Caguiat, Gian Daniele T.

Humanities
2 - TFG
2015 06526
Maam Bautista
Molecular Beauty
Due to the advances in molecular science and microscopy, we are now
able to visualize objects, matter and reactions on a nanoscale. Through the
use of many advanced instruments we can also visualize and characterize
structures not visible to the naked eye. Thanks to these developments and
breakthroughs we are now exposed to new dimensions, theories and fields,
an example of which is molecular aesthetics.
According to Peter Weibel, molecular aesthetics suggests ways in
which art can draw inspiration from the molecular sciences and ways in
which science can use art to make experimental results more intelligible and
comprehensible, which was exactly what Roald Hoffmann tackled in his
article Molecular Beauty. Hoffmann believes that to call a molecule beautiful,
one must first do his or her part in learning or researching by scanning
journals and works of stylists, listening to oral lectures or research group
meetings et cetera because aesthetic judgements made by chemists about
chemistry are perhaps more cognitively informed and thus jargon laden than
those of the arts.
Hoffmann states that a molecule may be beautiful because of its
simplicity, its symmetrical structure or maybe its complexity. He also
believes that molecules may be beautified by their miracles e.g. the
processes or reactions they undergo, their functions or purposes that they
serve, its novelty or utility. Maybe we do not call any molecule ugly, but
some molecules are simply more beautiful than others and thus, stand out.
In Immanuel Kants The Critique of Judgment he argues that
aesthetic judgments must have four key distinguishing features:
disinterested, universal, necessary and purposive without purpose, similar to
Hoffmanns perception of molecular beauty. He agrees with Kants
philosophies by admitting how comparable a chemists appreciative of
molecules is with that of a philosophers judgment of beauty.
These similarities between a chemist and a philosopher or
aestheticians perception of beauty may not come out as surprising at all,
because although they work on separate fields, people still have these
universal and maybe unintentional view of what is beautiful. Just like how
most of the people from our country, the Philippines would set our standards
of beauty as those of the Europeans. This may be because we have been
colonized by Western countries for hundreds of years before, and they have
influenced a big part of our culture, also including our aesthetic judgments.
Thats why beauty pageant winners nowadays most of the time have similar
physical appearances: tall, slim, pointed nose, and big bright smiles. This
idea is parallel to Hoffmanns perception of beauty being universal. People
keep saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but we dont act by it
anymore by unconsciously setting these Western standards of beauty.
When we were colonized by the Americans, they made us think that
they were doing good for our country by providing us with education, a
Westernized system of government, and even technology. These good things
that they brought to us made us think that their motives in our country were
good as a whole, which is similar to a concept mentioned in the film Face
Value: The Science of Beauty the halo effect. This concept is the tendency
in which the observers good impression of a person influences positively
how the observer feels about this particular person. For example, when you
see someone attractive, its as if everything he or she does, no matter how
neutral turns into something positive.
In the end, we could see that beauty comes in different forms. It just so
happens that because of these universal standards and distinguishing
features created by society, some people stand out. Similar to the way a
molecule could not be called ugly, it is also the same for people. We are
made up of atoms and atoms are made up of beautiful molecules, which
means there is beauty in everything. Sometimes we just need to look at it to
see it.