So I have been thinking about this recently. I'll start by sharing the experience that served as a catalyst for my current interest in this topic, so please bear with me for now.


It was a while ago when I was riding the bus. I was sitting by a window, listening to music. That's when the bus took a halt at a stop, and I looked outside.
That's when it hit me.
The vibrant azure blue sky on that day rendered me awestruck. It was devoid of clouds, high up above, even more so complemented by strong, tall buildings in a clear tone of white or beige, some of them with their many windows reflecting the surroundings. Around them a few trees; reaching up towards this endless expanse of blue.
Now looking down I saw ever so green patches of grass gradually beginning to be covered by the many orange, red and yellow leaves that come with fall.
In combination with the song I had on, I was somehow deeply moved by this seemingly simple, urban view before me.

"Beautiful.", was the first word that came to my mind then. However, what I had felt and seen seemed much more profound than just one word, which I would say only captured/described but a fraction of this moment.
As I later on realised, this had marked the first time in quite a while that something made me think of the word 'beautiful' by just looking at it.


Afterwards I started to wonder:
What really is beauty? What does the word beautiful even mean?
When was the last time you used the word 'beautiful' because you really thought it? Not just as a compliment for a nice bouquet of flowers, someone with good or hot looks, nor for a good-looking dress -
When was the last time you truly were struck by something as 'beautiful'? (Emphasis on the keyphrase "be struck by something", as in not actively thinking about or looking for a word to describe what you are observing, but rather a word coming to your mind as more of a 'passive reaction' to what you experience).

All this thinking about when, why and how we perceive something as beautiful made me question what 'beauty' itself even is or what it really means.
"Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.", is a well-known saying that might come to mind here. Considering that everyone has a (sometimes more or less) quite varying view on what they think of as 'beautiful' or not, what exactly connects all these 'different beautifuls' (forgive this play of words) together?
What and how much exactly do these unique perceptions of beauty of individuals have in common and why?


Thank you for reading (I apologise if it was hard to understand or ambiguous at times, feel free to ask if so). Perhaps I have overthought this and there are simple answers (or not) to this and I am merely lacking knowledge here. Perhaps there's some more interesting science or studies about this topic that I am not yet familiar with. If you know of any related, interesting sources, studies or research about this please do recommend, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Whatever it may be, I am very interested in hearing any points or thoughts on this.