Final answer:
Beauty, historically seen through the lens of harmony, proportion, and clarity, represents an intersection of objective form and subjective experience. Notions established by Plato and Aristotle were expanded upon in the Renaissance, blending classic ideals with individual emotional responses as also acknowledged by thinkers like Kant.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concept of beauty, as defined by thinkers such as Aquinas, Plato, and Aristotle incorporates elements such as harmony, proportion, and clarity. These components indicate that beauty goes beyond mere subjective appreciation, embedding itself into an object's structural attributes. Plato's philosophy speaks to beauty as embodying balance and symmetry, characteristics that universally resonate with human perceptions of aesthetics, while Aristotle also emphasizes the objective nature of beauty, rooted in proportion and balance. The Renaissance period, particularly with artists like Leonardo da Vinci and their investigation into ideal proportions of human anatomy, further illustrates this enduring search for a beauty canon based on systematic ratios. In modern times, aesthetic judgments may still reflect these classical standards, as well as subjective emotional responses, exemplified by Kant's declaration that beauty triggers a common human feeling, suggesting a shared sense of what is pleasing to the senses.