If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then what does it mean to be a "10"? Numbers imply that something can be measured, which in turn suggests some objective truth. After all, the numbers don't lie. But numbers don't tell the whole story either. So what is left out?

The opposite of a ranking system is clearly just as false, right? "Everyone is beautiful" falls apart pretty quick, if not because of logic, because of the overwhelming abundance of evidence willing to assault the senses to the contrary. Sure, if you're talking about the beauty of the whole, like evil is a byproduct through which goodness manifests in the excremental dimension, or whatever, I can see your point. But beauty is beauty. It is tittilating and infinitely desirable, whereas ugliness is not.

So beauty is neither an objective ranking system, nor is it a subjective preference, which can just be made up through PR and marketing. So what is it?

I think truth is actually a parallel question, though in this age of cameras and science, it's not as obvious that what is obvious isn't visible.

There is no view from nowhere. A "view" is always from some per-spec-tive. And yet every view relies on a system of coordinates, an imagined whole, in which the viewer can place herself, others, and phenomena.

If there is no objective view, and yet subjectivity is always objective, then perhaps the truest objective truth is that each one of us believes that there IS such truth. Something is real, content TBD. The other side of the absconding universe is there, being watched and validated.

The corollary? Ask yourself whose gaze occupies your view from nowhere? Whose gaze do you imagine judging you?

The true, the good, and the beautiful are that which a wise, just, and good-taste-having beholder regard as true, good and beautiful. This is circular to be sure, but honestly what else could it be? Unless God suddenly ripped through the fabric of Being to settle the debate once and for all, we would have to rely on the divine within each of us, if at all.