Beauty and Elegance are Serious Matters According to Aristotle

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between beauty (kalon), virtue (arete) and elegance in Aristotle's philosophy. In classical Greek culture, beauty is not restricted to the aesthetic realm, but also designates an ethical quality: that which possesses order, measure and harmony, and which arouses pleasure in those who contemplate it. Hence the unity between beauty and goodness expressed in the notion of kalokagathia. For Aristotle, virtue implies a natural orientation towards beauty —the so-called “natural virtues”— but it is fully realised as a habit acquired through prolonged training of the passions. This process of naturalisation transforms effort into a stable and pleasant disposition: virtuous actions are not only good and beautiful, but also pleasant in themselves. Elegance, understood as bearing, style and the ability to make the right choices, manifests this inner harmony outwardly and allows one to face even adversity with dignity. In contrast to the simplicity of beauty, evil appears as excess and indeterminacy, capable of disfiguring individual and collective life. In this context, education (paideia) reveals itself as a decisive factor in ordering existence and elevating it from necessity to the freedom proper to beauty and philosophy.