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According to Plotinus, what is beauty and how does one recognize it?

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Plotinus, a Neoplatonist philosopher, views beauty as linked to the immutable Forms, representing ultimate truth. He suggests a hierarchy of beauty, with physical beauty as the lowest since it is tied to the body, which distracts from truth. The highest beauty is the Form of Beauty, grasped intellectually. Recognizing true beauty involves transcending the physical to appreciate deeper, more mysterious forms, thus leading to spiritual and philosophical growth.

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As a Neoplatonist, Plotinus regards beauty as related to the Forms: that is, those unchanging, timeless ideas that represent what is ultimately true. Just as there is a hierarchy of being for Plotinus, so too is there a hierarchy of beauty, with the lowest kind of beauty being the faintest image of the Form, or the ideal of the beautiful. And the lowest kind of beauty is physical beauty as it is related to the body which, for Neoplatonists like Plotinus, is the prison-house of the soul and thus leads us away from the truth.

The truth is ideal, not physical, and so any kind of truth or beauty given to us by the body can only be limited. The highest kind of beauty is the Form of Beauty itself, which can only be conceived by the intellect and of which physical beauty is but a faint copy.

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Plotinus treatise 'On   that aesthetics, metaphysics, ethics, philosophy, and psychology are all interconnected. Hence, beauty is everywhere and can be summoned in many ways. However, there are specific forms of beauty, and each is proportional to the way in which the depth our character applies them.

Since beauty is a concept that originates in our brain and we abide by it, the harder it is to see, the higher its level of precedence. For example, a pretty person in the outside would be the lowest form because it is the most obvious kind. There is no mystery there.

However, when one is able to tr ascend the physical and find beauty in the forms outside of our immediate knowledge, then we are truly looking for the soul of beauty in itself, and we grow spiritually and philosophically in the process.

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