Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/208

ÆSTHETICS. or the rhythm itself. It is to this latter non-associational element that experiment has directed its attention. It offers the advantages of simple and constant conditions and of a direct appeal to the undivided judgment. It has confined itself thus far to the elements which are common to all individuals. Within this limited field it may fairly be said to have been successful.

. The result of Fechner's work was to modify the assertions of Zeising and other theorists. A decided preference for the proportion of the Golden Section was found with certain figures, particularly the rectangle. For the simple sectioning of a line, on the other hand, preference was shown for the division into halves and thirds. Fechner is justly called the founder of experimental æsthetics. He laid out the field, distinguished the direct and the associative factors, gave the methods, and applied them successfully. There are three chief methods now used in experimental æsthetics: (1) choice, (2) construction, and (3) use. In the method of choice, series of simple figures, tones, or colors are presented to the observer, who selects the one most pleasing in its own right. The objects may be given in pairs (method of paired comparisons), or in a progressive series (serial method), or promiscuously, according to the material used. In the method of construction the individual is given elements, e.g., two narrow strips of cardboard, and is asked to make from them the most pleasing figure (cross) that he can. The method of use or application consists in collecting the dimensions of simple, common objects, as visiting or playing cards, envelopes, vases, newspapers, books, windows, façades, in order to discover the usual or most common proportions. The value of the last-named method rests on the supposition that the proportions most used are the most agreeable. This is true only in part; fitness, cost, use to which an object is put, and custom play a large part; for these reasons the method requires caution. The second method suffers from rather narrow limitations. Both it and the third, however, are of value as checks upon the method of choice, which is the most trustworthy and has been most successfully employed.

The methods named have been used chiefly with spatial forms: rectangles, crosses, lines, angles, circles, ellipses, and triangles. They have succeeded best with the simpler figures. Fechner's early results have been, for the most part, confirmed. We know now that certain divisions and dimensions are æsthetically pleasing for their own sake: that is, with no specific association attaching to them. The most agreeable are expressed by the ratio 1:1 and (approximately) 3:5, the last-named ratio standing near the relation for the Golden Section given above. For example, the grand average from twenty-three series in which various forms (lines, angles, crosses, and ellipses) were used, with a number of observers, gave as the most pleasing ratio 1:1.635, with an extremely low fluctuation for the different series. We conclude, then, that the most satisfying combinations are those in which the parts are alike and those in which they are moderately similar. One is tempted to point to the mathematical relation of the golden section as an explanation of the æsthetic enjoyment found in proportion. But the relation is in itself no explanation, and, even if it were, the deviations from it which many individuals show would invalidate it. A recent explanation of the æsthetic feelings connected with space-forms points out that man involuntarily invests spatial objects with the activities — strains, resistings, tensions — which he himself feels in his own body. According as an object — a pillar, a statue, or a block of stone — gives evidence that it is capable or incapable of holding its own, supporting its load, and maintaining its own integrity does it awaken a feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the observer. This tendency shows itself, it is argued, even where the object is reduced to a mere outline. The argument gains part of its weight from the fact that it also gives a reason for a host of illusions connected with our perception of spatial relations. A true mathematical square is not seen as a square at all, but as a rectangle whose height is greater than its breadth; a bisected vertical line looks longer above the point of division than below. and so on. The allowance made for these illusions is probably the most important advance in method since the days of Fechner. It is to be noted that the explanation, which we may call a dynamic one, brings in the associational factor. Yet this is not a fatal objection, for the associations assumed are generic, so to speak, and thus constant, within limits, for all individuals. The theory must, however, share honors with a psychophysical one, which accounts for the elementary æsthetic feelings in terms of the simplicity and complexity of psychophysical processes underlying them. It is probable, that is, that the facility with which certain proportions are cognized affects directly the excitability of the nervous system in such a way as to produce pleasure.

The method of choice may be adapted to the determination of the æsthetic value of elementary musical combinations. We obtain thus a graded series of pleasantnesses for tonal intervals both when the constituent tones are given simultaneously (see ), and when they are given successively. There is afforded in this way an opportunity to compare directly the result of experimentation and the elements of musical composition established by generations of practice. It must be added that simple musical combinations offer a particularly good field for experimental exploration of the æsthetic feelings, because the direct, sensuous factor plays a much more important rôle here than in spatial form, and the associative factor is correspondingly less prominent. This is especially true of rhythm.

Finally, æsthetic preference in the realm of color, saturation, and brightness has been determined by the method of paired comparisons — the observer comparing in turn a red, then a green, then a blue, etc., with each of the other members in a series of colors, and also by passing judgment on those visual sensations taken singly. The chief results are these: (1) the most saturated colors are usually preferred; (2) given likeness of saturation, individual preferences vary from color-tone to color-tone, and (3) with colors which are equally pleasing, the combination of any two gives greater satisfaction the more unlike (contrasting) the colors.

Consult: G. T. Fechner, Zur experimentalen Aesthetik (Leipzig, 1871); Vorschule der Aesthetik (Leipzig, 1876); T. Lipps, Raumästhetik und geometrisch-optische Täuschungen (Leipzig,