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Chinese calligraphy is an invaluable legacy of Chinese culture, since it bears great artistic and aesthetic value. In this paper, we aim at the problem of Chinese calligraphy style classification, which is an important branch of Chinese calligraphy study. Chinese calligraphy style classification remains a challenging task due to its dramatic intra-class difference and tiny inter-class difference. Therefore, we propose a novel CNN embedded with feature fusion and feature decomposition modules to solve this problem. We first fuse the features of several images from the same category to augment their potential style-related features. Then we feed the fused feature to an attention module to decompose it to two components, viz. style-related feature and style-unrelated feature. We further apply two types of loss function to jointly supervise our network. On the one hand, we feed the style-related feature to a style classifier which is supervised by cross-entropy loss. On the other hand, we construct a correlation loss based on the Pearson correlation coefficient to make the two decomposed features as orthogonal as possible. By optimizing these two types of loss simultaneously, our proposed network has obtained the accuracies of 98.63 % and 94.35 % respectively on two datasets. Besides, substantial experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the feature fusion and decomposition modules. The proposed approach compares favorably with state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the normalisation of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on the part of their inhabitants. Focusing on the so-called 'non-ideological' settlements that evolved from ideological outposts into middle-class suburbs over the last three decades, this study engages spatial politics in Israel/Palestine in general, and the transformations of the settlement project in particular. Based on ethnographic research in the region, I argue that the acceptance and normalisation of the settlements among Israelis is closely related to their affective and aesthetic experiences. I focus on the co-production of space/territory, affect and aesthetics to show how physical transformations of the settlements since their establishment have turned many of these key nodes of the Israeli occupational apparatus into family-friendly communities, thus erasing the violence of the Israeli control over the Palestinians from settlers' lives. I further demonstrate that these notions are not disrupted even by one of the most prominent symbols and technologies of the occupation, the fence/wall. This study thus contributes to understanding of how the interplay of spatial, territorial, aesthetic and affective practices works to normalise colonial conquest and domination by making their manifestations seemingly natural and even appealing on the part of the privileged segments of the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The reduviid genus Sycanus Amyot & Serville, 1843, possesses higher aesthetic value and plays a crucial role as a natural enemy in the control of agricultural and forestry pests. However, Sycanus from China has not undergone a comprehensive review for over four decades. Based on both molecular data and morphological evidence, we conducted a systematic review of the 14 Chinese Sycanus species, including a description of three new species. Due to the variability of body coloration and morphological similarity among closely related species, unresolved issues and debates still persist in the taxonomic study of the genus Sycanus from China. In this study, we conducted phylogenetic analyses and species delimitation for Sycanus in China based on a COI DNA barcoding dataset comprising 81 samples. The results revealed that all the samples could be classified into 12 species by integrating molecular analyses with morphological comparison. This paper provides a comprehensive systematic review of the Sycanus species found in China, including descriptions of three new species: S. taiwanensis Zhao & Cai sp. nov., S. flavicorius Li & Cai sp. nov., and S. hainanensis Wang & Cai sp. nov. Furthermore, it is proposed that S. croceovittatus Dohrn, 1859, S. leucomesus Walker, 1873, and S. villicus Stål, 1863, are three synonyms of S. bifidus (Fabricius, 1787); S. bicolor Hsiao, 1979, is a synonym of S. versicolor Dohrn, 1859; and S. hsiaoi Maldonado-Capriles, 1990, is a synonym of S. marginellus Putshkov, 1987. Additionally, brief biological information is provided for two species, S. falleni Stål, 1863, and S. croceus Hsiao, 1979. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses what constitutes good teaching, taking as its cue the 'aesthetic' concept treated in everyday aesthetics and 'internal good' accounted by McIntyre. Teaching is viewed as practice, not merely as a basic action, due to its epistemological nature as everyday work. What everyday aesthetics teaches us is that even in the practice of teaching, sensory experiences such as comfort, familiarity, discomfort, ordinariness, etc. can be viewed as aesthetic experience. This kind of aesthetic experience constitute intuition supporting 'good teaching' that confirmed by examining Dreyfus et al. This 'good teaching' sensitivity is not specific to the individual practitioner, but is considered to be an 'in-practice value (internal good?)' (McIntyre) shared by the community of practice. From the aesthetic perspective, this value could be called 'aesthetic value in practice'. In the teaching community of practice, 'good teaching' is both 'beautiful teaching' and 'ethically good' teaching. Teaching should be seen as a relational practice, and for this reason, The Ethico-Aesthetics of Teaching should be constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is crucial to use innovative tools to gain clinical reasoning skills through experiential learning in pharmacy education, and one of the most effective tools used in this is virtual reality. However, the lack of research that empirically demonstrates the instructional principles of virtual environment design, especially in the clinical setting, has resulted in a significant gap in the current literature. Aim: In this study, it was aimed to determine the instructional design principles of a virtual environment for the clinical pharmacy. Method: The study was conducted as a design‐based research. The data of the study related to three components of the developed virtual reality environment in pharmacy education (VRPE). These components, scenario development interface‐scenario development interface, virtual environment, and scenario, were collected through interviews, observation, document review, and a system usability scale. Instructional design principles for the VRPE were determined through analysis of the collected data. Results: The prominent instructional design principles of the VRPE were revealed as immersion, interaction, diversity, flow, aesthetics‐ergonomic‐universal design, informing, and retest availability. The significance of the study was the adoption of a holistic perspective in the design of a virtual reality environment for pharmacy education. In addition, one of the most critical features of the study was eliminating the expertise barrier in virtual environment design. Thus, it was concluded that the VRPE is an extraordinary tool that can be used for pharmacy education to promote experiential learning. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Enrichment of pharmacy education with innovative practices and educational technologies is encouraged.Theories to guide research and application development regarding virtual environment design are lacking.Features such as immersion, interaction and flow in virtual environment design have been studied in various studies. What this paper adds: The research brings a holistic perspective on the design of virtual environments in pharmacy education.The research removes the barrier of expertise in virtual environment design with the scenario development interface.The results expand the literature by revealing instructional design principles on the issues to be considered in virtual environment design. The implications of study findings for practitioners: Further studies on context‐specific design of multi‐user virtual environments and the factors and design principles required could be conducted.Future studies should explore the skills (e.g., cognitive, and affective) that would be developed by these design principles.The impact of virtual reality on professional life or whether the design principles are valid for these domains could be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers recent experiments in art and artificial intelligence that crystallize around training algorithms to generate artworks based on datasets derived from the Western art historical canon. Over the last decade, a shift towards the rejection of canonicity has begun to take shape in art historical discourse. At the same time, algorithmically enabled practices in the US and Europe have emerged that entrench the Western canon as a locus and guarantor of aesthetic value. Operating within the epistemic framework of a "view from nowhere," this tendency in generative art inherits the coloniality of both art history and artificial intelligence. Producing "art histories from nowhere," this tendency conflates the conceptual category of visual art with the histories of Western cultural production. It reproduces a set of aesthetic values that entrench the mythology of the artist-genius and his imputed whiteness and masculinity; the extolment of innovation and novelty as self-evident virtues; disembodied Cartesian models of knowing and sensing; and the erasure of contributions that have been occluded from canonical visibility. As we encounter systems trained on particular visions of art history and of the artist, how might we remain attentive to the specific lens through which they are taught to see? This essay addresses that question by bringing the coloniality of recent experiments into view, bridging data feminisms and decolonial studies to formulate alternative visions of encounters between art and AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes up Howard's (1999) suggestion that sentimentality can be a lens on self-world relations. It focuses on human-bird relations in a Facebook site dedicated to Australian wild birds: Birds in Backyards (Australia). We argue that the traditional ideal of intellectual and affective distance through which critiques of sentimentality are still so often couched is not very useful in understanding and valuing the dynamic, interactive and immersive forms of social media. A study of Birds in Backyards suggests that there quite different ways that the love of wild birds can manifest and that sentimentality is not inimical to the generation of a community of care for, and celebration of, birds. Moreover, an older assumption that sentimentality might be the opposite of, or an impediment to, practical action seems hard to justify in the discursively and emotionally complex milieux of the digital age. Today, there is no place for an opposition between feeling and doing, and scientific action often requires and mobilizes emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to study the features of vocal improvisation using interactive musical technologies. The survey method contributed to determining the level of vocal skills of 214 respondents auditioned before the experiment. The authors developed a training programme based on previously received information. It included breathing, technical, aesthetic, and vocal improvisation skills. The results showed that 93% of the experimental group believed that interactive technologies had advantages in the educational process, and 63% of the control group believed that they had no advantages. The survey of the students allowed identifying elements that required improvement or changes in the curriculum. The students of the experimental group showed that using national Chinese instruments for accompaniment was important for 32% of the respondents, 27% chose the answer "other", which included systematic and more frequent cross-sections of knowledge, the involvement of foreign approaches to learning. The calculation of the level of knowledge obtained showed that 88% of the students demonstrated a high level in the experimental group, a low one was only in 2%. Study prospects relate to studying technical and aesthetic elements to be applied during classical and folk vocal performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What psychological mechanisms underlie aesthetic judgements? An influential account known as the Hedonic Marking of Fluency, later developed into a Processing Fluency Theory of Aesthetic Pleasure, posits that ease of processing elicits positive feelings and thus enhances stimulus evaluations. However, the theory faces empirical and conceptual challenges. In this paper, we extend it by integrating insights from predictive processing frameworks (PPF) and the epistemic motivation model (EMM). We propose four extensions. First, fluency of a stimulus depends on perceivers' expectations—their internal model of the world. Second, perceivers also form expectations about fluency itself and thus can experience surprising fluency. These expectations can come from the individual's history, their current task and their environment. Third, perceivers can value fluency but also disfluency, reflecting their non-directional epistemic goals. Fourth, perceivers also have directional epistemic goals, preferring specific conclusions or belief content. Consequently, affective reactions depend on whether the stimulus satisfies those goals. These directional epistemic goals may override concerns about fluency or change the value of fluency associated with specific content. We review supporting evidence and introduce novel predictions. By integrating insights from PPF and EMM, our framework can better capture established fluency effects and highlights their limitations and extensions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to account for the power that art holds over us? Why do artworks touch us deeply, consoling, transforming or invigorating us in the process? In this paper, we argue that an answer to this question might emerge from a fecund framework in cognitive science known as predictive processing (a.k.a. active inference). We unpack how this approach connects sense-making and aesthetic experiences through the idea of an 'epistemic arc', consisting of three parts (curiosity, epistemic action and aha experiences), which we cast as aspects of active inference. We then show how epistemic arcs are built and sustained by artworks to provide us with those satisfying experiences that we tend to call 'aesthetic'. Next, we defuse two key objections to this approach; namely, that it places undue emphasis on the cognitive component of our aesthetic encounters—at the expense of affective aspects—and on closure and uncertainty minimization (order)—at the expense of openness and lingering uncertainty (change). We show that the approach offers crucial resources to account for the open-ended, free and playful behaviour inherent in aesthetic experiences. The upshot is a promising but deflationary approach, both philosophically informed and psychologically sound, that opens new empirical avenues for understanding our aesthetic encounters. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because digitalisation of the aesthetical experience, a process speeded up by the not-yet-finished COVID-19 pandemic, should be considered in the context of growth or loss of artistry/creativity, this paper aims to assess the influence of the participation form in the aesthetical situation by receivers on the level of artistry/creativity potential loss. Assessment of the quality of participation by the receivers in each of five types of arts (musical arts, performing arts, literary arts, audio-visual arts, visual arts) was done using the same ten criteria for each type of art: satisfaction, pleasure, engagement, the possibility of experiencing catharsis, contact with the artwork itself, contact with the performer itself, comfort of participation, possibilities of shaping the aesthetical experience, own motivation to participate, easiness of participation. The literature review was run using NVivo Pro software. Data analysis (n = 221) was executed using IBM SPSS and Microsoft Excel. Answering the research hypotheses: H1) the digital form of participation in arts determines the level of quality of participation in the aesthetical situation by receivers; H2) the form of participation in art shapes the level of quality of participation in the aesthetical situation by receivers of each type of art differently: in musical arts, performing arts, literary arts and visual arts, in-real participation gives higher quality than digital participation; in audio-visual arts, in-real participation gives lower quality than digital participation. The research results may be helpful for: art creators wanting to choose the optimal way of distributing their artworks; art managers to better understand art receivers' perspectives and their opinion about participation in arts in real or digitally; art receivers to compare their private opinion about the ways of participation in arts with the general opinion of art receivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient philosophers attached great importance to the ideals of unity, truth, goodness, and beauty as the path to the greatest good. Beauty expressed through works of art can open the eyes of the mind and heart and direct the human spirit to transcendence. The beauty of art awakens inner emotionality, evokes elation in silence, and leads to "coming out of oneself". The concept of beauty is inextricably linked to Catholic theology and preaching. Beautiful sacred images were a source of theological messages, intercession, and entry into the transcendental world. Medieval Gothic cathedrals had images on the walls as a basic tool of catechesis. Even in today's teaching of young people, images play a crucial role. The world of symbols enables Christians to connect everyday life experiences with theological messages. The image of the Virgin Mary is the best example of recognizing personal life situations, with the story of a mother who loved her child, accepted the suffering and death of her own son, and together with St. Joseph formed a holy family, which is the image of an imperfect family in which each person recognizes himself. All these aspects of the life of the Virgin Mary could form the basic concepts of the Christian understanding of beauty. In modern thought, the concept of beauty is understood quite narrowly (we are talking about narrowing the meaning of the concept of beauty). In the first part of this paper, we focus on the philosophical concept of beauty with a brief historical overview, then we point out the difference between transcendental beauty and aesthetic beauty. Beauty appeals to the human being and opens the heart to the transcendent, to God, who is the source and fullness of beauty, beauty itself. The originality of the article is in its presentation of the understanding of the Christian concept of beauty through the figure and image of Mary, the Mother of God. The experience of the beauty of Mary and Mary's life story enables the believer to have a different perspective on the perception of his own life and thereby opens him to the transcendent, to a personal relationship with God, who is eternal Beauty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on qualitative survey and interview data with 72 participants focusing on feminine body and beauty work practices in the UK's first Covid-19 'lockdown' in 2020. The data suggest that the affective dimensions of beauty were intensified, accelerated, and expanded during this period. Feminine beauty and body work was deployed to produce desired affects: namely positivity, productivity, and the elimination of stress and anxiety. I argue, therefore, that beauty practices became oriented less around aesthetic labour - the work of improving and maintaining appearance - and more explicitly and substantially a project of affective labour - the deep feeling work of generating and maintaining a disposition that aligns with the needs of capital. Using the lens of affective labour provides insight into the way that the affective harms of the pandemic crisis were individualised and managed by feminine selves through practices of beauty and body work. Participants' affective labour projects produced two interrelated sets of immaterial outcomes. First, they helped maintain a 'market ready' set of positive and productive dispositions that were particularly crucial for those subjects in heightened conditions of precarity, insecurity or isolation. Second, affective labour was key to the deeply gendered, racialised and classed moral formulation of the 'good' pandemic citizen who would, and could, follow the directive to 'stay at home' in order not only to care for themselves and others, but to use the 'opportunity' of lockdown to transform and improve the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities are important talent training bases in China and the main driving force for achieving the strategic layout of "revitalizing the country through science and education" and "strengthening the country through talent". Oil painting is a global art with rich humanistic and artistic value. Most art colleges in China have set up oil painting courses. Analyze the current situation and value of oil painting course teaching in local art (teacher training) majors, and leverage the educational role of oil painting courses by enriching course offerings, emphasizing the integration of humanistic innovation, improving teacher literacy, and striving to further improve the quality and efficiency of oil painting course teaching. The quality evaluation of oil painting teaching in universities is viewed as multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM). The grey relational analysis (GRA) is a useful tool to cope with the MADM issue. The probabilistic simplified Neutrosophic set (PSNSs) is easy to characterize uncertain information during the quality evaluation of oil painting teaching in universities. In this paper, in order to obtain the weight information, an optimization model implemented to obtain a simple and exact formula which can be employed to derive the attribute weights values based on the Lagrange function and the probabilistic simplified neutrosophic number grey relational analysis (PSNN-GRA) technique is implemented for MADM to rank the alternatives. Finally, a numerical example for quality evaluation of oil painting teaching in universities is used to verify the practicability of the PSNN-GRA technique and compares it with other techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two posthumously published essays, 'History of Astronomy' and 'Of the Nature of that Imitation which takes place in what are called The Imitative Arts', Adam Smith suggests provocatively that philosophy is an 'art of imagination' and that we take the same 'very high intellectual pleasure' in appreciating systematic scientific theories and in listening to musical 'systems', i.e. complex works of non-programmatic instrumental music. In this paper, I reconstruct the view of imagination, as the cognitive faculty primarily responsible for perception and appreciation of such 'systems', that undergirds these claims, and argue that it is to be understood as aiming at ideal ends – in the first instance, at beauty or an order among variety (systematicity). Smith thus offers a distinctive view of aesthetic imagination, as neither freely playing nor imitative (two common views of imagination both in his time and ours) but rather as aiming at, and progressively realizing non-rational norms of order (again, at least in the first instance, an ideal of beauty). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the infinitude of nature's various forms, precisely what should we aesthetically appreciate? And supposing we come to achieve such discernment, how should we properly appreciate the aesthetic qualities we thereby find? To address these questions, Carlson has argued that the aesthetic appreciation of nature ought to be guided by scientific insight. In response, non-cognitivists have levelled criticism and suggested alternatives, yet Carlson's (2009) scientific cognitivism remains the best-argued approach to nature appreciation in the field. One non-cognitivist position that Carlson rejects—although much too quickly—is Berleant's (1985) engagement model. The purpose of this paper is to modify and revive that model. Specifically, I will argue that genuine engagement requires a particular form of disinterest. The result is a non-cognitivist approach to the aesthetic appreciation of nature, stronger than the extant alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at integrating insights from ecological psychology, pragmatism, and embodied cognitive science to shed light on the aesthetic dimension underlying daily activities. For this purpose, we discuss conceptions of the aesthetic developed by authors from diverse traditions, including Dewey's pragmatism, Carroll's cognitivism, and Saito's everyday aesthetics. We focus on the activity of reading, which has traditionally been conceived as involving the establishment of letter-sound correspondences and the rule-based deduction of information. However, an embodied framework opens up a more ecological understanding of this activity encompassing dynamic, multimodal perceptual engagement which is dependent on: (i) who the reader is (ii) the task or purpose, and (iii) what the person-environment-system affords. This form of engagement, even in mundane everyday-reading, we argue, brings forth an aesthetic dimension to it. Specifically, we explore how bodily engagement such as olfactory, tactile, and prosodic processes, saturate even logical judgements and reasoning. This integration of embodied and aesthetic processes in a particular context, we claim, can effectively emphasise and cultivate an aesthetic attitude. This, in turn, will provide insight into how the aesthetic dimension of reading can be cultivated intelligently, enriching the overall experience and will also illuminate why we read at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aesthetic medicine merges art and medical sciences, focusing on the modification and enhancement of physical appearance through surgical and non-surgical procedures. While it is not globally recognized as a medical specialty, aesthetic medicine has become a cornerstone of medical tourism in several Asian countries, including India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. Despite its popularity, there is notable gap in literature concerning its ethical and regulatory perspective. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of existing regulations and ethical considerations in aesthetic medicine within the context of the selected Asian countries. Given the field's growth and its potential impact on both domestic and international health practices, this study is significant for healthcare providers, policymakers, and consumers alike. By identifying areas for improvement in current regulatory frameworks, the paper advocates for further examination to ensure that stakeholder rights and well-being are adequately protected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, the integration of ecological design in urban landscapes has gained significant attention from researchers, practitioners, and administrators because of its potential to address environmental challenges and enhance the quality of life. While there are many benefits of integrating ecological design in urban landscapes such as environmental conservation and awareness, its aesthetics have remained a critical, yet often overlooked, aspect. This paper examines the visual preferences of college students for ecological design through a rain garden project at Izmir Katip Celebi University. Ecological design includes green infrastructure strategies like rain gardens that play a major role in creating sustainable urban areas. In this study, we conducted surveys among students at Izmir Katip Celebi University regarding a rain garden project that would be implemented on campus. We provided six rain garden design images, each representing various visual attributes in the survey. The survey also included questions about aesthetic appeal, ecological significance, preferred design choice, and demographic information. We collected the data from 120 respondents and analyzed responses using descriptive statistics. The study findings presented that Image 6 (design with colorful plant selections) received the highest aesthetic rating, while Image 4 (design with canopy trees) stood out as the most ecologically significant design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era where an increasing number of people find it challenging to grasp scientifically accurate environmental data, the need for more engaging museum exhibits to convey this information has never been more crucial. This article discusses Daptec Flat Holm which is a data physicalisation technology project on Flat Holm Island, Wales. Flat Holm Island is designated as a site of special scientific interest and is a local nature reserve. This project aims to understand how we might improve people's engagement with environmental data through a multi-sensory museum exhibit. To achieve this, the project team applied a new creative approach to make the presentation of environmental data more engaging to a diverse science museum audience. Employing a user-centered methodology, this study reveals insights derived from three distinct user experience investigations conducted during the summer of 2022. The main contribution lies in how the researchers have extracted the nuances from the audience reactions and then identified potential audience types, their points of engagement, as well as their challenges. In detail, the findings illustrate how the application of a vignette data analysis technique revealed distinct audience types, including passive observers, active users, engaged ambassadors, disinterested participants, critical friends, and enthusiastic collaborators. In summary, the paper offers recommendations into how we might further engage a broader audience in technology mediated environmental museum exhibitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serious games (i.e., digital games designed for educational purposes) can foster positive learning attitudes and are increasingly used as educational tools. Foodbot Factory is a serious game application (app) that helps children learn about healthy eating based on Canada's Food Guide principles and has demonstrated to increase nutrition knowledge among this group. This paper describes the process followed to expand Foodbot Factory's educational content and integrate immersive technologies and innovative features into the app. The revision process, which was guided by the Obesity-Related Behavioral Intervention Trials model, included the following phases: first, an interdisciplinary team of nutrition scientists, education experts, and computer scientists analyzed data from the original pilot study, recently published literature, and feedback from stakeholders to define areas to improve Foodbot Factory. The five original Foodbot Factory modules were evaluated by the team during weekly meetings, where the educational content, interactive features, and other elements that required updates (e.g., aesthetics and accessibility) were identified. Second, prototypes were created and refined until a final version of Foodbot Factory was approved. Nineteen children tested the updated Foodbot Factory and found it "easy to use" (89%) and "fun" (95%). The new version of Foodbot Factory contains 19 learning objectives, including 13 original and six new objectives. Interactive engagement features in the updated Foodbot Factory included augmented reality incorporated into two learning modules; new mini-games were created, including a memory game; an overhaul of the aesthetics; (e.g., new food images); and accessibility features were included to support users with cognitive and vision disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has sometimes been suggested that Addison never in fact outgrew Dryden's influence, not even in the "Pleasures of the Imagination" papers; that the imaginative and "psychological" emphases of those papers were already present in Dryden's criticism, in his most Longinian essays such as "Of Heroique Playes" (1672) and "The Author's Apology for Heroic Poetry; and Poetique Licence" (1677).[55] According to Clarence De Witt Thorpe, "Dryden ... contributed so much in the way of lively forward-looking discussion of basic critical problems ... that there was little in Addison's theory that had not been at least intimated in his great essays."[56] C. H. Salter was more trenchant: "it was Dryden, and not Addison, who broke with the canons of neo-classical criticism [and] laid the foundations of Romantic aesthetics": Addison's apparent innovations as a critic are the result of "his concealment of his sources and attempts to disagree with them, if necessary by misrepresenting them." The notes contain few dateable references: Addison's determination to present himself as a poetry-lover rather than scholar entailed a refusal to flaunt authorities in the manner of Dennis and the nit-picking "Dutch commentator(s)" Dryden had taught Addison to deride.[14] But those texts Addison does mention by name, or which can be identified from circumstantial details in his allusions to them, all date from between 1689 and 1692. I explain how it was that Addison effectively invented eighteenth-century aesthetics not in I The Spectator i but fifteen years earlier - and in an essay on Virgil's I Georgics i , the most Augustan poet's most Augustan poem. i. notes on ovid Two dates for the composition of Addison's "Notes on Ovid" are current in modern scholarship: 1697 and 1704. [Extracted from the article]

In this article we will present the natural and anthropic potential of Gorj County. The studied area has a diversified tourist potential which is represented by a picturesque natural setting, by monuments of architecture and art of great artistic value, some of them of international interest, but also by a valuable folklore and ethnographic heritage. The present paper aims to stimulate interest and draw attention to the existing tourist attractions in Gorj County and highlights the fact that tourism represents an important lever for the local development of urban and rural localities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the concept of artistic communication as a type of semiotic interaction in the discourses of art. Semiotic methodologies for modelling the sign and the communicative act, developed in the works of Gottlob Frege, Gustav Shpet, Jan Mukařovský, Roman Jakobson, Juri Lotman, Umberto Eco, Suren Zolyan, and some other semioticians, are discussed with a focus on the models of aesthetic sign and the corresponding models of semiosis in relation to artistic systems. The study focuses on the discourses of verbal art in its various manifestations (poetry, prose, drama, performance, spoken word, etc.) as material for a linguistic analysis of artistic communication. The paper specifically discusses the linguistic representations of artistic discourse within a model of aesthetic semiosis. The resulting model of artistic communication in verbal art is presented as a synthesis of Jakobson's scheme of communicative act and its important specification in Lotman's model of "literary communication". Based on the existing models of sign, semiosis, and communication (taking Jakobson's scheme as the main framework), a synthetic, linguo-aesthetic model of artistic communication is outlined, considering together the linguistic, semiotic, and aesthetic parameters of the artistic act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a phenomenon in combat sports called the glass jaw or glass chin. It is the ability of a fighter to withstand punches to the jaw area without falling unconscious and thus receiving a knockout. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the possibility of developing a glass jaw over the course of a fighter's career, and whether certain fighters are more predisposed to experiencing knockouts. Utilizing data from the largest Mixed Martial Arts organization, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, spanning from 2010 to 2021, statistical models reveal that certain fighters may be more susceptible to knockouts compared to others. Conversely, it could not be shown that the probability of a future knockout loss, that is developing a glass jaw, increased with the number of knockouts received. However, there remains space for a more detailed investigation of this phenomenon. The historically debated resistance training of punches to the head area cannot be recommended. Conversely, it is advisable to observe the fighters' reactions to punches to the head in order to pick out those with a greater predisposition for a knockout. They should then be especially cautious when practicing combat sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The picturesque refers to an influential genre as well as a critical period during which the aesthetic culture of the Enlightenment was blended to form the Romanticist face of the age. Though it means 'picture-like' etymologically, the picturesque goes beyond being an eye-based scene and covers the other senses while aiming to provide a scenario with multi-sensory experiences for ramblers on site. Regarding this disposition, the picturesque atmosphere denotes a bridge in-between the past and present with its role in the theories of aesthetics. In this framework, this article aims to read the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century picturesque by referring to the phenomenological theories of the spatial atmosphere of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Our research demonstrated that the atmosphere of picturesque landscape designs can be conveyed strongly through spatial representations in different art forms. In doing this, the paper proposes the concept of the picturesque atmosphere as a tool to read the spatiality, especially in art branches, mainly including painting. Therefore, a reading model to examine the spatiality in the picturesque paintings was proposed at the end of the paper, by drawing from the theories of both the picturesque and spatial atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents war literature as a distinctive genre intertwined with various schools of social thought and literary criticism including nationalism, social realism, and commitment. It puts forward a definition of war literature and the history of its emergence. It also attempts to explore some gray areas in war literature, relating to its artistic and creative modes of writing, its biases and prejudices. It questions the principles of authenticity and representation in this literary genre, addressing the contestation between reality and fiction, aesthetics and ideology, which dominate the discourse of postcolonial studies. The paper chooses Palestinian literature as a model case study, discussing the effects of the Sartrean school of commitment, Arabized in the concept of Adab al-Iltizam, on the creativity and individuality of writers. It discusses some of the general characteristics and themes of Palestinian literature, moving from early war literature (1948) to more contemporary works (1990s-), and presents how some writers manage to walk the thin line between literary representation and national commitment and succeed, without falling into the quagmire of propaganda or mundanity, to depict a national cause still subjected to colonialism in a postcolonial era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper packaging is favored by manufacturers in various industries due to its advantages such as economy and environmental friendliness, and the application of paper packaging in various types of products is also becoming increasingly popular. However, with the growth of the national economy and the increasing purchasing power of the people, consumers not only have higher requirements for the functionality of products, but also have higher requirements for the visual effect of product packaging. Based on the potential consumption trend of "looking for things", enterprises need to further strengthen the artistic design effect when using paper packaging, promoting the unity of practicality and aesthetics of paper packaging. Pattern design art, as a component of graphic design art, is mainly based on pattern modeling to convey artistic concepts and aesthetic temperament. Integrating pattern design art into the process of paper packaging design can effectively enhance the artistic value of paper packaging, thereby adding color to products. The pattern design quality evaluation is a classical multi-attribute decision making (MADM). In this paper, the MADM methodology is investigated based on cross-entropy (CE) method under interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVIFSs) for pattern design quality evaluation. First of all, this paper extends the CE method under the IVIFSs to propose the interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy number cross-entropy (IVIFN-CE) method, it enlarges the application range of the CE method. Secondly, a new MADM model for pattern design quality evaluation based on IVIFN-CE algorithm is proposed. In this algorithm, attribute weight is calculated by CRITIC method which is a well-known objective method. At the end of this study, we noticed to a comparison between the proposed IVIFN-CE approach with other existing methods to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new method that computes the aesthetics of a melody fragment is proposed, starting from dissonances. While music generated with artificial intelligence applications may be produced considerably more quickly than human-composed music, it has the drawback of not being appreciated like a human composition, being many times perceived by humans as artificial. For achieving supervised machine learning objectives of improving the quality of the great number of generated melodies, it is a challenge to ask humans to grade them. Therefore, it would be preferable if the aesthetics of artificial-intelligence-generated music is calculated by an algorithm. The proposed method in this paper is based on a neural network and a mathematical formula, which has been developed with the help of a study in which 108 students evaluated the aesthetics of several melodies. For evaluation, numerical values generated by this method were compared with ratings provided by human listeners from a second study in which 30 students participated and scores were generated by an existing different method developed by psychologists and three other methods developed by musicians. Our method achieved a Pearson correlation of 0.49 with human aesthetic scores, which is a much better result than other methods obtained. Additionally, our method made a distinction between human-composed melodies and artificial-intelligence-generated scores in the same way that human listeners did. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper discusses art as an environment for communicating meanings, as shared by the members of a community or culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries; for this purpose, the paper focuses on the changes taking place in cultural production as well as the consumption practices of the digital age: more specifically, on the shift from a goods-centred economy to a service-centred economy, on the experience as a commodity, on interactive art and relational aesthetics, as well as on the emergence of a new way of production and consumption. The paper also discusses a possible modernity and the cultural differences that appear in the works of Eastern European artists (and Romanian artists in particular), works which reflect the transition from communism to post-communism and democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Chinese export paintings resemble those used in the grand interiors of eighteenth-century China, they were produced for use in Western interiors that were assumed to be similarly grand locations. However, Chinese export paintings on silk and paper were mounted using different surface preparations that reflected the materials and trade practices as used on historic Western wallpapers. While the scale and aesthetics of these two categories of wallcoverings may appear similar, their media and support systems, and the nature of their material stability, are very different. With the widespread introduction of East Asian paper conservation techniques in Western conservation, Chinese export wallcoverings began to be treated using similar sensibilities, procedures and materials. This development will be considered along with the place of connoisseurship in encouraging a different conservation approach given the nature of their distinctive qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, using both hand-drawn and computer-drawn graphics, we establish a method to generate advanced Escher-like spiral tessellations. We first give a way to achieve simple spiral tilings of cyclic symmetry. Then, we introduce several conformal mappings to generate three derived spiral tilings. To obtain Escher-like tessellations on the generated tilings, given pre-designed wallpaper motifs, we specify the tessellations' implementation details. Finally, we exhibit a rich gallery of the generated Escher-like tessellations. According to the proposed method, one can produce a great variety of exotic Escher-like tessellations that have both good aesthetic value and commercial potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated a research area worthy of greater attention: foreign language classroom anxiety (hereafter FLCA) and enjoyment (hereafter FLE) of older adults learning English as a foreign language in Chinese Universities of the Third Age. Understanding the largely overlooked emotional involvement of older language learners contributes to sustaining their motivation in lifelong learning for more remarkable personal growth and successes. Based on the survey of 587 Chinese older learners of English between the age of 50 and 80, paired sample t-test showed that more FLE was reported than FLCA. The results of Welch's ANOVA suggested that those who were better educated had less FLCA and those who believed themselves healthier had more FLE. The language performance evaluation (i.e. relative standing in class and English mastery) affects both FLE and FLCA. Further interviews with 34 older participants revealed three major sources of FLE, including the language use in life situations, the favorable attitude toward FL learning in the cognitive, aesthetic cultural and pragmatic aspects and the social interactions in the U3As. FLCA occurs when the language performance is perceived as dissatisfying and when aspects of mental health (e.g. worsening memory) impede effective learning. Although FLCA and FLE had only a very weak correlation, Chinese older adult learners commented on a shared belief that anxiety usually precedes and subsequently enhances enjoyment in learning, indicating a sign of emotional resilience later in life. This paper demonstrates a need for understanding the emotions in language learning across life stages and socio-cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British writer Mary Norton's well-known novel The Borrowers was successfully adapted into the Japanese animated film Arrietty the Borrower (Karigurashi no Arrietty), rewritten by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi. This paper aims to explore the phenomenon of cross-cultural adaptation in which a British novel is made to represent Japanese aesthetic values. The article argues that the animated film is deeply influenced by the concept and practice of miniaturisation, as well as the aesthetic characteristics of "small is beautiful," which is part of Japanese national identity. The author of the paper tries to describe how this aesthetic consciousness is reflected in the animated film in the following three aspects: the miniaturised ecological environment, the miniaturised life scenes, and the miniaturised narrative space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between performance and diplomacy during the 1990 Cambodian National Dance Company Tour to the UK. The tour stemmed from Oxfam UK's Kampuchea Campaign, which attempted to restore bilateral aid to the State of Cambodia by pushing for international recognition and a brokered peace settlement. Contributing to geographical work on diplomacy, the paper examines the different agents involved in the tour and their response to the dancers as diplomatic actors, examining the different types of performance in operation and their relationship to diplomacy. Dance was often oriented towards geopolitical ends, but there were also moments when dancers used their artistic performances to open up new modes of subjectivity and identity. The paper attends to these experiences and to how the dancers' actions extend existing conceptions of diplomatic subjectivity by considering vulnerability. In examining these dynamics, the paper also contributes to existing work on art and geopolitics, both through its diplomatic focus and its analysis of how diplomatic and creative practices were intertwined through an aesthetic of quietness. It thus attends to how geopolitical aesthetics matter, and how, in this instance, quiet aesthetics were a mark of international disempowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on how opera rehearsal participants use depictions to accomplish proposals; they use a locally created scene, comprised of concrete embodiments to represent another physically or temporally distant scene. Whereas earlier work investigating depictions in interaction has mainly focused on demonstrations in pedagogical scenarios, this paper will discuss how depictions serve the ongoing creation, and aesthetic negotiation, of a yet-to-be-artistic product. In simultaneously creating and referencing iterations of this artwork, participants' depictions are both self-referential, in introversive semiosis, as well as externally referencing prototypes of mundane behaviour, in extroversive semiosis. We argue that the negotiations of the extroversive and introversive references through depiction constitute the artistic labour of creating a performance. Furthermore, we suggest that the iterative nature of rehearsing an artistic piece demonstrates analogies between introversive semiosis and interactional techniques for projection and depiction. Opera is accomplished through dynamic collaborative social processes, techniques for which include the depictions described in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Orthognathic surgery is a multidisciplinary surgery in which the aesthetic results have become increasingly important, and consequently, also the predictability of the surgical outcomes. In this paper, we analyzed the volumetric distribution of the lower two-thirds of the face, in patients operated by orthognathic surgery and selected for their attractiveness. Our goal was to analyze the aesthetic volumetric distribution for gender and to propose our operating philosophy, that a normative distribution of facial volumes could be used like a new 3D aesthetic guide in orthognathic planning. Methods: A group of 46 orthognathic patients (26 females, 20 males) with the best postoperative aesthetic score was selected by a jury of plastic surgeons, orthodontists, and journalists. The mean soft tissue volumes of the malar, maxillary, mandibular, and chin regions were analyzed. Results: Overall, we measured a mean female facial volume distribution of 38.7%, 29%, 27.6%, and 4.7%, respectively, in the malar, maxillary, mandibular, and chin regions, while in males, it was 37%, 26%, 30%, and 6%, respectively. Conclusions: In this paper, the expansion of facial volumes in orthognathic surgery is proposed as a key point for facial harmonization. Beauty could be scientifically interpreted as a balanced distribution of facial volumes, and the virtual study of this distribution can become an important part of the preoperative analysis, such as a "volumetric" 3D cephalometry, where the surgeon could use average values of aesthetic volumetric distribution as preoperative surgical references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the similarity between the appreciation of a piece of art, such as a cherished music album, and the loving appreciation of a person whom one knows well. In philosophical discussion about the rationality of love, the Qualities View (QV) says that love can be justified by reference to the qualities of the beloved. I argue that the oft-rehearsed trading-up objection fails to undermine the QV. The problems typically identified by the objection arise from the idea that love-worthy qualities could be coarse-grained, when in fact they must be fine-grained. The analogy with appreciation of aesthetic qualities helps to draw out this point. Once the fine-grained nature of love-worthy qualities is properly understood, it is clear that critics of the QV cannot rely on the trading-up objection to motivate its rejection. Moreover, the paper's core argument helps to illuminate the persistently aesthetic nature of interpersonal affections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting numbering practices is central to 'business-like' public organising. These practices were primarily critiqued for their more-than-technical, normative character. This paper expands the critique of numbers in governance by considering numbers' epistemic consequences in public sector work. Drawing on Whitehead's philosophy of aesthetics and an ethnography of enumeration inside a public agency in England, the paper argues that enumeration techniques, when relying on accounting categories and used within a 'business-like' public sector, end up enacting knowledge objects that are aesthetic in kind. Numbered entities taken as performance evidence (metrics, rankings) end up (a) part of a project of enunciation, (b) opaque for conceptual interrogation, and (c) attuned to through bodily affect. Such characterisation makes two contributions. First, it conceptualises 'aesthetic enumerated entities' as a way of understanding instrumental knowledge in organising. Second, it extends our scope of engaging with the aesthetic by going beyond conceptualisations focused on art or beauty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese calligraphy is an important part of Chinese national culture and art and part of the essence of Chinese national culture. Stone calligraphy is one of the important elements of Chinese calligraphy art. Stone carved calligraphy characters have high cultural and artistic value. Therefore, accurately recognizing stone carved calligraphy characters are of great importance. Stone carved calligraphy can identify hard-to-preserve stone calligraphy paper materials in electronic data that can be preserved for a long time, thereby offering important reference materials for the study of the historical development of Chinese calligraphy art. Moreover, with the development of science and technology and the investment of China in cultural and artistic undertakings, computer-aided calligraphy character recognition technology is also constantly improving, and its application in calligraphy recognition is becoming increasingly extensive. This article aims to study a method of stone inscription calligraphy recognition based on convolutional neural networks. In this paper, we use an image recognition and optimization method consisting of a convolutional neural network to carry out an experiment with stone inscription calligraphy characters. It was concluded that the recognition accuracy of stone calligraphy characters by the convolutional neural network reached 99.2%, indicating that this stone calligraphy character recognition method based on a convolutional neural network has a good ability to recognize stone calligraphy characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian art engages with the cartographic representation of the motherland and utilizes feminine iconography as an integral tool for interpreting socio-cultural changes at micro/macro level of the nation. Bharat Mata's anthropomorphic image as a 'living mother' can be traced as the idealized, asexual, pure figure of the past which attempts in recognizing the secular-national terrain where she can claim her own 'geo-body'. With nudity emerging as a hyper-visible metonym for obscene sexuality in the popular imagination, it turns out to be a set of jumbled 'attitudes' and 'rationalizations' Positing the painting against this backdrop of aestheticism/obscenity, this paper attempts to foreground how the female body inscribed with the symbolic value of both 'mater' (mother) and 'materia' (matter) related to nation-building has engendered 'naked' figure of a woman 'clothed' in art to transgress from the aesthetic framework into parameters of obscenity thereby nullifying artistic subjectivity and creativity. The paper draws attention towards how certain feminine depictions representing the spiritual and motherly attributes are idolized and the depiction of the physical or sensual, if not actively censored continue to be regulated from the public eye by certain institutions operating as discreet forms of 'censorship' on female nudity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigerian-British writer and playwright Biyi Bandele Thomas' novel Burma Boy (2007) is inspired by his father's combat experience in the Burma Campaign of World War Two. This postmemorial re-enactment not only commemorates his father but also the marginalised black African soldiers who participated in that campaign. Critical attention paid to Bandele's work has noted his surrealistic and satirical style, usually in alignment with a post-colonial epistemology. This paper aims to show how the novel evokes the origins of a trauma and the futility of war within an African consciousness, alongside broader ontologies concerning the modern condition. I contend that through an aesthetics of the Absurd, as outlined by Albert Camus, Burma Boy not only evokes the absurdity of war but transcends its temporal wartime boundaries by offering a broad reflection on the fundamental cause of the author's father's wartime trauma: the divorce of humankind from the reality of existence. Thus, I conclude that this post-generational novel leverages an aesthetics of the Absurd to address contemporary political and environmental concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the technical image, a central concept in Vilém Flusser's later main work Into the Universe of Technical Images (1985a). After identifying its various dimensions, the analysis frames the concept as an amalgamation of disciplines, theories, and artistic practices the cultural philosopher Flusser explored during the 1960s and especially the 1970s. In particular, the field of information aesthetics developed by Max Bense and Abraham A. Moles, among others, as well as artistic video practices in France and the United States played an important role in both Flusser's biography and the formation of his technical image concept. At the same time, in Flusser's cultural philosophy the technical image is the condition and result of a new kind of human imagination, which in this paper is specified as 'projective imagination'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychotherapy is an art: for many practitioners this claim has considerable appeal. My intention here is not to merely defend the claim, but to see how far it can go. To vaguely endorse it feels apologetic; it also implies a facile polarization between art and science – between a (preferred) subjective, qualitative dimension, and a seemingly objective and quantitative domain. It would be wrong to bring art into the equation without some appreciation of the aesthetic experience. In relation to therapy, this requires developing a better grasp of the craft of therapy – of its imaginative response to the sheer elusiveness of mental distress. aesthetics. Psychotherapy is also a form of political praxis. Some practitioners – myself included – would support that claim. Can psychotherapy become a praxis? Can it be, in other words, linked to action, and as such become a political force in the wider, transformational sense of the term? These are among the questions explored in the second part of the current paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western modernity has been said to embrace accelerationism. This article posits a contrasting trend, whereby silent transformations and 'blandness' gestures gain prominence. François Jullien's In Praise of Blandness and Peter Sloterdijk's Eurotaoismus present an alternative modernity centered on 'blandness' and 'silence'. In this paper the terms are traced back to the work of Su Shi from eleventh-century Song Dynasty China, whose unique expression of the tension between 'blandness' and 'splendor' reveals blandness is not merely a passive and negative force but rather an inner vitality. Resurfacing in Chinese contemporary art, explored here with the work of artists Xu Bing, Qiu Shihua, and Liang Shaoji, such a view offers a response to violent aesthetics. The work of these artists can be said to reactivate the power of blandness with respect to contemporary understandings and materials, prompting specific artistic language and practice that warrant more critical attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Andrea Fiore sketches the notion of familiarity in Dewey's thought, particularly in its relations with education, aesthetics, and art. The importance of that notion emerges in Dewey's well‐known writings such as How We Think, The School and Society, and Art as Experience, where he shows that not only does familiarity play a fundamental role in our lives, but it also constitutes a helpful tool to make our experience deeper and richer. This is particularly evident in two aspects or functions related to familiarity: recognition and interpretation. For Dewey, especially the latter has an educational value through aesthetics and art, because it allows us to activate the peculiar capacity of human beings to transform the quality of experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the notion of mimesis in Baumgarten's Meditationes (1735), the inaugural text of modern aesthetics, and Die Geburt der Tragödie , as two exemplary texts of aesthetische Wissenschaft. What meanings and functions do they give to 'mimesis' and the Aristotelian doctrine that art is an imitation (Nachahmung, Abbild) of nature? The main thesis is that both texts cast art as a Nachahmung of the creative principle of nature (natura naturans), rather than the order of things (natura naturata); a move that displaces traditional (static, dualistic, passive, representational) notions of mimesis with one that is dynamic, creative and tendentially anti-metaphysical, in line with the mimetic turn. They are exemplary texts of aesthetische Wissenschaft because the way they do this places them at opposite ends of metaphysics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reflect on the creativity and social change nexus in urban Poland by focusing on the recent religion-linked materialities in Kraków. Such materialities, or religious icons, are directly involved with transformations and the emergence of a new type of Polish civil society and activism. Therefore, we elaborate on the notion of religious icons involved in the recent re-emergence of the protest culture in Poland. We reframe them in terms of powerful socio-religious mediators that open the way to re-imagining and claiming new (re)configurations between social and religious fields in Poland. We acknowledge the role played by affective, creative, and semantic modalities of aesthetics vis-à-vis social change and suggest rethinking the link between creativity and religion, which we consider emblematic of current epistemologies of post-secular urbanities in Poland. We claim that the religion-creativity nexus should be included in the analytical framework examining contemporary developments of Polish civil society in general and social movements in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I advance a new interpretation of the argumentative structure of the third Critique, which in turn clarifies the connection between its two apparently unrelated parts. I propose to read the third Critique as a response to Kant's question of hope, which concerns the satisfaction of reason's practical and theoretical interests. On this proposal, while the first part on aesthetics describes what we—as possessors of theoretical reason – may hope for, the second part, on teleology, describes what we – as possessors of practical reason – may hope for. The main question of the third Critique is, 'What may we hope if we act as we should, i.e. act rationally?' Kant's implicit answer is, 'to attain the ideals of reason, which leads to happiness as a consequence of it.' This novel reconstruction of the argumentative structure of the third Critique contributes to the literature by (i) explaining how the two parts of the third Critique on aesthetics and teleology are connected, (ii) clarifying how the ideals of reason are connected to hope and happiness, and (iii) showing how the spheres of nature and freedom can be synthetically unified through the faculty of judgment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]