Osé: An Ethico-Aesthetic Conception of Beauty in Bini Thought

摘要

This essay examines the conception of beauty in the thought system of the Bini of Edo State, Nigeria. Like the Western tradition, the Bini recognize the dichotomy between the normative and the aesthetical conceptions of beauty, but, whereas most traditional Western theories emphasize the aesthetical conception which analyses beauty in terms of aesthetic notions like subjectivism, objectivism, realism and contextualism, the Bini stress more on the normative function of beauty by making the human person, his moral worth and his quality of association and mutual converse the focal points of his analysis. Using the phenomenological and critical methods, this paper examines the normative conception of beauty in the Bini thought system against the backdrop of aesthetic conceptions in Western tradition, with a view of establishing that the Bini conception of beauty incorporates both the appearance of things and the impression we have of them in relation to the usefulness of the object of beauty and the historical facts about the people it represent. The paper also shows how the object of beauty enhances concepts, values, practices and habits that define human dignity and evolves a viable and appropriate social order that would engender development in society.