Aesthetic Properties as Powers

Realist positions about aesthetic properties are few and far between, though sometimes developed by analogy to realism about secondary properties such as colours. By contrast, I advance a novel realist position about aesthetic properties, which is based on a disanalogy between aesthetic properties and colours. Whereas colours are usually perceived as relatively steady features of external objects, aesthetic properties are perceived as unsteady properties: as powers that objects have to cause a certain experience in the observer. Following on from this observation, I develop a realist account of aesthetic properties as causally efficient powers. Beauty is not merely in the mind of the observer; it is a power of an object to bring about a certain effect, as much instantiated in the object as its fragility or poisonousness. To show how such a view can be made ontologically respectable, I draw on recent ‘dispositionalist’ accounts of powers in philosophical metaphysics. I then offer two arguments in favour of this view. First, the view matches the phenomenology of aesthetic judgement. Second, the view offers an explanation of how it is that critics can demand agreement with their aesthetic judgements.     

The Effects of volume on Perceived Heaviness by Dynamic Touch: With and Without Vision

In 3 experiments, we examined the effects of task characteristics on the selection of a reach action (mode) when several alternatives are afforded. In the bead pickup task, actors had to skewer a 2-mm bead using a sewing needle. Performing this task entailed significant postural control and visual requirements. The block pickup task involved picking up a 3-cm Lego(r) block using a 2-finger grip, which entailed minimal postural and visual demands. In Experiment 1, as reach distance increased, actors performing the bead task consistently changed to reach modes that afforded greater postural stability at closer distances than they did for the block task. Also, during the bead task actors avoided the partial standing reach mode from which it was difficult to maintain the postural control required to complete the bead task. Mode avoidance was not observed for the block task. Experiment 2 showed that actors changed reach modes at distances at which the relative comfort of 2 reach modes changed. The outcome of Experiment 3 indicated that the selection of action mode, including mode avoidance, was associated more closely with the postural demands of the task than visual requirements. The outcome of this investigation indicates that people choose actions that effect the necessary postural control required to complete the task.     

Orientation Invariance and Geometric Primitives in Shape Recognition

Although it is generally assumed that vision is orientation invariant, that is, that shapes can be recognized regardless of viewing angle, there is little evidence that speaks directly to this issue, and what evidence there is fails to support orientation invariance. We propose an explanation for the previous results in terms of the kinds of shape primitives used by the visual system in achieving orientation invariance: Whereas contours are used at stages of vision that ore not orientation invariant, surfaces and/or volumes are used at stages of vision that are orientation invariant. The stimuli in previously reported studies were wire forms, which can represented only in terms of contour. In four experiments, testing both short-term and long-term memory for shape, we replicated the previous failures of orientation invariance using wire forms, but found relatively good or perfect orientation invariance with equivalently shaped surfaces.     

The Affective Experience of Aesthetic Properties

It is widely agreed upon that aesthetic properties, such as grace, balance, and elegance, are perceived. I argue that aesthetic properties are experientially attributed to some non‐perceptible objects. For example, a mathematical proof can be experienced as elegant. In order to give a unified explanation of the experiential attribution of aesthetic properties to both perceptible and non‐perceptible objects, one has to reject the idea that aesthetic properties are perceived. I propose an alternative view: the affective account. I argue that the standard case of experiential aesthetic property attribution is affective experience.     

An Empirical Comparison of Audition,Vision, and Touch in the Discrimination of Temporal Patterns and Ability to Reproduce them

Two conditional reasoning tests were administered to 34 students (17 males and 17 females) at each of four grade levels (i.e., 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th). Both tests contained conditional reasoning arguments which assessed students' comprehension of five basic principles of inference. However, they varied systematically according to the sex typing of the content (i.e., masculine or feminine). The results indicated that there were no significant sex differences according to grade level, type of content, or principle of inference. On the other hand, at each grade level, there were consistent differences among the mean scores for the five principles, and valid principles were significantly easier than invalid principles. The implications of these findings for future research were discussed.     

Technology and Touch

The significance of technology as a human creation is explored through the topic of touch. Touch is variously considered as the alignment of properties of the technological artifact with human sense, as the virtuosity of the user and producer, as an aesthetic, and finally as a participation in problems of value that exceed any one person’s capacity to grasp.     

Hemispheric Asymmetries: Attention to Visual and Auditory Primitives

A computational theory of hemispheric asymmetries in perception (double filtering by frequency) is described. Its central tenet is that the cerebral hemispheres first perform symmetric filtering of visual and auditory information. Functional hemispheric asymmetry arises from a second filtering stage (containing filters skewed in different directions in the two hemispheres). The first stage selects a range of task-relevant spatial or auditory frequencies from the absolute values. This range is passed to the asymmetric filters. In this way, the hemispheric difference becomes one of relative rather than absolute information. Behavioral deficits due to unilateral lesions in neurological patients and neuroimaging and electrophysiological measures in normal subjects implicate posterior cortex in these hemispheric differences.     

Touching as Teaching: The Effect of Touch on Students' Perceptions and Performance

The effect of instructor touch on students' ratings of the instructor and students' performance in the classroom was investigated. A total of 171 male and female college students participated in individual conferences with their instructors following the first examination in the course. Half were touched by their instructors during the conference; the other half were not. Students then evaluated the instructor, the instructor's teaching effectiveness, and the utility of the conference. Analysis of results revealed that students who were touched during the conference gave their instructors significantly higher ratings than those who were not touched. In addition, students in the touched condition showed superior performance on the next course examination, scoring .58 standard deviations higher on the examination compared to the untouched students. The authors conclude that touching, when conducted in a conference situation to help students improve class performance, can be a highly effective teaching tool.     

Philosophical Works as Objects of Aesthetic Judgment

This paper draws attention to the fact that works of philosophy are often judged by aesthetic criteria. This raises the question of whether philosophical writings may properly be regarded as suitable objects of aesthetic judgement in a strong sense; namely, that judging their worth qua works of philosophy is an aesthetic endeavour. The paper argues in the affirmative with the aid of a Kantian account of aesthetic judgement. Judging a work of philosophy by the means chosen may be regarded as subjecting it to criticism by criteria established within a philosophical aesthetic.     

Touch and body language in family therapy

This paper describes the running of a workshop in body language in family therapy; it gives an account of the development of touch and body language techniques in therapy at Hill End Adolescent Unit; it traces over a hundred years, some of the literature and gives a few clinical examples.