Helmholtz and classicism: The science of aesthetics and the aesthetics of science

In David Cahan (ed.), Hermann von Helmholtz and the Foundations of Nineteenth-Century Science. University of California Press. pp. 522--58 (1993)
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Abstract

This chapter examines the Helmholtz's changing conceptions of the relation between scientific cognition (the thought processes of the investigator) and artistic cognition. It begins with two case studies: Helmholtz's application of sensory physiology and psychology respectively to music and to painting. Consideration of these concrete cases leads to Helmholtz's account of the methodology of aesthetics, and specifically to his formulation of the distinction between the *Geisteswissenschaften* and *Naturwissenschaften*. It then examines the development of his comparative account of the thought processes of artist and scientist. This development parallels the development of his psychological theory of judgment into his famous theory of unconscious inference. The latter development exemplifies his classical "aesthetics of science."

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Gary Hatfield
University of Pennsylvania

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