Andrej Démuth - Böcker

This book is divided into nine chapters trying to draw attention to the various aspects of the understanding of God, to the question of the individual, the ideal state arrangement, and the question of freedom (free will) as well as of history. Special attention is paid to the issue of cognition, the question of reason and sense, as well as language and the issue of a system in philosophy. The chapters are arranged to show the historical characteristics of the issues with an introduction of the key approach and ideas with references.

The text is structured in chronological and ideological order and presents nine basic types of the classical perception of the problem of knowledge through an analysis of the atomistic theory of perception, Platonism, Aristotle’s doctrine, scepticism, rationalism, sensualism, Kant’s theory, phenomenological-existential, pragmatic, and (post) analytical perceptions. The proposed work aspires to be an introduction (not a complete presentation, neither in the number of types, nor in a full interpretation) and a basis for the reader’s interpretations which is reflected in the structure of the text.

This book is centred around the examination of whether it is possible to find cognitive aspects or purposes in aesthetic judgements and in perceptions of beauty, and whether it is possible to meaningfully develop cognitive aesthetics as a unified science (the unification of philosophical and cognitive approaches) using an epistemic background of beauty and art. The book offers various aspects of understanding cognitive characteristics of aesthetic experience. The authors examine the distinction between ordinary and aesthetic experience. They regard a conceptual and semantic analysis of the concept of beauty and focuse on the differences in the evaluation of physical beauty between the sexes from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. The problem of the facial attractiveness and the aesthetic experience from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience is also object of their investigation. The contributors elaborate on beauty in music and emotionality, the problem of the beauty in mathematics and the mathematics of beauty, and consider the vision of how cognitive science affects art theory.

The monograph presents psychological interpretations of the specific reactions of individuals within the perception of attractive human faces. It concentrates on exploring selected attributes of human face that increase its attractiveness. After introducing essential information on the specifics of facial perception and its brain correlates, the monograph presents findings on the effect of symmetry, averageness, proportions, sexually dimorphic features, personality characteristics, or the importance of specific parts of the face to its attractiveness. Based on the results of both foreign and own research, the authors formulate interpretations of why and how the identification and preference of examined characteristics have been developed and maintained by the evolution.

This collection delves into the conceptual and semantic dissection of aesthetic and moral emotions. It grapples with their definition, scope, function, and structure. Highlighting a range of semantic research methods, the authors also present interdisciplinary studies on emotions like anger, admiration, disgust, guilt, and feelings linked to beauty perception. This book serves as a thematic and methodological gateway to interdisciplinary human emotionality research.

The book delves into the analysis of anger as both a moral and amoral emotion. It investigates whether anger is indeed one of the basic emotions or if it is a social and linguistic construct, denoting a concept associated with the human mind. The author subjects the concept of anger to an analysis of its semantic domains, as well as a conceptual analysis regarding what it signifies and means to us. Anger is analyzed from philosophical-phenomenological perspectives, as well as from the viewpoints of cognitive sciences, evolutionary psychology, and social psychology. The significance of anger in both phylogenetic and ontogenetic development is explored. Through a deeper understanding thereof, avenues toward its better and more effective management are elucidated.