Ethel D. Puffer

The Psychology of Beauty

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The Psychology of Beauty is a classic aesthetics essay by Ethel D. Puffer. The human being who thrills to the experience of beauty in nature and in art does not forever rest with that experience unquestioned. The day comes when he yearns to pierce the secret of his emotion, to discover what it is, and why, that has so stung him--to defend and to justify his transport to himself and to others. He seeks a reason for the faith that is in him. And so have arisen the speculative theories of the nature of beauty, on the one hand, and the studies of concrete beauty and our feelings about it, on the other. Speculative theory has taken its own way, however, as a part of philosophy, in relating the Beautiful to the other great concepts of the True and the Good; building up an architectonic of abstract ideas, far from the immediate facts and problems of the enjoyment of beauty. There has grown up, on the other hand, in the last years, a great literature of special studies in the facts of aesthetic production and enjoyment. Experiments with the aesthetic elements; investigations into the physiological psychology of aesthetic reactions; studies in the genesis and development of art forms, have multiplied apace. But these are still mere groups of facts for psychology; they have not been taken up into a single authoritative principle. Psychology cannot do justice to the imperative of beauty, by virtue of which, when we say "this is beautiful," we have a right to imply that the universe must agree with us. A synthesis of these tendencies in the study of beauty is needed, in which the results of modern psychology shall help to make intelligible a philosophical theory of beauty. The chief purpose of this book is to seek to effect such a union. Contents: Criticism and aesthetics -- The nature of beauty -- The aesthetic repose -- The beauty of fine art; The beauty of visual form; Space composition among the old masters -- The beauty of music -- The beauty of literature -- The nature of the emotions of the drama -- The beauty of ideas.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Binker North
• Seitenzahl: 184
• Erscheinungstermin: 17. April 2020
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 11mm
• Gewicht: 276g
• ISBN-13: 9781774416723
• ISBN-10: 1774416727
• Artikelnr.: 59382575

Autorenporträt

Ethel Dench Puffer Howes (10 October 1872-1950) was an American psychologist and feminist organizer. The ideal life must be that in which every act has a meaning for the whole, in which every purpose comes to fruition. Life is a unity, and responsibility is its matchword: for responsibility means obligation, a bond, one part of life answering to another part, a close-woven texture. - Puffer Howes, January 18[1] As one of the first women to embark on a career in psychology, Ethel Dench Puffer Howes faced obstacles at every turn, from institutionalized sexism at the universities and colleges where she studied and taught, to the challenge of maintaining a family life and career (all too familiar to women even a century later).[2] She and her female peers nevertheless laid the groundwork for women in psychology today. Though choosing to marry effectively ended her career in academia, she adjusted her expectations and efforts to push the boundaries of socially imposed limitations for women, spending the rest of her life organizing and lobbying for women's interests.[3] Her attempts to live an ideal life, with the close-woven texture articulated so eloquently in the above quote, were never fulfilled in academia or in the field of psychology in particular, but her accomplishments in the nascent feminist socio-political movement brought that life into reach for future generations of women.