scholarly journals The role of expertise in the aesthetic evaluation of mathematical equations

Author(s):  
Gregor U. Hayn-Leichsenring ◽  
Oshin Vartanian ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee

AbstractThere is a notion that mathematical equations can be considered aesthetic objects. However, whereas some aesthetic experiences are triggered primarily by the sensory properties of objects, for mathematical equations aesthetic judgments extend beyond their sensory qualities and are also informed by semantics and knowledge. Therefore, to the extent that expertise in mathematics represents the accumulation of domain knowledge, it should influence aesthetic judgments of equations. In a between-groups study design involving university students who majored in mathematics (i.e., experts) or not (i.e., laypeople), we found support for the hypothesis that mathematics majors exhibit more agreement in their aesthetic judgments of equations—reflecting a greater degree of shared variance driven by formal training in the domain. Furthermore, their judgments were driven more strongly by familiarity and meaning than was the case for laypeople. These results suggest that expertise via advanced training in mathematics alters (and sharpens) aesthetic judgments of mathematical equations.

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110021
Author(s):  
Sizhe Liu ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Xianyou He ◽  
Xiaoxiang Tang ◽  
Shuxian Lai ◽  
...  

There is evidence that greater aesthetic experience can be linked to artworks when their corresponding meanings can be successfully inferred and understood. Modern cultural-expo architecture can be considered a form of artistic creation and design, and the corresponding design philosophy may be derived from representational objects or abstract social meanings. The present study investigates whether cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design is perceived as more beautiful and how architectural photographs and different types of descriptions of architectural appearance designs interact and produce higher aesthetic evaluations. The results showed an obvious aesthetic preference for cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design (Experiment 1). Moreover, we found that the aesthetic rating score of architectural photographs accompanied by an abstract description was significantly higher than that of those accompanied by a representational description only under the difficult-to-understand design condition (Experiment 2). The results indicated that people preferred cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design due to a greater understanding of the design, providing further evidence that abstract descriptions can provide supplementary information and explanation to enhance the sense of beauty of abstract cultural-expo architecture.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Salvador Rubio Marco

Abstract: The aim of P. Kivy’s recent De Gustibus: Arguing about Taste and Why We Do It (2015) is to answer to the very same question in terms of an emphasis on belief based on «phenomenological» (if not also ontological) «art-realism». Those who disagree on taste do so because they (explicitly or implicitly) see, in judgments relating to properties of artworks, the expression of beliefs, some of which are «true», and true in virtue of correctly reporting «facts» (non-aesthetic art-relevant facts, aesthetic art-relevant facts, or art value facts), and they try to convince others of what they think is «real» about art. Kivy follows the traces of this phenomenology of «beautiful» found in Hume’s work (and vs. Kant’s work). The main criticism is that it is actually possible to defend an alternative approach to understanding art in terms of «aspects» (an allegedly ‘anti-realist’ concept), so as to take account of rationality, disputes and the role of facts regarding judgments of taste. Kivy does not concede enough attention to the aesthetic experiences of seeing now what we were unable to see before (the «dawning» of an aspect), for example.Key words: Kivy, taste, phenomenology, belief, aesthetics, Wittgenstein.Resumen: El objetivo del reciente De Gustibus. Arguing about Taste and Why We Do It (2015), de P. Kivy es responder a la pregunta incluida en el título de su libro en términos de un énfasis en la creencia que se basa en un realismo en arte «fenomenológico» (si no también ontológico): quienes que disputan sobre «gusto» suelen hacerlo porque ellos (explícita o implícitamente) ven los juicios concernientes a las propiedades de las obras de arte como expresando creencias, algunas de las cuales son verdaderas, y verdaderas en virtud de reportar hechos correctamente (hechos no estéticos relevantes para el arte, hechos estéticos relevantes para el arte o hechos de valor artístico), y tratan de convencer a otros de lo que ellos piensan que es ‘real’ sobre el arte. Kivy sigue el rastro de esa fenomenología de ‘lo bello’ a partir de la obra de Hume (y contra la obra de Kant). Mi crítica principal es que es posible defender un enfoque alternativo de la comprensión del arte en términos de aspectos (un concepto supuestamente «antirrealista») a fin de tener en cuenta la racionalidad, las disputas y el papel de los hechos con respecto a los juicios de gusto. Kivy no presta suficiente atención a las experiencias estéticas de ver ahora lo que no podíamos ver antes (el «aparecer» de un aspecto), por ejemplo.Palabras claves: Kivy, gusto, fenomenología, creencia, estética, Wittgenstein.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Klauk ◽  
Tilmann Köppe

AbstractCurrent accounts of the aims and methods of criticism as developed in Emil Staiger’s seminal essay »Die Kunst der Interpretation« typically do not concentrate on the role of aesthetic experience. We clarify the notion of aesthetic experience employed in Staiger’s essay and point out the centrality of aesthetic experience for his view of criticism. According to Staiger, aesthetic experiences are central to the aesthetic merit of an artwork, they guide the critic’s appreciation of aesthetic properties, and literary criticism should be concerned with the elucidation of how aesthetic properties are based on other manifest properties of a work. We also review some recent alternative reconstructions of Staiger’s view, and offer some routes to a critique of his view that is based on his central assumptions concerning the aims and methods of criticism, rather than on a rejection of them.


2021 ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
John Toner ◽  
Barbara Gail Montero ◽  
Aidan Moran

A considerable volume of research has explored spectators’ attraction to the aesthetic aspects of sport. However, considerably less attention has been devoted to an evaluation of the aesthetic dimension of sport from the performer’s perspective. This chapter hypothesizes that such evaluation can benefit athletic skill. It substantiates and elucidates some of the types of aesthetic experiences athletes may undergo and considers their potential use in sports. The chapter argues that athletes sometimes evaluate their actions by determining whether they have certain aesthetic quality, such as whether a movement embodies power or feels somehow just beautifully right. In bringing some of these ideas together it considers how an athlete’s aesthetic awareness of their own movements might be conducive to better practice and performance. This thesis is propaedeutic to future empirical work investigating the role of aesthetic self-evaluation in athletic performance.


Author(s):  
Christian C. Steciuch ◽  
Ryan D. Kopatich ◽  
Daniel P. Feller ◽  
Amanda M. Durik ◽  
Keith Millis

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Bertinetto

Die Hauptfrage, die ich in diesem Aufsatz diskutieren will, ist die folgende: Welche sind die ästhetisch-normativen Voraussetzungen für das richtige Verständnis und die richtige Evaluation von Jazz? Meine These lautet: Die Jazzästhetik ist eine Ästhetik der gelungenen Performanz. Sie ist nicht eine Ästhetik der Unvollkommenheit. Ich werde meine Argumentation in die folgenden Abschnitte gliedern. Nach der Einleitung (I.) wird in Abschnitt II. die ›These der Unvollkommenheit‹ dargestellt und in III. werden anschließend einige Argumente dagegen diskutiert. In den Abschnitten IV. und V. werden die für die Jazzästhetik wichtige Frage nach dem »Fehler« und das entscheidende Thema der Normativität untersucht. Dazu werde ich geltend machen, dass die ›These der Unvollkommenheit‹ insbesondere deswegen unbefriedigend ist, weil sie die spezifische Normativität von Jazz als Improvisationskunst missversteht. In Abschnitt VI. wird schließlich erklärt, in welchem Sinne von einer Normativität der gelungenen Performanz die Rede sein kann und warum dies für unser Verständnis von Jazz bedeutend ist. Abschließend (VII.) wird diese Idee gegen mögliche Einwände verteidigt.<br><br>In this paper I aim at discussing the aesthetic-normative conditions for the right understanding and the right evaluation of jazz. My main point is this: The aesthetics of jazz is an aesthetics of the successful performance, rather than an aesthetics of imperfection. The paper will be structured as follows. SectionI introduces the topic. SectionII presents the ›imperfection thesis‹, while III discusses some arguments against it. Sections IV and V investigate two related questions: the first is about the role of the »mistake« in jazz; the second concerns the crucial topic of normativity. At this regard I will maintain that the ›imperfection thesis‹ does not work, especially because it misunderstands the specific normativity of jazz as improvisational art. Section VI is devoted to clarifying both in which sense the idea of a normativity of the successful performance is sound and why this idea is important for understanding jazz. Finally (VII) I defend this view against possible objections.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-202

The article advances a hypothesis about the composition of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays. Specialists in the intellectual history of the Renaissance have long considered the relationship among Montaigne’s thematically heterogeneous thoughts, which unfold unpredictably and often seen to contradict each other. The waywardness of those reflections over the years was a way for Montaigne to construct a self-portrait. Spontaneity of thought is the essence of the person depicted and an experimental literary technique that was unprecedented in its time and has still not been surpassed. Montaigne often writes about freedom of reflection and regards it as an extremely important topic. There have been many attempts to interpret the haphazardness of the Essays as the guiding principle in their composition. According to one such interpretation, the spontaneous digressions and readiness to take up very different philosophical notions is a form of of varietas and distinguo, which Montaigne understood in the context of Renaissance philosophy. Another interpretation argues that the Essays employ the rhetorical techniques of Renaissance legal commentary. A third opinion regards the Essays as an example of sprezzatura, a calculated negligence that calls attention to the aesthetic character of Montaigne’s writing. The author of the article argues for a different interpretation that is based on the concept of idleness to which Montaigne assigned great significance. He had a keen appreciation of the role of otium in the culture of ancient Rome and regarded leisure as an inner spiritual quest for self-knowledge. According to Montaigne, idleness permits self-directedness, and it is an ideal form in which to practice the freedom of thought that brings about consistency in writing, living and reality, in all of which Montaigne finds one general property - complete inconstancy. Socratic self-knowledge, a skepticism derived from Pyrrho of Elis and Sextus Empiricus, and a rejection of the conventions of traditional rhetoric that was similar to Seneca’s critique of it were all brought to bear on the concept of idleness and made Montaigne’s intellectual and literary experimentation in the Essays possible.


Author(s):  
Bart Vandenabeele

Schopenhauer explores the paradoxical nature of the aesthetic experience of the sublime in a richer way than his predecessors did by rightfully emphasizing the prominent role of the aesthetic object and the ultimately affirmative character of the pleasurable experience it offers. Unlike Kant, Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the sublime does not appeal to the superiority of human reason over nature but affirms the ultimately “superhuman” unity of the world, of which the human being is merely a puny fragment. The author focuses on Schopenhauer’s treatment of the experience of the sublime in nature and argues that Schopenhauer makes two distinct attempts to resolve the paradox of the sublime and that Schopenhauer’s second attempt, which has been neglected in the literature, establishes the sublime as a viable aesthetic concept with profound significance.


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