Beauty books

Beauty books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.

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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.

Of the Standard of Taste
David Hume
An essay that asks whether judgments of beauty can be right or wrong, and whether there is a standard of taste. It is a foundational text in aesthetics.
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Critique of Judgment
Immanuel Kant
Argues that a judgment of beauty is disinterested and claims the agreement of others, and it sets out the framework much later aesthetics builds on.
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On Beauty and Being Just
Elaine Scarry
Argues that beauty prompts attention and care, and connects it to ethical life and to fairness.
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The Beauty Myth
Naomi Wolf
A widely read critique of how beauty standards are used against women, including in work and in the economy.
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Beauty
Roger Scruton
A short, accessible defence of beauty as a human value and a guide to the main positions in the debate.
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Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.

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