DOCSLIB.ORG

ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: WHAT EMOTION DOES: AFFECT

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: WHAT EMOTION DOES: AFFECT ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: WHAT EMOTION DOES: AFFECT IN EMPATHY, ART, AND BEYOND Heather Adair, Doctor of Philosophy, 2020 Dissertation directed by: Professor Peter Carruthers, Department of Philosophy This dissertation puts forth a series of arguments about the role of affect in everyday cognition. I begin in chapter 1 by developing a generalized philosophical and scientific account of what “affective” states—a term encompassing emotions, moods, pleasures/pains, and felt desires—are and how they arise. From there, I address a number of debates in moral psychology, aesthetics, and philosophy of art that revolve around the function of affective states. In chapter two, I weigh in on a long-standing disagreement about the automaticity of empathy; I contend that different so-called “kinds” of empathy are not in fact automatic, and that an explanatorily robust model of empathy must account for the influence of affectively-laden “underlying values.” In chapter three, I focus on the “processing fluency” view of aesthetic pleasure, which equates aesthetic pleasure with ease of perceptual processing. I critique and amend this view by highlighting the ways in which perceptual disfluency and negative affect also contribute positively to aesthetic appreciation. And, in chapter four, I attempt to redress the so-called “paradox of fiction” by claiming that emotions do not require belief-states to be considered real and theoretically rational instances of emotion. To do this, I point to research on affective prospection and mind-wandering to argue that emotions must in principle be distinguished from our beliefs. WHAT EMOTION DOES: AFFECT IN EMPATHY, ART, AND BEYOND by Heather Victoria Adair Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2020 Advisory Committee: Professor Peter Carruthers, Chair Professor Jerrold Levinson Professor Rachel Singpurwalla Professor Dan Moller Professor Elizabeth Redcay, Dean's Representative © Copyright by Heather Victoria Adair 2020 Dedication For my mom. ii Acknowledgements I am deeply indebted to the great many people who have supported me throughout my writing of this dissertation, my academic career, and more generally throughout my life as a whole. My greatest debt is to my mother, Vivyan Adair, who has been an unending source of unconditional love and encouragement. My mother first introduced me to the gripping world of philosophical thought when I was just 8 years old, and she has patiently and lovingly read every word that I have written ever since. My other great debt is to my supervisor, Peter Carruthers, who is a brilliant and prolific philosopher, an unparalleled advisor, and an incredibly kind and generous person. Working with Peter has been a privilege and an inspiration, and I cannot imagine having taken this journey without his incredible guidance. Many thanks are also owed to Jerrold Levinson, Rachel Singpurwalla, Susan Dwyer, Jill de Villiers, Peter de Villiers, and Todd Franklin, all of whom played important roles in my development as a scholar. While I have benefited tremendously from the help of many faculty members, colleagues, and friends over the years, few have pushed me or reassured me as insistently as Christian Tarsney and Jesse St. Charles, both of whom I am honored to call friends. iii Table of Contents Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1: All About Affect ......................................................................................... 1 I. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 II. What Affective States Aare: Feeling, Motivation, & Evaluation ........................ 2 III. How Affect Arises: Appraisal, Values, & Valence .......................................... 10 IV. Kinds of Affect: Targets & Causes ................................................................... 20 V. Debates and Puzzles ........................................................................................... 26 Chapter 2: Underluing Values: The Role of Appraisal in Empathy ........................... 31 I. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 31 II. Shared Affect &Vicariously Shared Affect ....................................................... 33 a. Mirroring ......................................................................................................... 33 b. Perspective-Taking ......................................................................................... 38 III. Affective Appraisal & Underlying Values ....................................................... 44 Appraisal and Valence ........................................................................................ 54 Underlying Values .............................................................................................. 53 IV. Explaining Failures of Empathy ....................................................................... 53 a. Psychopathy .................................................................................................... 53 b. Sadism ............................................................................................................. 57 c. Everyday Failures ............................................................................................ 59 d. Intra and Intergroup Failures .......................................................................... 61 V. Conclusion and Future Research........................................................................ 62 Chapter 3: Disflueny, Negatice Affect, & Interest: A Better Theory of Aesthetic Pleasure ....................................................................................................................... 66 I. Introdiction .......................................................................................................... 66 II. Positive Features of the Account ........................................................................ 70 III. Problems with the Processing-Fluency Account .............................................. 75 IV. Disflueny, Negatice Affect, & Interest ............................................................ 82 V. Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 88 Chapter 4: Updating Thought Theory: Emotion and the Non-Paradox of Fiction ..... 90 I. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 90 II. ‘Existance Beliefs’ and Quasi or Irrational Emotions ....................................... 94 III. Thought Theory & Real Emotions ................................................................... 97 IV. Thought Theory & Rational Emotions .......................................................... 109 V. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 116 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 118 iv CHAPTER 1 ALL ABOUT AFFECT I. INTRODUCTION People’s lives are profoundly emotional. On a daily basis, we run a gamut of feelings both evolutionarily ancient and cognitively complex, from happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, to satisfaction, offence, pride, and awe. Indeed, on average, adults report spending approximately 90% of their waking days in one or more of these emotional states—and those are just the emotions that make it into conscious awareness!1As scientific research on emotion has grown over the last several decades, it has become apparent that sentiments such as these are far from idle. Emotions impact how we represent and engage with others, make decisions, form judgements of value and preference, develop notions of moral right and wrong, and motivate us to take interest in the world around us. And yet, despite its intuitive significance, many questions remain about the precise role that emotion plays in everyday cognition. The aim of this dissertation is to resolve some of those questions. In the chapters that follow, I address a number of long-standing debates in moral psychology, aesthetics, and philosophy of art, all of which revolve around the function of emotion. In chapter two, I focus on a well-established dispute over the 1 These figures were found by polling participants at random intervals throughout the day and surveying them as to the presence of 18 emotional states that are relatively high-arousal, e.g. awe, anxiety, joy, etc. (Trampe, Quoidbach & Taquet, 2015). Given that low-arousal and mildly valenced emotions themselves provide appraisals about the environment (e.g. boredom, contentment), and given the plausibility of unconscious affect (see section III), we are arguably in some sort of emotional or affective state at all times. 1 automaticity of empathy and argue that a complete model of empathy must account for the underlying influence of emotionally-laden values. In chapter three, I amend a promising
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Problems of Mimetic Characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy
    Illusion and Instrument: Problems of Mimetic Characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy By Chloe Susan Liebmann Kitzinger A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Slavic Languages and Literatures in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Irina Paperno, Chair Professor Eric Naiman Professor Dorothy J. Hale Spring 2016 Illusion and Instrument: Problems of Mimetic Characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy © 2016 By Chloe Susan Liebmann Kitzinger Abstract Illusion and Instrument: Problems of Mimetic Characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy by Chloe Susan Liebmann Kitzinger Doctor of Philosophy in Slavic Languages and Literatures University of California, Berkeley Professor Irina Paperno, Chair This dissertation focuses new critical attention on a problem central to the history and theory of the novel, but so far remarkably underexplored: the mimetic illusion that realist characters exist independently from the author’s control, and even from the constraints of form itself. How is this illusion of “life” produced? What conditions maintain it, and at what points does it start to falter? My study investigates the character-systems of three Russian realist novels with widely differing narrative structures — Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1865–1869), and Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent (1875) and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880) — that offer rich ground for exploring the sources and limits of mimetic illusion. I suggest, moreover, that Tolstoy and Dostoevsky themselves were preoccupied with this question. Their novels take shape around ambitious projects of characterization that carry them toward the edges of the realist tradition, where the novel begins to give way to other forms of art and thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Transportation and Homeric Epic
    Transportation and Homeric Epic Michael O’Neill Power A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University May 2006 ii — — iii Statement of Originality Except where due acknowledgement is given, this thesis is the result of my own research carried out under the supervision of Dr Elizabeth Minchin of the Classics Program of the Australian National University with the advice of Dr Judith Slee of the Division of Psychology of the Australian National University. _________________________________ Michael O’Neill Power May 2006 iv — — v Acknowledgements I am very grateful to everyone who has made the completion of this thesis possible: to those with whom I have discussed my ideas (whether at conferences or in cafés); to Dr Alan Rumsey of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies for his advice; and to the staff of the Classics Program at The Australian National University. I must also voice my thanks to Mrs Mary Harber for her assistance in translating Wilhelm Grimm’s “Die Sage von Polyphem” and for correcting a final copy of the manuscript. Early versions of several chapters of this thesis were presented at a range of conferences and seminars and benefited greatly from the questions they evoked: a version of Chapter 2 was delivered at ASCS XXVI, at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand in 1995; versions of Chapter 4 were delivered at The Homer Seminar II, at The Australian National University, Canberra, in 2003, and at ASCS XXV, at La Trobe University, Bendigo, in 2004; and a version of Chapter 5 was presented at The Homer Seminar III, at The Australian National University, Canberra, in 2005.
    [Show full text]
  • Virginia Woolf's Portraits of Russian Writers
    Virginia Woolf’s Portraits of Russian Writers Virginia Woolf’s Portraits of Russian Writers: Creating the Literary Other By Darya Protopopova Virginia Woolf’s Portraits of Russian Writers: Creating the Literary Other By Darya Protopopova This book first published 2019 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2019 by Darya Protopopova All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-2753-0 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-2753-9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Note on the Text ........................................................................................ vi Preface ...................................................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Russia and the British Search for the Cultural ‘Other’ Chapter One .............................................................................................. 32 Woolf’s Real and Fictional Russians Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 58 Woolf and Dostoevsky: Verbalising the Soul Chapter Three ........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • University of Maryland Commencement May 22, 2020
    University of Maryland Commencemenmay 22, 2020 Table of Contents CONGRATULATIONS BACHELOR’S DEGREES From the President 1 Agriculture and Natural Resources, From the Alumni Association President 2 College of 24 Architecture, Planning and SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES Preservation, School of 25 Graduating Student Speaker 4 Arts and Humanities, College of 25 University Medalists 5 Behavioral and Social Sciences, Honorary Degree Recipients 7 College of 29 Commencement Speaker 9 Business, Robert H. Smith School of 35 Computer, Mathematical, and DOCTORAL DEGREES 10 Natural Sciences, College of 42 Education, College of 48 MASTER’S DEGREES 15 Engineering, A. James Clark School of 49 Graduate Certificates 22 Information Studies, College of 52 Journalism, Philip Merrill College of 53 Public Health, School of 54 Public Policy, School of 56 THE “DO GOOD” CAMPUS Undergraduate Studies 56 Certificate Programs 56 The University of Maryland commits to becoming HONORS COLLEGE, CITATION AND a global leader in advancing social innovation, NOTATION PROGRAMS, AND ACADEMIC AND SPECIAL AWARDS philanthropy and nonprofit leadership with its Do Honors College 57 Good Campus. CIVICUS 59 College Park Scholars 59 Beyond the Classroom 62 Our Do Good Campus effort amplifies the power of Federal Fellows 62 Terps as agents of social innovation and supports First-Year Innovation and Research Experience 62 the university’s mission of service. We’re working to Global Communities 63 ensure all University of Maryland students graduate Global Fellows 63 equipped and motivated to do good in their careers, Hinman CEOs 63 Immigration and Migration Studies 63 their communities and the world. Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House 63 Language House 63 Ronald E.
    [Show full text]
  • Unpalatable Pleasures: Tolstoy, Food, and Sex
    University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Scholarship Languages, Literatures, and Cultures 1993 Unpalatable Pleasures: Tolstoy, Food, and Sex Ronald D. LeBlanc University of New Hampshire - Main Campus, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/lang_facpub Recommended Citation Rancour-Laferriere, Daniel. Tolstoy’s Pierre Bezukhov: A Psychoanalytic Study. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1993. Critiques: Brett Cooke, Ronald LeBlanc, Duffield White, James Rice. Reply: Daniel Rancour- Laferriere. Volume VII, 1994, pp. 70-93. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Scholarship by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NEW ~·'T'::'1r"'T,n.1na rp.llHlrIP~ a strict diet. There needs to'be a book about food. L.N. Tolstoy times it seems to me as if the Russian is a sort of lost soul. You want to do and yet you can do nothing. You keep thinking that you start a new life as of tomorrow, that you will start a new diet as of tomorrow, but of the sort happens: by the evening of that 'very same you have gorged yourself so much that you can only blink your eyes and you cannot even move your tongue. N.V. Gogol Russian literature is mentioned, one is likely to think almost instantly of that robust prose writer whose culinary, gastronomic and alimentary obsessions--in his verbal art as well as his own personal life-­ often reached truly gargantuan proportions.
    [Show full text]
  • I. Produits De La Recherche
    I. Produits de la recherche 1. Journaux / revues Articles scientifiques Aharon, I., Bourgeois-Gironde, S., and Levin, Y. (2015). Special issue on “Complexity modeling in social science and economics”. Mind & Society, 14(2), pp. 153-154. Alsmith, A. and Vignemont de, F. (2012). Embodying the mind & representing the body. In A. Alsmith, and de F. Vignemont de (Eds.), The body represented/Embodied representation. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, Special issue, 3 (1). Arcangeli, M. (2012). Esperimenti mentali [Thought experiments]”. APhEx (Analytical and Philosophical Explanation), 6, pp. 33-72. Arcangeli, M. (2013). Immaginare è simulare: cosa e come? [Imagining is simulating: what and how?]. Rivista di Estetica, s.i. “Nuove teorie dell’immaginazione”, 53/2, pp. 135-154. Arcangeli, M. (2014). Against cognitivism about supposition. Philosophia, 42/3, pp. 607-624. Arcangeli, M. (2017). De l’autre côté du miroir de l’imagination. Imagination et imagerie mentale. Bulletin d’analyse phénoménologique, XIII/2, pp. 108-128 Arcangeli, M. (2017). Interacting with Emotions: Imagination and Supposition. Philosophical Quarterly. Arnold, G., and Auvray, M. (2014). Perceptual learning: Tactile letter recognition transfers across body surfaces. Multisensory Research, 27(1), pp. 71-90. Atran, S. (2012). Talking to the Enemy: An Alternative Approach to Ending Intractable Conflicts. Solutions 3: pp. 41-51. Atran, S. (2012). Parasite stress is not so critical to the history of religions or major group formations. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35: pp. 79-80. Atran, S. (2013). From mutualism to moral transcendence. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36: pp. 81-82. Atran, S. (2014). Martyrdom’s would-be myth buster. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37: pp.
    [Show full text]
  • The Distancing-Embracing Model of the Enjoyment of Negative Emotions in Art Reception
    BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2017), Page 1 of 63 doi:10.1017/S0140525X17000309, e347 The Distancing-Embracing model of the enjoyment of negative emotions in art reception Winfried Menninghaus1 Department of Language and Literature, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany [email protected] Valentin Wagner Department of Language and Literature, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany [email protected] Julian Hanich Department of Arts, Culture and Media, University of Groningen, 9700 AB Groningen, The Netherlands [email protected] Eugen Wassiliwizky Department of Language and Literature, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany [email protected] Thomas Jacobsen Experimental Psychology Unit, Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, 22043 Hamburg, Germany [email protected] Stefan Koelsch University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway [email protected] Abstract: Why are negative emotions so central in art reception far beyond tragedy? Revisiting classical aesthetics in the light of recent psychological research, we present a novel model to explain this much discussed (apparent) paradox. We argue that negative emotions are an important resource for the arts in general, rather than a special license for exceptional art forms only. The underlying rationale is that negative emotions have been shown to be particularly powerful in securing attention, intense emotional involvement, and high memorability, and hence is precisely what artworks strive for. Two groups of processing mechanisms are identified that conjointly adopt the particular powers of negative emotions for art’s purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Transcendental Argument of the Novel
    The Transcendental Argument of the Novel Gilbert Plumer June 11, 2017 Journal of the American Philosophical Association accepted manuscript 1. Introduction Attending to a peculiar divergence, Warner (1979: 186) provides a striking description of the reception of Samuel Richardson’s groundbreaking novel Clarissa: When the completed novel is delivered to the public and readers still persist in asserting a misguided understanding of the novel, a new tone of irritation enters Richardson’s correspondence. At best, these readers are guilty of flagrant inattention to the novel’s design; at worst, an immoral admiration for Lovelace. Richardson meets this challenge to his art by carrying out significant changes in the body of Clarissa. These modifications come in two waves. In April 1749, six months after releasing the final installment of the first edition, Richardson publishes a second edition that includes footnotes and a long index summary of the novel, placed at the beginning of the text. Over the next two years, serious “errors” of reading continue, so in the Spring of 1751 Richardson publishes a third edition that weaves two hundred pages of additional material into the text. Similarly, Palmer (1973: 8) says that Clarissa is “a novel in which the central character [whom he regards as Lovelace] breaks the bonds of control of the author and reveals unconscious impulses which Richardson ‘did not understand himself’.” As we might say using commonplace categories, ‘the character took on a life of its own’ or even ‘the story wrote itself’. For this phenomenon of divergence to be possible, there have to be at least two levels of meaning or message of a work—that intended by the author and that conveyed or implicated by the text.
    [Show full text]
  • Sergey Kostyaev
    Updated on 03/20/2021 SERGEI S. KOSTIAEV [email protected] EDUCATION Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy PhD program, 2017-22. ABD. Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, the Institute for the US & Canadian studies, Candidate of political sciences (Russian equivalent of PhD), 2009 Dissertation: “Lobbying on U.S. Budget Process” Doctoral fieldwork conducted in Washington, D.C., U.S. in 2007-2008. Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia, Diploma with honors, 2004, in history, (GPA is 5.0 of 5.0), Thesis: “Formation and Development of U.S. Federal Lobbying Regulation Laws” Exchange programs Global Education Program, $155,983 for the period of September 5th, 2017 – August 30th, 2021. (partial tuition and partial stipend) Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. Legislative Fellows Program. $5,000 for the period of March 26 - May 7, 2010. National Conference of State Legislatures, Washington, D.C. Fulbright visiting researcher program. $23,185 for the period of August 5, 2007 - June 30, 2008. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Full time academic appointments 2014-17 Financial University under the Government of Russia, Moscow (Acting Deputy Chair of the Department of Applied Political Science 2014-2016; Associate Professor 2014- 17) Graduate courses taught: “Political & Economic Expertise” Undergraduate courses taught: “Political Consulting and Expertise” “Technology of Modern Lobbying” 2010‒2014 Senior Fellow, Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow Temporary and other appointments 2020 - Adjunct Faculty Member, School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J. Hyflex mode “Research Project” Fall 2020 Hyflex mode “Investigating International Relations” Spring 2021 2017- Political Science Department, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
    [Show full text]
  • Queering Anna Karenina: Reimagining Tolstoy for the Twenty-First Century
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Cardinal Scholar Queering Anna Karenina: Reimagining Tolstoy for the Twenty-First Century An Honors Thesis (HONR 499) by Leah Heim Thesis Advisor Dr. Andrea Wolfe Ball State University Muncie, Indiana May 2019 Expected Date of Graduation May 2019 Abstract "Happy families are all alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." These famous opening sentences of Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece novel Anna Karenina serve as an axis around which the rest of the novel's plot, characters, and motifs all revolve. The book delves into themes of adultery, society, art, philosophy, and even agriculture, but all these subordinate conversations circle back to the questions posited by the novel's first lines: what are happy families and unhappy families, and how do these families relate to each other? My thesis, part creative project and part analytical project, seeks to speak back against Tolstoy’s idea of the monolithic happy family by offering a queer, postmodern retelling of Anna Karenina where environmental degradation affects families’ fertility and where Anna and Vronsky are two women who must navigate their way through the complex and often painful societal expectations of rural Indiana. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Wolfe for helping me complete this long quest. Dr. Wolfe’s Gender and Literature course provided me with frameworks of feminist literary theory—like ecofeminism and Julia Kristeva’s abjection—that I have continued to use throughout my undergraduate career and that I have used in this very thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • A Manifestation of All Life : Intersections of Virtue Ethics, Philosophy of Emotion, and Philosophy of Literature
    University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 12-2010 A manifestation of all life : intersections of virtue ethics, philosophy of emotion, and philosophy of literature. Derek Lee Penwell 1965- University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation Penwell, Derek Lee 1965-, "A manifestation of all life : intersections of virtue ethics, philosophy of emotion, and philosophy of literature." (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1113. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/1113 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A MANIFESTATION OF ALL LIFE: INTERSECTIONS OF VIRTUE ETHICS, PHILOSOPHY OF EMOTION, AND PHILOSOPHY OF LITERATURE By Derek Lee Penwell B.R.E., Great Lakes Christian College, 1987 M.A.R., Emmanuel School of Religion, 1990 M.Div., Lexington Theological Seminary D.Min., Lexington Theological Seminary A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
    [Show full text]
  • The Matter of Beauty: Materialism and the Self in Victorian Aesthetic Theory
    The Matter of Beauty: Materialism and the Self in Victorian Aesthetic Theory by Benjamin Joseph Morgan A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Anthony J. Cascardi, Co-Chair Professor Barbara Spackman, Co-Chair Professor C. Daniel Blanton Professor Ramona Naddaff Spring 2010 The Matter of Beauty: Materialism and the Self in Victorian Aesthetic Theory © 2010 Benjamin Joseph Morgan 1 Abstract The Matter of Beauty: Materialism and the Self in Victorian Aesthetic Theory by Benjamin Joseph Morgan Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric University of California, Berkeley Professor Anthony J. Cascardi, Co-Chair Professor Barbara Spackman, Co-Chair The Matter of Beauty proposes that Victorian aesthetic theory is not a branch of philosophy focusing on art; rather, it is best understood as an interdisciplinary investigation of how humans relate affectively to physical things. The central claim of the dissertation is that aesthetic theory in the late-Victorian period enabled a significant reconsideration of what a “human” was, and of how distinctions could be drawn between self and other. I pursue this claim across four authors—Walter Pater, William Morris, Grant Allen, and Vernon Lee—who represent different modes in which a materialist strain of aesthetics led to a recognition that individuals constitutively lack autonomy from one another and from their surroundings. My analysis of a wide range of late-Victorian writing demonstrates that aesthetic theory responded to a question that was powerfully raised by nineteenth-century science, and that remains with us today: If our most elevated emotions can be localized as electrical activity in the brain, is there a “self” that transcends our material being? The intellectual tradition that I reconstruct reveals that considering aesthetic experience is a productive step toward answering this question.
    [Show full text]