Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-141).

The research reported in this thesis explores children’s perceptions of beauty. It investigates how children reflect upon and articulate their perceptions of beauty and examines how these perceptions relate to philosophical thinking about aesthetic experience. For the past 100 years, beauty has been marginalised in art and education and it is widely regarded as a problematic notion in a range of social and cultural contexts. Art educators have often portrayed beauty as a peripheral concern, and those who have studied children’s responses to artworks have tended to characterise their references to beauty as evidence of passive appreciation and a relatively low level of aesthetic development. In recent years there has been growing evidence of a revival of interest in beauty as a theme for reflection; however, to my knowledge, this is the first study to specifically research children’s perceptions of beauty. The theoretical part of the study examined two fields of literature, in terms of (i) art educators’ strategies for engaging children with art and (ii) philosophical theories of aesthetic experience. These sources influenced the design of the empirical part of the study, which consisted of 18 group interviews with 51 children aged 9-11 in two schools, one in inner London and the other in a rural village 40 miles from the capital. Before the interviews children completed two tasks independently in which they found and photographed images they thought were beautiful. Therefore there were two kinds of research data: (i) the images children found and photographed and (ii) the interview transcripts. A content analysis approach informed the interpretation of the images, while a number of themes that emerged from the interview data were identified and discussed in the context of the literature. The research findings indicated that children have diverse perceptions of beauty and that they are interested in a range of visual properties and expressive qualities of images. Children in one school tended to find beauty in images that reflected relationships, while those in the other judged the subjective nature of such images to be problematic. Children in the rural area often photographed landscapes, flowers and animals, suggesting their direct connection with nature influences their perception of it as beautiful. Those in London also found beauty in the natural world but preferred stylised, digitally generated representations of nature designed to appeal to the viewer. During the interviews children were often highly motivated to articulate their responses to beauty, and many reflected thoughtfully on their own and others’ images. Evidence suggests that children experience beauty in a wide range of contexts and that they variously understand it as an intersubjectively valid, shareable experience or, alternatively, as an individual experience. Several talked about beauty in ways that related to notions well-rehearsed in aesthetic theory while others, though less able to conceive or articulate such ideas, were nonetheless receptive to them when they heard them expressed. Photography played an important part in the research, and the findings suggest the medium has the potential to play a far more prominent role in art education as a means of expression. When combined with group interviews, photography can also be a highly effective method of understanding children’s perspectives on their experiences, and the study offers a useful model for researchers and educators to develop further. The research makes several contributions to knowledge. Firstly, it demonstrates that children’s experiences of beauty are often valuable and meaningful to them. Secondly, it provides evidence that children are motivated to explain their ideas about beauty and to engage with the ideas of others. Thirdly, it challenges previous assumptions in terms of both children’s aesthetic development and aesthetic preferences by highlighting the diversity and complexity of children’s perceptions of beauty.

Magister Artium - MA / One can think of an aesthetic as one’s artistic mode and purpose. The aesthetic is differently foregrounded in each of Ghosh’s three selected novels: in the first novel studied, aesthetic concerns are linked with beauty. Female beauty in particular, is the primary aesthetic focus in The Glass Palace since it is beauty that inspires love and appreciation. In the second novel, The Hungry Tide, the aesthetic explores techniques of writing that encompass environmental questions. This novel shows nature as its primary aesthetic since it is through the encounter with nature that its aesthetic is realised and an appreciation for all life forms are established.

Christian education and Christian formation (participation in Christian practice) are two approaches to faith nurture that have been embraced by the church. Each approach has a body of literature that describes and examines its respective approach. While both approaches are good and appropriate for use in the discipleship and nurture of adolescents, neither approach fully accounts for what occurs during faith formation. Hans-Georg Gadamer speaks about the fusion of horizons as a hermeneutic event. The horizon of Christian education and the horizon of Christian formation can be brought into dialogue, toward the creation of new understanding. Moving both horizons into dialogue will serve to elevate the significance of vision metaphors in faith formation. The perception of theological beauty plays a significant role in faith formation, unattended to by either contributing horizon's discourse. Theological beauty is represented to adolescents through the content of Christian teaching. The theological beauty is encountered by adolescents through formative practices of the church. In both cases the experience of beauty trains the attention and imagination on God. The theological beauty encountered in both avenues of nurture is the beauty of God’s own being. Theological beauty is perceived in part through language and discourse. Language is interpretive and disclosive. Careful descriptive discourse provides theological perception that is necessary for the Christian life. Language calls attention to theological beauty and theological beauty sustains this attention. At a life stage where abstract thought is beginning to develop, adolescents are beginning to be able to appreciate symbolic beauty. It is at this developmental stage that a sense of theological beauty and wonder can begin to be cultivated. Accompanying the discussion about the place of descriptive discourse is the guiding metaphor of the curator. The curatorial image represents ministry practice that carves out space for the encounter and appreciation of theological beauty. The “theological curator” draws young people’s attentions to the beauty of God's character, and the beauty of God’s personal call to them. The act of curation is also to make space for wonder as adolescents encounter God’s character and God’s call. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis advisor: Peter Kreeft / This dissertation is a Thomistic personalist account of the human family. It seeks to shed light on the nature of the family by way of a metaphysical and phenomenological analysis. Or better, I hope to contribute to a conscious awareness of the presence of the family. Such a project is necessary because personalists have said much about the individual person but less about the person-in-the-family. Moreover, Thomistic personalism will benefit from a synthesis of late 20th and early 21st century insights regarding philosophical anthropology; such a synthesis I offer here. I pose the philosophical question thus: what is the nature of the family? And the central claim of the dissertation: the family is beautiful. Now, there is a distinction between ontological and aesthetic beauty. Ontological beauty belongs to beings as such. It is the kind of beauty that is contained in the classical meaning of the term cosmos—"the beauty resulting from order.” For its part, aesthetic beauty deals with the artifacts of man. It is a derivative kind of beauty. So, my dissertation will be an examination of the family as ontologically beautiful, or said differently, the family as a microcosm. Such a claim contends with two prominent, contemporary philosophies of the family. First, feminist philosophy following Foucault imagines the family as an artificial structure of sexual oppression. For these, the family is not a microcosm, but is instead a prison—artificial and controlling. Second, reforming philosophers such as Henry Rosemont Jr., reject any metaphysical account of the family and argue that the value of the family is strictly utilitarian in nature—it is a community of merely cooperating human beings towards the end of the greatest, communal happiness. To respond to these objections, I draw on the 20th century Catholic personalists to articulate a portrait of the family as beautiful according to the three Thomistic attributes of the beautiful: integritas, consonantia, and claritas. The dissertation unfolds in this way. After examining the objections, in Thomistic fashion I provide a sed contra by considering three world wisdom authorities on the question. I show that the Islamic Quran, the Bhagavad Gita and the philosophy of Confucius all take the family to be of cosmic import and beautiful. I next lay Thomistic personalist foundations for a study of the family. This includes the anthropology of Karol Wojtyla and the metaphysics of W. Norris Clarke. Wojtyla describes the human person as a rational being, free and related to the eternal. Clarke explains that the person is a substance-in-relation and proposes system as a category of being to account for the unity of relating substances. With these key notions in hand, I turn to St. Thomas’s cosmology to articulate the attributes of the cosmos that will in turn describe any microcosm; specifically: esse, diversity, metaphysical inequality, and teleology. Following the articulation of foundational notions in Thomistic personalism, I begin the examination of the family according to the attributes of beauty. Under integritas, I consider the person-in-the-family beginning with Clarke’s metaphysical account of the person as ontologically relational. Next, I turn to Dietrich Von Hildebrand to provide an account of the role of the heart in human persons, given the heart’s crucial role in the experience of relationships in the family. Finally, I consider three Thomistic positions on the gender of persons: each attributing gender to either matter, form, or esse respectively. In the final move, I argue that a home is crucial to the integrity of the family too. Consonantia has to do with harmony and therefore I attempt a phenomenology of the familial relationships, arguing that each person of the family has a vocation to contribute to family unity. Drawing on Marcel’s study of fatherhood, I propose an existential order in the family wherein the father is found at some existential distance from the family. This distance is a condition that calls a father to provide a unity of direction for the family—to lead. To explain this leadership, I consider the Aristotelian distinction between a king and a tyrant to say that the father’s vocation is kingly: to order the family to virtue through giving himself. For her part, the mother is at the existential center of the family. She actualizes the unity of the family with her ineinanderblick (loving gaze). To understand this, I turn to Dietrich Von Hildebrand’s phenomenology of love as a value response. Finally, I consider the relationship of children as those who receive love in the family and so complete the perfection of being as both acting and receiving according to Clarke’s notion of receiving as an ontological perfection. Moreover, I consider Marcel’s insight that children are both incarnations of the parent’s love and also a judgement. In my final move, I take up the claritas of the family. I account for the intelligible unity of the family as a metaphysical system characterized by the central qualities of freedom and virtue. Regarding freedom, I examine Marcel’s notion of founding a family as a free act. With respect to virtue, I consider the traditional notion of the family as a school of virtue, not only for the children but for the parents. Finally, I propose that the family has a sacred character because, of all the unities or systems in the cosmos, the family most clearly reflects the splendor of God. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

No description available.

The thesis deals with the beauty myth and its presentation in Top dívky girl magazine. It focuses on revealing mechanisms used by the magazine to attract girls' attention, and their gender consequences. Observing both analogical and contrasting traits of presenting the beauty myth to girls and women is an important part of the thesis. In its theoretical part, the author begins by presenting the ongoing discussion on the beauty myth led by Naomi Wolf (2000), the feminist theorist. The basic theoretical framework for this thesis is Wolf's proposition of the "female" beauty myth, which subsequently helps the author to examine the "girlish" beauty myth. In her research, the author uses open, axial and selective coding. By determining the central category of Cult of surface, the thesis unveils the essential message of the beauty myth in Top dívky. The surface is the main aspect not only of girls' appearance, but also of their relationships and interests. The functioning of the cult of surface is enabled by the discourse of easiness and the accessibility of beautification, which the thesis considers as a very important aspect of the beauty myth in the girl magazine. Basic propositions on the female beauty myth apply to girls as well, however, there are certain nuances to consider, which the author also...

The current study explores the influence nontraditional framing of beauty and ugliness has on college aged females' interpretation of beauty. Focus group sessions were used to assess this influence, during which the women were asked several questions within two open discussions of beauty. The television sitcom Ugly Betty, which features an alternative framing of beauty standards, was shown between each discussion and used to analyze the media's influence. The results show that the discussion and the new framing of beauty and ugliness in the clip influenced the women's interpretations by either creating new understandings or re-enforcing existing beliefs. The women also considered media images of beauty to have a third-person effect with younger audiences being more impacted. Social comparison was used slightly in explaining beauty definitions and standards for women. / Master of Arts

No description available.

Kroppens yttre utseende har varierande betydelser i människors liv, men alla har en uppfattning om hur de tänker och känner kring sin kropp. Vår kroppsuppfattning influeras oftast av yttre faktorer, inklusive sociala medier som presenterar innehåll som kan påverka vårt tankesätt. Under det senaste decenniet har Instagram blivit en integrerad del av vårt vardagliga liv och spelar en avgörande roll för att utveckla vår attityd och inställning till vårt utseende.  Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur unga kvinnor i åldrarna 18-25 får upplever framställningen av skönhetsingrepp på Instagram, vidare ligger uppsatsen fokus på om respondenterna själva upplever att de vill, eller redan har genomgått ett skönhetsingrepp med Instagram som bidragande orsak. Med hjälp av kvalitativa fokusgrupper och en kvantitativ enkätundersökning har vi undersökt om kvinnorna själva upplever att Instagram är en bidragande orsak till att vilja förändra sitt eget utseende genom skönhetsingrepp.  Studiens syfte har uppnåtts med följande frågeställningar:  -  Hur upplever unga kvinnor framställningen av skönhetsingrepp på Instagram? -  Upplever respondenterna att framställningen av skönhetsingrepp på Instagram är  en bidragande faktor till att förändra sitt utseende med hjälp av estetiska ingrepp?  Resultatet har analyserats i enlighet utifrån teorierna ideologi i visuell kommunikation, parasociala interaktionsteorin, teorier om identitet och interpellationteorin samt utifrån tidigare forskning kring ämnet. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultatet av enkätundersökningen att majoriteten upplever att det finns ett rådande skönhetsideal på Instagram och att de känner sig pressade att se ut på ett visst sätt. Kvinnorna fick även ta ställning till huruvida framställningen av skönhetsingrepp på Instagram påverkar dem i den mån att de själva vill förändra sitt utseende och mer än hälften menar att dem är påverkade. / The external appearance of the body has varying meanings in people's lives, but everyone has an idea of how they think and feel about their body. Our body image is most often influenced by external factors, including social media that presents content that may affect our way of thinking. Over the past decade, Instagram has become an integral part of our daily lives and plays a crucial role in developing our attitudes towards our appearance.  The essay aims to investigate how young women aged 18-25 may experience the presence of beauty procedures on Instagram, furthermore, the essay focuses on whether the respondents themselves feel that they want to, or have already undergone a beauty procedure with Instagram as a contributing cause. With the help of qualitative focus groups and a quantitative survey, we have investigated whether the women themselves feel that Instagram is a contributing reason for wanting to change their appearance through beauty procedures.  The purpose of the study has been achieved with the following questions:  -  How do young women experience the portrayal of beauty procedures on Instagram? -  Do the respondents feel that the presentation of beauty procedures on Instagram is a contributing factor to changing their appearance with the help of aesthetic procedures?  The results have been analyzed by the theories ideology in visual communication, parasocial interaction theory, theories of identity, and interpellation theory and based on previous research on the subject. In summary, the results of the survey show that the majority feel that there is a prevailing beauty ideal on Instagram and that they feel pressured to look a certain way. The women also had to decide whether the presentation of beauty procedures on Instagram affects them to the extent that they want to change their appearance and more than half believe that they are affected.