Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-253).

Inaug.-diss.--Berlin. / "Mit genehmigung der Hohen Fakultät kommt hier nur der erste Teil der ganzen arbeit zum Abdruck. Der Rest erscheint gleichzeitig in der Zeitschrift für Psychologie ..." v. 54:1, p. 401-536. Lebenslauf.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Inaug.--Diff.--Bonn. / Lebenslauf. Includes bibliographical references.

Inaug.-Diss.--Jena. / Lebenslauf. Literatur-verzeichnis": p. 135-142.

Thesis (M.S.)--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [81-83]).

Abstract not available.

This thesis examines Shaftesbury’s Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711), and revisits his concepts of aesthetics and ethics by providing a key to understanding his controversial methodology and definitions of terms. Kubota claims that Shaftesbury's main purpose in writing Characteristics is to defend the concept of innate ideas of beauty and moral goodness against the views of Hobbes and Locke. Not only is Characteristics a significant work of moral and aesthetic theory, but it is Shaftesbury’s attempt to act on his theory and put it into practice. Through describing the place of actual life experiences, he intends to show that the various aspects of the concepts he discusses contribute to the whole or the end of the universe, to realize ultimate beauty. Kubota claims that his challenging use of terminology – in which words have many definitions – may be understood in light of his teleological and dualistic view of humanity. His view of dualism and the dialectic categorization of each term, showing the two opposed or distinct characters of each term and the integrated character of the two, reveals either a partial or an integrated human condition. Thus, he changes the meaning of his terms depending on which level he is discussing. Kubota argues that his concept of an innate moral and aesthetic sense is found in the third character of terms such as the third manner (miscellaneous manner) which is the integrated state of both poetical manner and methodical manner, the third truth (moral truth) which is the integrated state of both poetical manner and historical manner, and the third affection (natural affection) which is the integrated state of self-affection and public-affection. It is only this integrated self which reveals the innate moral sense, in which one can experience and create true beauty, virtue, and enthusiasm, resulting in a state of happiness where one is able to serve both the self and the public good.

Aesthetic investigations of ugliness have increased in popularity in the last decade, but existing treatments of ugliness either fail to provide a satisfying explanation for ugliness' unique presence and role, or merely provide a compendium of ugly instances. This thesis provides a non-equivocating explanation of ugliness which accounts for its phenomenological variety while retaining the roles of both object and subject, constituting a novel treatment in the field of aesthetics. An account of the concept's popular association as a beauty's negation is reassessed, along with investigation of the proliferation of species, features, and problems associated with ugliness in aesthetic writings. In addition to surveying classic and contemporary notions of ugliness in western aesthetics, this thesis provides a novel survey of ugliness in East Asian aesthetics, with a focus on ugliness in Chinese aesthetics. The project encompasses not only artistic instances of ugliness, but also natural phenomenon as well. The exploration and explanation of the nature of ugliness as a negative aesthetic value is accomplished by locating the conceptual core of ugly experience in a framework of aspectual judgment.

No description available.