The Beautiful: An Introduction to Psychological Aesthetics

The author uses psychological observations to explain why certain visual shapes and arrangements are experienced as beautiful, arguing that perception depends on bodily movement, measurement, and comparison. Chapters dissect sensations, extension, elements and character of shape, line movement, and empathy (Einfühlung), and examine how attention, information about objects, and the interaction of things and shapes produce aesthetic satisfaction. The book traces how aesthetic emotions are stored, transferred, irradiated, and purified, considers art's aims and the co-operation of form and content, and offers an evolutional conclusion linking aesthetic responsiveness to mental processes.