Beauty, in the eye of the beholder?

[Rubeskies]

Do humans have a pre-determined sense of what is beautiful? Flowers, etc...

What about the fact that mountains were ugly until just a few centuries ago. They were considered "warts on earth." The forrests were considered hideous and haunts of Satan until the Romantics such as Emerson and Thoreau rehabilitated them.

(I got this question from the book The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan)

[Alobar]

yes, its been scientifically proven that humans (and most all animal species) find symetry beautiful, for various and assundry genetic reasons.

As for other things such as forests and mountains and paintings and what not. Everyone is different and I suspect alot of it has to do with society and the way your brain formed when you were a child