Towards a Unified Theory of Beauty
Date
1999
Authors
McMahon, J.A.
Editors
Benitez, E.
Runcie, C.
Runcie, C.
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Journal article
Citation
Literature and Aesthetics, 1999; 9(1):7-27
Statement of Responsibility
Jennifer McMahon
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Abstract
The Pythagorean tradition dominates the understanding of beauty up
until the end of the eighteenth century. According to this tradition, the
experience of beauty is stimulated by certain relations perceived to
obtain between an object/construct's elements. As a result, the object
of the experience of beauty is indeterminate: it has neither a determinate
perceptual analogue (one cannot simply identify beauty as one can a
straight line or a particular shape) nor a determinate concept (there are
no necessary and sufficient conditions for beauty at the semantic
level). By the thirteenth century in the West, the pleasure experienced
in beauty is characterised as disinterested. Yet, on the basis that all
cultural manifestations of the Pythagorean theory of beauty recognise
that judgments of beauty are genuine judgments, we would want to
say that judgments of beauty are 'lawful'. In addition, from ancient
times, up until after Kant, philosophers of beauty within this tradition
recognise two kinds of beauty: a universal, unchanging beauty coexisting with a relative, dynamic beauty. These two kinds of beauty
and the tensions discussed above, are reconciled and dissolved
respectively, according to the metaphysical/religious commitments of
the particular author. As yet, however, these features of beauty have
not been reconciled within a physicalist worldview. This is what I set
out to do. The aim of this paper, then, is to outline a way of thinking about
beauty which resolves these apparent contradictions. An explanatory
hypothesis for beauty is developed, which draws upon recent
developments in cognitive science. A theory of perception needs to
satisfy certain conditions in order to explain the features of beauty in
such a way that they are complementary rather than dichotomous. This
paper begins by uncovering the nature of these conditions, and
considering whether contemporary theories of perception satisfy them.
Finally, an outline of a new way of thinking about beauty emerges,
whose relevance for understanding contemporary art is then examined.
But first, a brief history of beauty is in order.
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