannot easily equivocate beauty with the morally good. If a beautiful woman steals a great work of art-a painting-then the theft is good if the painting belonged to wicked people that pollute the environment, yet if an ugly, even a hideous pejorative runt steals the painting then it is evil? Plato associated the beautiful with health-fair enough. There are poisonous plants and flowers of course, in mushroom picking usually the colorful glistening ones are dangerous. There are probably very many beautiful, lethal aircraft armed with wonderfully sophisticated weapons of mass destruction.

The laws of God such as 'thou shalt not steal' are beautiful in that they personify through the presence of divinity, perfection. In that case if one accepts the parameters then beauty and morality coincide. Like the areas of a Venn diagram however it is not necessary that all elements appear morally good and beautiful at the same time or in the same area.
One may move to Montana after being lost at sea for 80 days and move to a desert after being lost in the snow for 8 days. The sight of one element may be beautiful one time and ugly another.