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This article serves as an introduction to a collection of papers that respond to Jonathan Palmer's paper on the role of creativity in psychoanalytic work. The contributors, who are known for their creative approach to psychoanalysis and art, offer their unique perspectives on the theme of creativity in psychoanalysis. They emphasize the significance of creativity, aliveness, and play in the therapeutic process, drawing on personal experiences and artistic references. The papers encourage readers to reflect on their own sources of creative expression and consider the role of creativity in their own analytic encounters. [Extracted from the article]

This article delves into the relationship between art and psychoanalysis, specifically focusing on the concept of aesthetic experience and its impact on therapy. The authors discuss how aesthetic experiences can lead to transformative change for both patients and analysts, allowing for new approaches to life and the ability to confront difficult experiences. They emphasize the importance of the analyst's involvement and openness in creating an environment for these experiences to occur. The article also touches on the role of creativity in therapy and the analyst's responsibility to nurture the patient's own creative self. Overall, the article highlights the interplay between art and psychoanalysis and the potential for aesthetic experiences to deepen the therapeutic relationship. [Extracted from the article]

This paper discussed the art appreciation technique using Jerrold Levinson's artistic value in arriving at the importance of aesthetic experience in artwork. Levinson claimed that artistic value covers aesthetic value and achievement value, specifically in analyzing Juan Luna's Spoliarium, which is considered the largest painting in the Philippines and is proclaimed as a national heritage. This paper argued that art should have aesthetic engagement from the viewer's point of view which would lead them to discover its artistic value. Thus, this paper used the contextualizing technique since it augments and strengthens artistic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the potential of applying process drama in moral education in Chinese schools. By conducting a thematic review of the current national curriculum and policy documents from both historical and contemporary perspectives, the interconnection between the role of art and moral cultivation in China is discussed. Through an analysis of the national curriculum, the article suggests that applying process drama in school education can contribute to learning in the curriculum areas of both aesthetic and moral education. However, the existing commingling of concepts and definitions influences the actual drama practices in China. Consequently, a discussion of terminology is brought in, as well as an argument for the need to include drama as a discrete subject in schools, in addition to its function as a method for educational purposes. A process drama sample from the author's drama praxis is included. The overall aim of the article is to contribute to an extended understanding of educational drama and theatre in a Chinese context and to gain new insights into possibilities and challenges for the future implementation of drama in education in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basically, humans desire nothing but to be happy. Humans exert much effort to make their lives meaningful and worth living. For humans, obtaining the meaning of existence is the foundation of happiness. However, despite humans' desire to be happy, an ugly truth still remains: life is a tragedy. Friedrich Nietzsche argues that life is a constant struggle and that to live is to suffer. By seeing this ugly picture of life, humans gradually fall into depression. "Depression is a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure . . . and may lead to suicide (WHO, 2021)." More so, science contends that specific brain dysfunctions cause depression, and various solutions are offered to address this, like taking anti-depressants and undergoing psychotherapy, but amidst all these, depression remains. In this case, what other means can be utilized to address the problem of depression? Using the philosophical-qualitative method, this paper will attempt to address the perennial issue of depression. This paper attempts to understand the problem of depression by tracing it to the degradation of meaning and will resolve it by explaining the essential role aesthetics plays in man's existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper investigates the nuanced concepts of bhavna (feeling/emotion) and vichar (thought) in Indian and Western literature and poetics. Drawing upon classical Indian writings of Abhinavgupta, Bhartruhari, Mamata, Bharat Muni and canonical poems by William Wordsworth, Coleridge, John Keats, Matthew Arnold, and Robert Browning, the paper analyzes how these two cultural traditions approach the portrayal and integration of emotion and thought in artistic expression. By examining representative excerpts from these Western poets alongside examples from classical Indian texts, this study aims to elucidate the similarities, differences, and unique characteristics of bhavnaand vichar in shaping the aesthetic experience across cultural traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his paper 'Communicating and not communicating leading to a study of certain opposites' (1963), Donald Winnicott suggests that there is a silent, non‐communicating area of experience at the core of the self. Poetic expression takes a prominent role in the text. In this article, I concentrate on the aesthetic dimension of Winnicott's text and use it to explore the role of aesthetic experience in the development of self‐experience. I suggest that the paper's aesthetic dimension—form, quality and structure—expresses essential characteristics of the core of the self and the mature self's communication with it. I furthermore suggest that Winnicott, by use of poetic expression, offers the idea that the core, defined here as pre‐reflective experience, can be approached through aesthetic means. Building on George Hagman and Giuseppe Civitarese, I argue that aesthetic experience creates a bridge between pre‐reflective and reflective aspects of self‐experience and thus contributes to the integration of self. I suggest that forming a connection with the core can be seen as an aesthetic act where the intention is not to transform pre‐reflective experience into reflective. Since aesthetic experience includes reflection, the effort to represent the core of the self remains paradoxical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I consider David Olson's account of how literacy produces a new kind of consciousness, one in which a process of metacognition makes possible both knowledge and an understanding of language itself. This, he argues, enables readers and writers to reflect upon language, understand what constitutes reasoning, and recognize any logical flaws embedded in written texts. I then locate Olson within the cognitivist tradition of Jerome Bruner, critically analyzing Bruner's concept of emotion as well as Olson's account of experience. While he acknowledges the place of experience in John Dewey's account of literacy, he tends to regard it as a form of consciousness rather than something more primordial. I go on to argue that experience, rather than consciousness, is a fundamental ingredient in the life of the mind and learning in general, where aesthetic emotions play a significant role. A theory of literacy that fails to take these elements into account is incomplete, however powerful it may appear. In order to make this argument, I utilize the work of John Dewey and Alfred North Whitehead, who afford experience and aesthetic emotions a primordial place in their process philosophies. I also contrast the organic concept of mind advocated by Whitehead and Dewey in their theory of learning with the mechanistic account Olson inherits from Bruner. Furthermore, I analyze the importance Whitehead ascribes to art education, and go on to show why he believes art to be the source of consciousness itself. Once again, this contrasts with Olson's cognitivist account. I conclude that without experience and aesthetic emotion our capacity to reflect upon them through language would not be possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how co-designing urban walkability can be augmented by an innovative hybrid approach, whereby virtual records and visualisations of the walking experience can enhance the awareness, perceptions and immersion of the participant in both real and virtual spaces. From one side of that model, the research explores how people might be intrigued enough to discover the real context, based on their experience informed and enriched by parallel images of the city. On the other side, the study aimed to develop a critical understanding of urban walking through the lens of 3D high-definition LIDAR scanning technology, where visualisation techniques were used to support studies to explore how the rich experience of walking could be captured and represented. The paper presents a theoretical framework to propose how walking could be promoted, and positively influenced by the urban environment, by regarding the city from the abstract perspective of the virtual point cloud. The research has investigated how and whether a place – real and abstracted – could act as a trigger to produce novel ideas and unfold thoughts in a participatory way. The interlinkages between motion and (visual) perception of the environment as an aesthetic experience were critical to informing how digital technology can be utilised as a virtual space within which the richness of real interactions and experiences with urban space can be represented, refined, interacted with and used within a rich(er) process of co-design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does emancipation from social oppression work and unfold? The paper is an attempt to deal with this question from an aesthetic point of view. By drawing on pragmatist resources, and more precisely on John Dewey's aesthetic theory and on Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper', I discuss the critical and transformative potential of a special kind of aesthetic experience, namely 'aecsthetic experience'. The paper unfolds in three steps: First, I introduce Iris Marion Young's account of social oppression, which fits particularly well with the framework of the 'The Yellow Wallpaper' (1). I show then, in contrast to an established interpretation, how the protagonist of Gilman's story makes an experience of liberation from oppression (2). Finally, I reconstruct Dewey's role in my interpretation of this feminist classic, and I suggest what a Deweyan account might learn from it (3). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of nightlife and the nighttime economy has witnessed a growing prominence in the realm of urban development. The urban nightlife landscape, serving as the backdrop for urban nighttime pursuits, plays a significant role in determining nighttime consumption patterns and overall nocturnal experiences. However, there is a significant lacuna in the existing scholarship on the fundamental reasoning behind the formation of nightlife landscapes, with the primary analytical focus in earlier studies on daytime landscapes. Drawing upon a spatiotemporal geography perspective, this paper aims to uncover the underlying logic behind the various forms of urban nightlife landscapes. It seeks to identify the key factors that shape these landscapes, thus unveiling their formation mechanisms, overall typology and aesthetic characteristics. Based on the cases of four bar streets in Guangzhou, China, this study argues that the historical heritage and location advantages give rise to two developmental forces in shaping the nightlife landscape: romanticisation and commercialisation. The intertwining of these two forces results in four fundamental categories of urban nightlife landscape: ordinary leisure, gentrification, creative and nostalgic districts, each exhibiting distinct aesthetic characteristics. This paper provides insights into the formation and aesthetic mechanisms of urban nightlife landscapes, and emphasises the importance for urban planners and policymakers to take the spatial-historical context into account when formulating strategies for urban beatification initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last few decades have seen growing interest in the field of disciplinary aesthetics. While the physical sciences and mathematics have attracted significant interest in this area, relatively little attention has been given to the aesthetic potential of learning about the structure of one's own native language. Within this paper, we bring together ideas from evolutionary aesthetics, philosophy, psychology and neuroscience to explore the question of what might characterize an aesthetics of grammar learning. The paper connects our previous empirical findings with theoretical developments across these disciplines. We argue that explicit grammar learning has a particular potential to evoke aesthetic experience due to its role as a mediator between procedural and declarative knowledge. We suggest that by facilitating the transformation from knowhow to knowledge, grammar learning has the potential to generate cognitive consonance, experienced as an aesthetic-epistemic feeling of fittingness. The discussion draws parallels between the characteristics of grammar and the properties of entities more traditionally conceived to be aesthetic (such as art works and performances). In particular, we note that meta-linguistic labels (grammar terms) provide concrete tokens which facilitate virtual models, supporting the transition from 'automatism' to 'conscious reflection'. The paper concludes by exploring the implications for the field of disciplinary aesthetics and for developing pedagogies which maximize the aesthetic potential of grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the experience and effects of a trauma-responsive program that uses creative methods to address the ongoing psychosocial impacts of transgenerational trauma and youth suicide, which disproportionately affect First Nations people in Australia. Our aim is to understand how the aesthetic (sensory-affective) dimensions of such a program serve to promote experiences of growth after trauma, manifesting in a sense of connection to both self and community. The paper focuses on the second of two immersive, experiential workshops delivered seven months apart in the regional town of Warwick in Queensland, Australia. In the light of self-reports of growth and personal transformation following the initial workshop, the paper examines the key drivers of such growth, focusing in particular on how trauma-related experience is metabolised through cultural containment. It builds on Bion's concept of container/contained, combining analysis of the affordances of immersion. Framed in cultural rather than medical terms, the larger goal of the paper is to establish how cultural programs fill a gap in trauma informed support, facilitating the processing of trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences of six teacher learners and one teacher educator in a graduate course on aesthetic education at a Midwestern university in the U.S. Using collective autoethnography and arts-practice research, the researcher/participants examine how aesthetic experiences were activated in the learning environment and how this activation supported the development of transformational rethinking that led to the changing of formed habits of teaching. Findings reveal how aesthetic teacher education can be therapeutic, aid in building connections between the teacher and students (and among students), inspire wonder and discovery, facilitate the valuing and including of cultural and linguistic backgrounds of students, compel new perspectives, and promote attunement to process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to introduce a meaning-making process called 'sensuous abstraction' as one approach to aesthetic experience in line with Dewey's philosophy. Dewey highlights aesthetic experience as the best form of experience that integrates emotional and intellectual qualities to foster deep learning and insights. Building on contemporary research on sensation, affect, and human brain, this paper identifies two distinct modes of human understanding: the linguistic/conceptual system and the sensuous-imaginative system. The former, often associated with abstraction and intellectual thinking, is heavily emphasized in traditional schooling, but the latter, integral to human cognition, is sadly neglected and overlooked. While situational meaning offers a way to bridge the two systems, it often falls short of leading to aesthetic experience. In response, sensuous abstraction can promote a process of meaning making that becomes more general than sensation but never as general as linguistic categories while maintaining its sensory wholeness as aesthetic experience demands. Using a classical artwork as an example, this paper concludes sensuous abstraction can be adopted as one approach for educators to create learning experiences by integrating sensory experience and generalizations and abstractions that lead to aesthetic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vasily Sesemann's aesthetics is a transcendental philosophy that seeks to answer the question of how an experience of beauty is possible. Sesemann insists that aesthetics should focus on the study of the aesthetic object itself, and through it go to the problematics of the act of perception and creativity. Sesemann states that not only the relationship between the work of art and the perceiver is important in order to understand the aesthetic object, but also the relationship between the work of art and the creator. The aesthetic object in its sedimented form not only retains indications of the act of creation, but also makes demands on the perceiving subject. Aesthetic objects are sedimented passive structures that can be activated by the performative actions of the perceiver when she discovers the appropriate way of perception. Sesemann, like Moritz Geiger, claims that aesthetics is impossible without an analysis of feelings. He, like Geiger, recognizes the importance of empathy in aesthetic experience. However, Sesemann develops the concept of aesthetic empathy using Max Scheler's arguments. Empathy is necessary, because the perceiver must be able to understand expressions. The aim of this paper is to analyse the phenomenological aspects of Vasily Sesemann's aesthetics. Firstly, this paper analyzes the Sesemann's phenomenology of aesthetic experience. Secondly, it shows that the analysis performed by Sesemann demonstrates why empathy plays a leading role in aesthetic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Current accounting practice tends to split environmental complexities into quantifiable, codified elements, producing codified simplifications of the "complex" in pursuit of environmental externalities. This has led to standardization, but has done little to motivate organizations to engage in more environmentally-aware behavior that transcends the coercive dimensions of codification. The work of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) can bring new insights and perspectives to social and environmental accounting (SEA). In discussing Humboldt's philosophy of understanding the interconnectedness between people, their contexts (cultures) and their environment, the authors contribute to the emerging SEA literature on notions of interconnectedness and the web of accountabilities. The authors also explore how a Humboldtian approach may help break through the current epistemological boundaries of SEA by combining accurate measurement with imagery to make the "complex" manageable whilst embracing interconnectedness and hermeneutics. Design/methodology/approach: In this conceptual paper, the authors humbly draw on Humboldt's legacy and explore the underlying philosophical assumptions of Humboldtian science. The authors then contrast these with current SEA approaches in the literature and derive new insights into their intentionality and practical use. Findings: Re-examining Humboldt's pioneering work enables us to pinpoint what might be missing from current SEA approaches and debates. Humboldt upheld an "ethics of precision," which included both measurement accuracy and qualitative relevance, and combined hands-on scientific fieldwork with the aesthetic ideals and interconnectedness of the age of Romanticism. Drawing on Humboldtian science, the authors propose focusing on the interconnectedness of nature and humanity, embracing the qualitative and hermeneutical and including aesthetics and emotion in environmental visualizations. Originality/value: The paper elucidates why and how Humboldtian science might inform, guide and enhance the emancipatory potential of SEA in the 21st century. Specifically, the authors discuss Humboldt's approach of linking accurate measurement with imagery to convey a sense of interconnectedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rich tapestry of renowned ballad culture, deeply interwoven with ecological consciousness and green health principles, forms the crux of this study. This paper delves into the metaphorical representation of water, not just as a source of artistic imagery but as a symbol deeply connected to green health - reflecting the interplay between human emotions, environmental sustainability, and traditional production life. Employing metaphor theory, we map 'water' as the foundational domain, transferring its inherent qualities to a broader ecological and healthfocused context, thereby constructing a nuanced art mapping mechanism that bridges water ecology and song. Central to our approach is the enhanced coupling model of watershed water ecological carrying capacity zoning. This model facilitates in-depth analysis of the cumulative interrelations between the functional zoning of water ecology, environmental stewardship, and the cultural-artistic essence of ballads. Our findings reveal a symbiotic relationship between varying water system cultures, characterized by hydrological frequencies of P=50%, 70%, and 90%. Each system fosters distinct water ecological cultures - reverence as the essence of life, gratitude as the value of life, and responsibility as the true meaning of life - which mutually permeate and influence one another across three distinct levels. Furthermore, this paper explores how the narrative and musical artistry of ballads can intertwine to enhance the listener's aesthetic experience, fostering an appreciation for the sensibilities of green health. This exploration allows for a deeper enjoyment of the songs and perpetuates the traditional Chinese cultural ethos of 'goodness is like water', highlighting its relevance in contemporary ecological and health discourses. Through this intricate exploration, the study aims to underscore the vital role of green health in the artistic and cultural interpretation of water within the realm of ballad music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jonathan Palmer's account of his artmaking practice illuminates the distinct role of intuition and the centrality of aesthetic experience in the creative process. The paper throws light on the work of creating a setting and framework that lends itself to an intuitive engagement, both in art-making and in analysis, an engagement that allows the painter and analyst to remain open to new formations of not-yet represented elements of experience. This paper shows what is entailed in keeping the possibly of fresh experience alive, by careful attention to the framing of things, the properties of the chosen medium, and the experimental posture of the practitioner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether an ethical flaw in an artwork can be an aesthetic merit. I explore two versions of immoralism from Eaton and Kieran. I will defend the immoralist claim that artworks containing rough heroes are ethically flawed. I will then argue that an indirect connection between an ethical flaw and aesthetic merit is sufficient for immoralism, so long as it is a necessary connection. On this understanding of immoralism, I will argue that Eaton and Kieran are both successful in showing that an ethical flaw in an artwork can make it aesthetically better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by discussing the connection between Romanticism as a literary movement and transcendental philosophy. From here, I connect Julian Eilmann's work on Tolkien's Romanticism to Tolkien's popularity with general readers, speculating that perhaps this reflects a Romantic "longing for the infinite" in modern 'disenchanted' readers. To make an alliance with Romanticism more concrete, Tolkien's works should not merely appeal to readerly sentimentality, I argue, but should be linked to the realization of a supersensual (but objective) reality. To do this, I introduce Coleridge's notion of the Reason as a supersensual organ which apprehends Platonic Ideas, drawing on recent work by the philosopher Peter Cheyne and other Coleridgeans. I also connect Tolkien's writings to something I call the translucence of art, which allows for the apprehension of Ideas via aesthetic experience. After some discussion of the commensurability of life and art, I connect the possibility of this apprehension to readerly (and ludic) immersion. I then explicate the Coleridgean notion of Ideas as "living powers" through the Valar as the "powers" of Arda, discussing the role of a Coleridgean conception of immersion in The Silmarillion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human needs, and their fulfillment, are the building blocks of human development, personality, and well-being. However, no published paper in the field of psychology has focused on exploring aesthetic needs. Maslow (1986) gave the topic little more than a paragraph; and Dweck [1], in her elegant Unified Theory of Motivation, Personality, and Development, never mentions aesthetic needs. The aim of this article is to describe developing a scale for measuring the intensity of aesthetic needs. The structure, psychometric properties, and criterion-related validity of the scale were verified with three independent samples (total N = 592). The results of an EFA and two CFAs indicated a three-factor structure: 1) the need to aestheticize everyday life (aesthetic experiences of everyday objects and events unrelated to art, such as the presentation of food or the appearance of a workspace, etc.); 2) the need for contact with aesthetic creations (the arts); 3) the need to aestheticize the built and natural environments (urban spaces, architecture, parks, wild nature, etc.). In addition, our criterion-related convergent validity studies have shown that people with high aesthetic needs are characterized by experiencing more intense experiences in contact with works of art, have higher aesthetic competence in art, are more intensely involved in four forms of beauty, have a higher ability to integrate beauty, a stronger trait gratitude, curiosity about nature, greater sensitivity to disgust, and the need for internal and external stimulation. This scale may prove useful in research on individual differences and the psychology of aesthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vision and aesthetics are inseparable dimensions of national image building. Based on 106,562 China-related images from Twitter (renamed as X), this paper introduced a computational aesthetic approach to investigate the visual communication activities of social bots on Twitter and compared the similarities and differences between human and bot accounts' posted images so as to explore the influence of social bots' aesthetic strategies. The results show that social bots have displayed different aesthetic strategies in the construction of the China-related visual frame, and formed obvious stylistic differences with humans in brightness, saturation, color, etc. Negative binomial regression indicates that the aesthetic strategies of social bots contribute to more likes and shares. The automation of visual communication and aesthetic construction not only makes the global building and communication of national image face new situations and challenges, but also pushes the whole human visual aesthetic, creation, and communication activities under the potential subjectivity crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory art turns the artwork into a process of engagement and co-creation, and it thus involves forms of time-based coordination that influence the experience of creating participatory art. In this paper I argue that participatory art is underscored by two contrasting temporal frameworks. One is the framework of long-term durational approaches that have been internalized among artists as an ethical and political obligation toward participants; the other is the short-term temporary framework that typically comes with project funding and steers the project toward delivery of target outcomes. To show the tensions to which these contrasting temporal frameworks can give rise, I analyze the development of a participatory art project in Copenhagen's South Harbor. Specifically, the analysis emphasizes how tensions arose in respect to delimitations of project aspects such as who constitutes the creative team, what is the task before us, and what is our expected contribution to the community. By emphasizing the tensions arising from contrasting temporal frameworks, the article contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the experience of creating participatory art, and to problematizing the question of time for participatory art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article aims to analyze two approaches, Aesthetic and Pragmatistic, among the approaches to the philosophical field of music education. Pragmatists show how music is associated with the scientific paradigm and socio -cultural actions; on the other hand, music education seeks to increase the ability of perception, experience and evaluation of the aesthetic qualities.This will not be possible without using the aesthetic approach.The question of the research is whether the aesthetic perception of music and its perception as a social action are more compatible with each other, or are the two views completely opposite and contradictory?The method of data acquisition is based on library research and using texts of two approaches since the mid -1950s.The research method is qualitative and based on descriptive -analytical method;for this purpose,the theories of two approaches were taken into consideration in order to achieve the reconstruction of the aesthetic approach by considering the negative and positive attitude of each of them and passing the Bipolarity. In this reconstruction, the paper is relied on the tools, method and philosophical content of music education, which was presented on the basis of the theories of the two mentioned approaches.The results of the research showed that if we consider the aesthetic experience in music more as an act of creating meaning than internal reflections, music is no longer an independent object with an inherent meaning, and there will be no need to abandon the aesthetic approach the way that is done in pragmatism. The aesthetic experience in reconstructing the aesthetic approach refers to the way someone interacts with the aesthetic object, which requires cultural education. Modern education is based on the fact that every child should have the opportunity to expand their abilities to observe, experience, evaluate and create the Beauty. This can be achieved by planning music education using both approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Literature / Primerjalna Književnost is the property of Slovenian Comparative Literature Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Art-E is the property of Suleyman Demirel University, Faculty of Fine Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aesthetic experiences have the potential to promote learning and creativity by enhancing the ability to understand complexity and to integrate novel or disparate information. Offering a theoretical framework for understanding the cognitive benefits of aesthetic experiences, this paper argues they are the necessary outcome of human learning, in which natural objects or artworks are evaluated in a multi-dimensional preference space shaped by Bayesian prediction. In addition, it contends that the brain-states underlying aesthetic experiences harness configurations of the apex three transmodal neural systems--the default mode network, the central executive network, and the salience network--that may offer information-processing advantages by recruiting the brain's high-power communication hubs, thus enhancing potential for learning gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature‐based tourism provides an outlet for people to experience non‐material nature's contributions to people (NCP) and can even promote care for nature. Yet, the literature on NCP is still dominated by studies on regulating and material NCP, with limited research on non‐material contributions.Semi‐structured interviews and photo‐elicitation methods were conducted online with 38 former tourists who have hiked Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, to investigate NCP experiences during their hiking journey. Drawing on the guiding principles of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), an interwoven approach was used to link context‐specific NCP expressed by tourists to the generalizing perspective.Ten context‐specific non‐material NCP emerged including Aesthetic experiences; Learning and life‐changing perspectives; New and unique experiences; and Social cohesion and bonding. All context‐specific NCP were linked back to the generalizing perspective, with most NCP falling under the generalizing category of Physical and psychological experiences.This paper reveals the unique and diverse ways that nature contributes to people's lives, promoting the visibility of multiple perspectives and their incorporation into biodiversity conservation and sustainable management strategies. Through an interwoven approach, NCP can be compared on a universal scale while respecting the context‐specificity of human–nature interactions across different social‐ecological contexts. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to account for the power that art holds over us? Why do artworks touch us deeply, consoling, transforming or invigorating us in the process? In this paper, we argue that an answer to this question might emerge from a fecund framework in cognitive science known as predictive processing (a.k.a. active inference). We unpack how this approach connects sense-making and aesthetic experiences through the idea of an 'epistemic arc', consisting of three parts (curiosity, epistemic action and aha experiences), which we cast as aspects of active inference. We then show how epistemic arcs are built and sustained by artworks to provide us with those satisfying experiences that we tend to call 'aesthetic'. Next, we defuse two key objections to this approach; namely, that it places undue emphasis on the cognitive component of our aesthetic encounters—at the expense of affective aspects—and on closure and uncertainty minimization (order)—at the expense of openness and lingering uncertainty (change). We show that the approach offers crucial resources to account for the open-ended, free and playful behaviour inherent in aesthetic experiences. The upshot is a promising but deflationary approach, both philosophically informed and psychologically sound, that opens new empirical avenues for understanding our aesthetic encounters. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The role of personality in shaping engagement with aesthetics in science has been almost entirely unexplored. Whereas artists and arts settings (e.g., museums) are well-studied from a psychological perspective, the practice of science has often been seen as purely rational or dry. In response, this study presents novel findings on the critical role of scientists' individual differences, which shape their engagement with aesthetics, such as the frequency of their experiences of beauty, wonder, and awe in their scientific work. Methods: Based on a very large and representative four-country study of scientists in the fields of biology and physics (N = 3,092), this study analyzed the associations of Big Five personality traits among scientists with (i) dispositional aesthetics (DPES-awe), (ii) the frequency of aesthetic experiences in scientific work, and (iii) aesthetic sensitivity in science. These survey-weighted OLS regression models included extensive statistical controls for sociodemographic factors. Results: As hypothesized, openness is positively, and neuroticism is negatively linked with dispositional aesthetics, the frequency of aesthetic experiences in scientific work, and aesthetic sensitivity in science. Unexpectedly, agreeableness and conscientiousness (but not extraversion) are highly significant and strong predictors of the three trait and state aesthetic engagement variables. Discussion: The aesthetic engagement and personality framework of this paper is empirically supported and demonstrates the importance of personality types of scientists in the practice of science. The unexpectedly strong association of agreeableness with aesthetic engagement points to the importance of cooperation, collaboration, and communication to maximize scientific creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conhecimento Online is the property of Universidade Feevale and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper reads Oscar Wilde's De Profundis and the 'Aeolus' episode of James Joyce's Ulysses together via their usage of Dante, asking what productively emerges from considering this medievalism side by side. The resonance of Dante, in particular his Commedia, is shown to align with a shared concern of difficulty and ambiguity: both texts depict the act of rereading Dante. Struggling with exile of various kinds and facing the problem of representing these states, both texts attempt to generate new aesthetic modes through Dante's example. This article therefore contends that both texts make use of a Dantean poetics here called the purgatorial mode and that Purgatorio appears as a forerunner of these works. Wilde's De Profundis embeds the reader within layers of reminiscence to create the experience of a difficult middle, proclaiming a redemptive future even alongside what Benjamin Bateman has called its 'messy messianism'. Joyce's 'Aeolus', meanwhile, dramatises the movement of Purgatorio, the ascent to perfection through exile as allegorised by Dante via the biblical exodus of the Israelites. What this aesthetics of exile achieves is not so much a clear answer to the problems of representation that Wilde and Joyce faced as a difficult middle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By deploying the methodology of Judith Butler's notion of performativity, this article intends to understand the possibility of the concept of queerness beyond the possibilities of gender studies and queer theory and to develop a concept transcending the limits of identity. It is undeniable that Foucault's concept of disciplinarity is one of the major precursors of the notion of performativity, which is a more focused tool for what Foucault broadly devised. Both thinkers explain how the subject is a construction by power. They explain how bodies are marked, assigned, and manipulated and expose the banality with which these operations take one for granted. It is through unearthing the disciplinary aspects of performativity in Butler and foreseeing the performative aspects of disciplinarity in Foucault that this article finds its methodological perspective. It is notable that disciplinarity and, as its extension, performativity ultimately exposes the underlying ontology of identity as a 'truth effect' rather than as an apriori truth. The paper critically analyses the artist's identity and the artistic discourse to unravel the queerness or an underlying plurality of aesthetic experience using performativity as a formative tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally agreed that literary metaphors are produced and interpreted by using the same strategies as more conventional, ordinary metaphorical expressions (George Lakoff & Mark Turner 1989; Zoltán Kövecses 2010). However, the aesthetic experience of reading metaphors in literature is a complex phenomenon that remains only partially explained. This paper aims at contributing to the study of the cognitive mechanisms that allow the aesthetic experience when reading poetic metaphors. For this purpose, after a short review of previous research on literary metaphors in the Cognitive Linguistic framework, the main tenets of Neuroaesthetics (Semir Zeki 2001; Vilayanur Ramachandran 2003), an emerging empirical discipline, are presented as referred to the study of visual art. Then, the insights from both fields are compared and applied to the study of metaphors. Results show significant coincidences as empirical research in neuroscience seem to confirm the theories and hypotheses posed by cognitive linguists, as for the way in which the emotional response to poetic metaphors is elicited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the figure of the labyrinth helps us to grasp the particular writing of Henri Michaux. Based on a reading of Déplacements, dégagements, it will show how the aesthetic experience of wandering arises from compositional processes of the multiple. This double perspective, both poetic and aesthetic, allows us to grasp the specificity of labyrinthine wandering, which suggests the infinite within a structure that is however finite. It is not the absence of any signification, but the multiplication and proliferation of significant data, that produces wandering. Confronted with this multiplicity, the reader is not confined to a passive state of reception, but actively projects a trajectory in order to give meaning on all his perceptual details, even if this meaning remains unstable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper develops ideas for a theory of the transmission of literature, or Literaturvermittlung. It connects a historical with a systematic perspective and focuses mainly on educational institutions and especially school. At the center of the historical analysis is Heinrich Düntzer, an early protagonist of German studies who, from 1855 onwards, publishes a series of reading guides called Erläuterungen zu den deutschen Klassikern. Düntzer's ideas are repeated, yet modified, by Albert Zipper and his series Erläuterungen zu Meisterwerken der deutschen Literatur, which appears as part of Reclams Universal-Bibliothek between 1896 and 1922. Düntzer and Zipper draw from a European tradition of literary commentary while developing a genre of study guides, or Lektürehilfen, that is still existant and influential today. Although in the long run schools prove to be the primary institutional address of these guides, this is not clear when Düntzer begins his project in 1855 and only becomes obvious in the 1890s, when Zipper publishes first texts. Both authors explicitly address educated readers in general, yet also, e. g., actors. Since literature in German is a new subject in schools in the 19th century, this is not completely surprising. The historical part of the paper takes an additional look at Georg Witkowski's book Textkritik und Editionstechnik neuerer Schriftwerke from 1924, which is skeptical of written commentary in teaching literature. Düntzer and Zipper both write texts which accompany their series of study guides and explain aims and intended usage. While Düntzer does so in quite some length in 1862, seven years after beginning to publish the Erläuterungen, Zipper adds short opening paragraphs to his first guide in 1896. Both authors are interested in supplying cheap publications to readers of literature. These publications are supposed to explain literary works and their qualities in detail. Düntzer also wants to help readers develop advanced aesthetic judgment. He outlines that the Erläuterungen are supposed to be studied carefully while also reading the literary works. Although an understanding of literature is possible without relying on study guides, these guides, according to Düntzer, provide a comparatively quick access to literature. He also makes clear that his study guides are to provide readers with a coherent text which does not convey information in isolated chunks or jumps from one aspect to another. The rather short introductory paragraphs by Zipper are less ambitious than Düntzer's, yet also stress the aim to explain literary works in depth. An exemplary analysis of Düntzer's and Zipper's study guides on G.E. Lessing's Nathan der Weise shows strong similarities between the different Erläuterungen. They both present contextual information on the literary work, its creation and background, information on its characters, its language and, most importantly, its plot. At the same time, there are differences when Düntzer composes a rather long text in full sentences, while Zipper's guide relies to a significant extent on short summaries and the explanation of isolated words and expressions from Lessing's work. The examination of Witkowski's book Textkritik und Editionstechnik portrays him as protagonist of a different approach to the transmission of literature. Especially in school, Witkowski wants to avoid extensive explanations in the way of written commentary. He favors an approach to literature that involves readers with the literary work itself and gains necessary support mainly from teachers. Transmission of literature also is supposed to focus on literary works as literature and not as texts providing readers with factual knowledge. Witkowski explicitly rejects Düntzer's texts and similar writings as misguided and focuses less on a rational and methodological approach to literature than on aesthetic experience which directly affects the reader. The paper sketches a theory of literary transmission by drawing together the historical findings. It assumes that Düntzer, Zipper and Witkowski, despite their obvious differences, share common problems of literary transmission. Moreover, their thoughts are complementary in different ways, which is still relevant today. Witkowski's idea of literary works that do not need any written explanation is best suited in contexts where such explanations already exist and are contained in commentaries and study guides. Also, the emphasis on emotion, which in 1924 is influenced by the new Geisteswissenschaften, has a basis rather than an opposition in the sober and instrumental approach of Düntzer. The paper argues that in the case of all three authors, theories of the transmission of literature have their key problem in the incapability to model and directly influence the mind of recipients. As a consequence, the authors make a variety of different offers to further literary reading and understanding which at first sight seem to contradict each other, yet in reality work together. Two results of this are (a) that Literaturvermittlung wants to derive aesthetic experience not only from reading literature but also from philologically working on and around literary texts and (b) offers an alternative way to understanding literature by conveying information instead of trying to prompt literary experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]