What does beauty have to do with art? I've been a painter (artist) over 35 years and don't know why some obsess over beauty.

Do you believe that there is a hedonically ideal set of propensities for aesthetic pleasure to which all should aspire, and that this sets the standard for resolving disputes about taste? — Natherton

No. But I'm willing to be convinced if there were good evidence.

whose sensibilities are perfectly calibrated for the maximization of aesthetic pleasure, — Natherton

Tease that out. Not sure what it means or how it would work. And it sounds like a fancy language for the old fashioned idea of 'good taste'.

Beauty per se is an attractive force on its own, delinked as it were from the usual qualities that are associated with it (good & truth). We couldn't have come this far if that were not the case; later, in our evolutionary history, these qualities separated from each other, they came into their own so to speak, became independent of each other, and hence the predicament we find ourselves in - the fragmentation, the dismantling, of our psyche was inevitable, we're all, maybe not all, :broken:, hanged, drawn, and quartered; behold brethren, our brothers and sisters, in pieces! :snicker:

Lucy, a gorgeous gal!