Functional Beauty

摘要

Whatever can be beautiful can be beautiful in various ways. A sword, for example, can be beautiful in virtue of its elegant, curved geometry, in virtue of its brilliant sheen, or in virtue of its emblematic association with victorious combat. It can also be beautiful in the way it fulfils the capacity for which swords are generally designed, viz. that of moving effectively in the hand of the swordsman to cut well at the end of a stroke.