Philosophical discussions on beauty have a long history. The discussions manifest the ambiguity of the concept; meanings of beauty and its role as an explanatory power of diverse tangible and intangible phenomena vary between disciplines and theoretical points of view. What is the essence of Beauty? The notions of beauty comprises opposing qualities by being simultaneously a timeless idea penetrating all cultures and a profoundly historical concept whose focuses, definitions, and contents change in the process of time and vary between different cultural contexts. The significance of beauty for man is undeniable: it is a driving force in cultural production and creative thinking and a source of diverse emotions ranging from exhilaration to religious devoutness.
Philosophies of Beauty on the Move investigates the essence of beauty by exploring its ontological and epistemological terms of existence in order to understand the paradoxes of beauty.
Introduction: Interdisciplinary Discussions on Beauty
Tuuli Lähdesmäki
Part I: Attempts to Understand Beauty
Universalist and Particularist Discourses on the Intersection of Reality, Truth and Beauty
Tuuli Lähdesmäki
What Is Beauty and Why Do We Need It?
Ruth Lorand
From Object to Emotion: The Aesthetics of Human-Computer Interaction
Alberto José Viralhadas Ferreira
Part II: Metaphysics of Beauty
Bonds: A Brief Theorization about Beauty, Art and Literature from the Middle Ages to William Hogarth’s Age
Rosina Martucci
Sword and Shield: Absolute Beauty as a Wellspring of Infallibility
Beverly R. Sherringham
Productive Nothingness
Harpreet (Neena) Mand and Marly Swanson Wood
Part III: Experiencing Beauty in Space
The Khuner Haus by Adolf Loos: A Critical Study of Beauty
Anna Marie Fisker, Marie Frier Hvejsel and Hans Ramsgaard Møller
The Complex Experience of Beauty: Architecture, Man and Building Environment
Boussora Kenza
Tuuli Lähdesmäki, PhD, DSocSci, is an Academy Research Fellow at the Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her interdisciplinary research projects and scholarly publications focus on discursive meaning-making processes in contemporary visual culture and reception of art.
Beverly R. Sherringham is an Adjunct English professor at Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, NY and an Adjunct English lecturer at Queensborough Community College, Bayside, NY.