Thank you, Con for your argument.
Just to clarify, some things for voters I will provide clarification of certain words for voters/viewers, to base their votes/opinions on.
Con did provide explanations for what subjective and objective mean, but I will provide a clear-cut definition, and one that I think Con will agree with.
Objective:
"(of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts: Contrasted with subjective." Oxford Dictionary.
Subjective:
"based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions: Contrasted with objective." Oxford Dictionary.
Beauty:
Beauty is something that not all of us can't exactly agree on. If beauty were to be subjective, then that would assume that someone's feelings, or opinions would not be considered, when calling something, or someone beautiful. Now there are many types of beauty, like physical beauty and emotional beauty and many people have similar views on what they call beautiful in a man, or in a woman, but they are not all exactly the same. If they were to be all exactly the same, then all men would be after one particular woman, and all women would be after one particular man. If they were the same, then there would be billions of people without love. Every person is distinctively different in some way, yet almost everyone has legitimately been called beautiful by their husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend.
David Hume:
"On the contrary, a thousand different sentiments, excited by the same object, are all right: Because no sentiment represents what is really in the object. It only marks a certain conformity or relation between the object and the organs or faculties of the mind; and if that conformity did not really exist, the sentiment could never possibly have being. Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others. To seek the real beauty, or real deformity, is as fruitless an enquiry, as to pretend to ascertain the real sweet or real bitter."
Immanuel Kant:
"Kant believes he can show that aesthetic judgment is not fundamentally different from ordinary theoretical cognition of nature, and he believes he can show that aesthetic judgment has a deep similarity to moral judgment. For these two reasons, Kant claims he can demonstrate that the physical and moral universes – and the philosophies and forms of thought that present them – are not only compatible, but unified."
Rebuttals:
In a absolute sense, God is beauty and he is the very essence of what beauty comes from.
This is true. Given that Pro agrees that a God does indeed exist, but this doesn't mean that beauty has to be objective. God gave us free will (to choose) and in doing so, gave us all of his beautiful creation to live and thrive in. I would say that beauty is whatever gives man the pleasure in the senses of beauty. I know it is a sort of circular definition, but it is difficult to define true beauty without excluding something that someone else might find truly beautiful. If beauty is truly to be objective, then there must be some sort of a clear-cut definition, yes? Otherwise, it would be what others perceive beauty to be. Now of course God is beauty, and God specifically created all things good, there has to be a line where we draw from sinful, lust or immoral beauty, but again it is difficult to determine what others perceive as beautiful.
Where do we truly draw the line of objective?
To be able to understand and appreciate beauty as a universal and constant element of all objects will humble man and save our morally degenerate society.
So, should we be worried about understanding beauty, rather than admiring it? Of course, there is sinful, lust and immoral beauty, but true good, God given beauty exists, for the purpose to show Gods love for us. So, the real question is, should we seek to understand beauty and cage it into specified areas? Because from what I understand God's beauty is beyond comprehension, so we can't cage it into what we perceive it to be.
If God is to be beauty, and we can't fully comprehend God's beauty, then who are we to object it to certain areas?
Sources:
i cant weight the oll libertyfund link on davidhume on par with other sources presented. as that one is a commentary and synopsis of his writings. if you directly used his book as the source, it would have been better.
i dont consider that synopsis to be scholarly level
tldr you are both right and both yalls sources verifies both subjective and objective beauty. in the writings mentioned
ugh, i really dont want to vote on this. plato uses the word forms in 2 ways. essence and idea. that and theory of forms IS mentioned in the link under 1:3 beauty of forms. but isnt cited.
this is a good debate, but honestly im getting a headache just trying to award sources.
also i am biased toward objective beauty, though i do recognized subjective beauty ie taste. and this circles back to essence or idea distinction AGAIN.
to understand my grief, i give this link. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/real-essence/
basically john locke defines real essence as plato defines form as essence. and defines nominal essence as plato defines form as idea.