I would like to suggest that the concept of “beauty” in art, relationships and even evolutionary biology seems to satisfy EY’s criteria of being a mysterious answer.
If I ask, “how does the male peacock attract female peacocks” and one answers “because his tail is big and beautiful”, haven’t they failed to answer my question? Beauty in this response is a 1- curiosity stopper, 2- has no moving parts, 3- Is often uttered by people with a great deal of pride (the painting is so beautiful!), and 4- leaves the phenomenon a mystery (In the case of the peacock, I still don’t really know why female peacocks like big colorful tails).
I would like to suggest that the concept of “beauty” in art, relationships and even evolutionary biology seems to satisfy EY’s criteria of being a mysterious answer.
If I ask, “how does the male peacock attract female peacocks” and one answers “because his tail is big and beautiful”, haven’t they failed to answer my question? Beauty in this response is a 1- curiosity stopper, 2- has no moving parts, 3- Is often uttered by people with a great deal of pride (the painting is so beautiful!), and 4- leaves the phenomenon a mystery (In the case of the peacock, I still don’t really know why female peacocks like big colorful tails).
Also, symmetry is a sign of health in bilaterians such as we; so it makes sense that we’d evolve to find symmetry beautiful.
The Handicap Principle is one possibility.