That Josiah Royce's philosophy relies on imagination has been acknowledged, but there has not yet been scholarship behind what this argument consists of or implies, both for imagination and Roycean loyalty. This project works to examine how imagination works in Royce's philosophy and, in particular, the ethical system of loyalty, as imagination serves in the creation and perfection of loyalty. The first level of this explores Royce's psychological groundwork for imagination and how this works into the development of the self. From there, this project works with the connections of aesthetics and beauty to Roycean loyalty, with particular interest in how beauty aids in the self's choice of cause. The final level of this project is concerned with how imagination informs the community and how imagination aids in the development of loyalty to a lost cause and thus loyalty to loyalty.

This dissertation focuses on the Mid-Qing novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words, preface dated, 1730s) which is a newly discovered novel with lots of graphic sexual descriptions. Guwangyan was composed between the publication of Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase, 1617) and Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber, 1791). These two masterpieces represent sexuality and desire by presenting domestic life in polygamous households set within a larger social landscape. This dissertation explores the factors that shifted the literary discourse from the pornographic description of sexuality in Jin Ping Mei, to the representation of chaste love in Honglou meng. This dissertation can be divided into three parts. Part one: Chapter I and II introduce my main approach to interpret the text and the historical and aesthetic context of this novel. Chapter I introduces a large historical background of the late Ming and early Qing China from the aspects of the printing industry, gender politics and the literary criticism. I argue that the blurry boundaries between genres assigned by the May Fourth scholars do not fully satisfy the reading of Guwangyan. My reading, however, scrutinizes the textual body of Guwangyan to explore the material body and body politics demonstrated in the fictional world. Chapter II explains the meaning of the title of the text, the author, commentator, the commentary, and the current studies of Guwangyan. The second part, Chapter III and IV, illustrate a close-reading of the aesthetic body of the text. Chapter III proposes that Guwangyan is a well organized novel which has a carefully designed narrative structure and internal connections among chapters. Chapter IV demonstrates the importance of characterization in the novel. I argue that through a non-polarized yin-yang dichotomy and the yin-zhen contrast, the text demonstrates the uncertainty, transformation, and development of the characters and explores their complicated inner world. The third part, Chapter V and VI, explore two important subjects of Guwangyan, masculinity and the family. Guwangyan represents the male friendship and male same-sex relationship and how they can interact with men’s role in the public and private spheres. Chapter VI broadens the discussion of the family relationship in Guwangyan to include a much larger political landscape. I argue that the latter part of the novel establishes a significant contrast between a realistic representation of political disasters and an idealistic description of family and community unity.

Field of study This study represents an attempt to formulate a theoretical basis for musical experience in general and for music education in particular. The theory, derived from Kantian aesthetics, is that musical experience is mind-centred and rooted in imagination. First, an examination of the part imagination plays in perception, apprehension and creativity is presented; its particular role in musical experience is then analysed. Next, there is a critical review of appropriate methodology and this is followed by a detailed account of experimental work with young children. The experimental work includes: responses to electronic pieces; the invention of melodies and rhythms by children; the perception of consonance and dissonance; the fine discrimination of pitch and timbre. Methodology The overall research design entails a top-down analytical method beginning with the collation of verbal responses to electronic pieces and leading to the precise testing of children's fine discrimination of pitch and timbre. The methodology -part of which is probably novel- is derived from Personal Construct Theory (George Kelly) and also from Piaget's deductive 'clinical' approach. To this end, a variety of tasks ~ere given to a relatively small number of children (120) in groups of four. These tasks, both prescribed and open-ended, were well-defined. Results and conclusions The children in the sample -120 seven year-old boys and girls- demonstrated the ability to: 1. hold an aural image in the mind in order to compare it with another 2. form images to facilitate the representation of broad qualitative inter-sensory experience 3. make fine discriminations of pitch and timbre 4. employ mental constructs in melodic and rhythmic inventions The general conclusion from the study is that a mind-centred theory for music education is tenable, with the implication that pedagogy should be appropriately planned and focussed.

<p> This study explored factors thought to affect college students&rsquo; selection and experience of instructional materials by utilizing general procedures of Giorgi&rsquo;s (2012) descriptive phenomenological psychological method and Spradley&rsquo;s (1979) approach to interpretation. Twenty-five undergraduate students were asked to study finite mathematics materials after selecting from four sets of options, with the same content but different visual designs and formats. The entire process was observed, and students were interviewed about their experience. As a result of the analyses, students were found to select instructional materials that met their expectations, and such expectations had been defined or impacted by their various previous experiences. For example, students who believed that instructional materials should effectively deliver content selected materials based on the ease of navigation. Meanwhile, students who believed that instructional materials should attract them and engage them into learning selected materials based on the attractiveness of the materials. Students made decisions regarding which materials met their expectations almost immediately after looking at the materials. In addition, opinions regarding which materials allowed easier navigation or which materials appeared to be attractive were diverse. Furthermore, many students felt that the number of words was different in the materials although every word on the four materials was the same. One student even thought that the tone of the language was different in different materials. Students&rsquo; difference in perception regarding the content of the materials across different visual designs suggests that the affective perception of the visual design was powerful enough to influence students&rsquo; cognitive perception of the content. Overall, students&rsquo; difference in visual perceptions suggests that instructional content should be displayed in multiple different forms to comply with students&rsquo; diverse visual needs.</p><p>

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There can be no doubt that population increase and environmental pollution are the world's biggest problems today. These pose serious threats to the quality of life and art. They can only be remedied by an efficient system of birth-control and sound compulsory education, in order to regain spiritual enlightenment. Intro. p. 1.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a general introduction to the study of James' art criticism, to establish his aesthetic criteria and to indicate the relationship between his theory of art and the themes of his fiction. First, I have included an analysis of three stories concerning the artist and his craft: "The Madonna of the Future," "The Liar," and "The Real Thing." Drawing certain conclusions as to James’ view of the nature of art and the nature and function of the artist, I have then proceeded to examine his most important statements on nineteenth century painting. Although this is only a small portion of his many comments on not only the art of painting but all the Fine Arts, I have limited my discussion to painting for the sake of brevity and clarity, and to the nineteenth century because James is a nineteenth century novelist. I have attempted to show his amazing perception of the various aesthetic movements of his time and his sympathetic attitude towards the many pitfalls into which the artists of the nineteenth century fell. I have also tried to indicate briefly where James differed from the major art critics of the time, such as Ruskin, Pater and Baudelaire. I feel that certain conclusions can be drawn from a study of James' art criticism: one, that it is important to any serious study of his novels; two, that it is closely linked to certain twentieth century attitudes towards the nature of art; and three, that the aesthetic theory out of which James is working has a direct relation to both the form and content of his novels. His characters are acting out his own struggle for a compromise between the Real and the Ideal, and his theory of art and theory of life being one and the same, he feels that one should, in a certain sense, make of one's life a work of art. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This paper reports on a study carried out to explore some aspects of the relation of behavior to the physical context. It attempts to investigate the possibilities of psychophysical needs as determinants in evaluating and structuring the visual environment. For purposes of this study, signs in the context of the city were selected as specific elements of the visual environment which would be analyzed in terms of the research. Advertising, information, and identification signs were examined in terms of their function as design elements within the total visual image of the city, and as they could relate to perceptual and aesthetic processes. The intent of this paper was to establish a practical basis for a new approach to the structure of sign control in urban areas. The initial step was to outline the various theories relating to perception, to describe the perceptual process as it is generally understood, and to examine some of the complex variables which are operative in the processes of perception. Both physical and psychological factors combine in intricate relationships of inherent needs and capabilities as well effects of learning and experience. In addition, the relationship between aesthetics, or the formal elements of art, and basic psychophysical needs for pattern and complexity in visual stimuli were investigated. Material from the areas of psychology, biology, and design was explored in an attempt to bridge some of the many gaps which now exist between behavioral sciences, art and the planning of the visual environment. Finally, a proposed structure for a sign control by-law was developed which would provide a more comprehensive design basis than that which presently exists, and which in adoption, would be more consistent with the needs described in the processes of perception and aesthetic satisfaction. As a result of this study, it was concluded that within any given culture, broad similarities occur in the related processes of perception and aesthetic satisfaction. These two processes have both physical and cultural components, and learning and motivation seem to play large roles, as do the innate factors. The search for stimulus variability and complexity seems to be a basic incentive in human behavior. There is also evidence of an optimal perceptual rate within homogeneous cultures. Further research in order to develop adequate methodology to test optimal perceptual responses and level of satisfaction of the visual environment is essential. However, these psychophysical processes provide a more realistic and comprehensive basis for the evaluation of the environment. Development of a design framework which will allow the maxim of complexity and variability to occur within a total pattern is a more desirable and effective approach toward the visual environment than that which now exists. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This dissertation elaborates an American pragmatist aesthetic tradition that anticipates recent "turns" in cultural studies to aesthetics and affect. Although a commitment to the nondiscursive ends of art is most explicitly voiced by pragmatist philosophers, I emphasize fiction writers who likewise argue that what most matters in art is our immediately felt, inarticulate experience of an artwork rather than anything we can say about it. These writers celebrated the nondiscursive character of aesthetic experience as a critique of an emerging culture of professionalism that, they felt, reduced aesthetic experience to linguistic meaning and thereby consolidated the authority of the professional middle class over rural, poor, and immigrant Americans. While these writers were critics of the culture of professionalism, they were also its products and participants, and they registered their dual commitments in images of bifurcated consciousness, most famous of which is W.E.B. Du Bois's concept of a racial "double-consciousness" endemic to the African American. Here double consciousness serves as a metaphor for the tension between professional discourse and nondiscursive aesthetic experience. Each chapter explores a different valence of this metaphor, illustrating it through analysis of a fictional work. The protagonists in these works are encountered at crises in their professional careers, and their dual commitments to discourse and nondiscourse are dramatized in their encounters with artworks. Chapter 1 argues that a dual commitment to the analytic and the vague in William James's The Principles of Psychology and Henry James's "The Figure in the Carpet" reflects these brothers' ambivalence toward a late-nineteenth-century aestheticism that insisted on art's "uselessness." Chapter 2 demonstrates that Harold Frederic's The Damnation of Theron Ware negotiates a double consciousness prompted by the nineteenth-century "warfare" between science and theology. Chapter 3 examines the role that a racialized difference between "white" words and "black" music assumed during the Jim Crow era, as demonstrated in James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man. Chapter 4 demonstrates that Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark mitigates a tension between art's functions as escapism and as propaganda by sketching a model of American cultural nationalism rooted in "primitive" nondiscursivity.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / In my thesis I focus on Cape Town’s imaginary of cinemas – popularly called bioscopes – within a larger historical approach to temporary film halls, picture palaces, atmospherics and drive-ins. My inquiry includes both conceptual and institutional lenses to show how cinema houses enabled particular affects, eschewed bureaucratic restrictions and questioned political authority over public spaces. I ask specifically: how did cinema help to forge audiences and political sentiment by mobilizing the senses? How was the public threat posed by so-called ‘flea-pit’ film halls of early twentieth century seemingly appeased by the private promise of the multiplex rooms in suburban enclosures? For this purpose, I examine the appeal of early twentieth century cinemas alongside their impact in the city’s geography and incipient public sphere to argue that cinema promoted a collective form of experience that bypassed both segregationist and liberal policies of governance.