Beauty is something you know it when you see it, but you can't define it. Or so have we been told. For ages.
But is it really so? in other words, can beauty be quantified?
Yes, it can, according to Christopher Alexander. Beauty CAN be quantified, he thought.
Beauty is ... freedom from Internal Conflict.
Think about it. Be it a building， a piece of painting， a photograph， or any artistic object --
if all the parts, all the components, all the small details, all in all, fit together smoothly, without any conflict to each other, to form a whole object with a clear purpose, then we are looking at a piece of art. We are looking at beauty.
Christopher Alexander是UC 伯克利的建筑学教授。 我却以为他是个极高明的哲学家。
推广到另一个问题-- 对一个人来说， 什么是幸福？ 这是一个争论千古的问题。
Freedom From Internal Conflict. 我们可以借用一下Alexander教授的说法。
Away, I'd rather sail away
Like a swan that's here and gone
A man gets tied up to the ground,
he gives the world,
its saddest sound,
its saddest sound.
（Simon and Garfunkel：El Condor Pasa）
