Skip directly to:Main content Main navigation

University of Virginia Library

Dictionary of the History of Ideas

Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas

Preface to the Electronic Edition

collapse section

EDITORIAL BOARD

MANAGING EDITORS

CONSULTING EDITORS

collapse section

collapse section

I. The history of ideas about the external order of nature studied by the physical and biological sciences, ideas also present in common usage, imaginative literature, myths about nature, metaphysical speculation.

II. The history of ideas about human nature in anthropology, psychology, religion, and philosophy as well as in literature and common sense.

III. The history of ideas in literature and the arts in aesthetic theory and literary criticism.

IV. The history of ideas about or attitudes to history, historiography, and historical criticism.

V. The historical development of economic, legal, and political ideas and institutions, ideologies, and movements.

VI. The history of religious and philosophical ideas.

VII. The history of formal mathematical, logical, linguistic, and methodological ideas.

LIST OF ARTICLES

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

NOTE TO THE READER

collapse section

VI.

ABSTRACTION IN THE FORMATION OF CONCEPTS

collapse section

V.

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

collapse section

VI.

collapse section

I.

ALCHEMY IN ANTIQUITY

ISLAMIC ALCHEMY

THE EARLY LATIN ALCHEMY OF THE WEST

RENAISSANCE ALCHEMY AND THE “NEW SCIENCE”

collapse section

VI.

ALIENATION IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

collapse section

V.

ALIENATION IN HEGELAND MARX

collapse section

III.

ALLEGORY INLITERARY HISTORY

collapse section

III.

AMBIGUITY ASAESTHETIC PRINCIPLE

collapse section

VI.

ANALOGY INEARLY GREEK THOUGHT

collapse section

VI.

ANALOGY IN PATRISTICAND MEDIEVAL THOUGHT

collapse section

V.

ANALOGY OF THEBODY POLITIC

collapse section

V.

collapse section

III.

ANCIENTS AND MODERNS INTHE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

collapse section

VII.

ANTHROPOMORPHISMIN SCIENCE

collapse section

VI.

ANTINOMY OF PURE REASON

collapse section

VI.

APPEARANCE AND REALITY

collapse section

III.

III. THE THEORY LAPSES

VI. RECENT AND CURRENT VIEWS

collapse section

III.

ART FOR ART'S SAKE

collapse section

II.

ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS

collapse section

I.

collapse section

I.

ATOMISM: ANTIQUITY TO THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY

collapse section

I.

ATOMISM IN THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY

collapse section

V.

collapse section

VII.

collapse section

VI.

collapse section

V.

BALANCE OF POWER

I. THE ANCIENT WORLD

II. THE RENAISSANCE

III. THE ASSEMBLY OF THE CONSTITUENT IDEAS

collapse section

IV. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

1. The Eighteenth-Century Theory of International Politics.

2. The Operation of the Balance.

collapse section

III.

BAROQUE IN LITERATURE

collapse section

III.

THEORIES OF BEAUTY TOTHE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY

collapse section

I. THE FUNDAMENTAL POSITIONS

1. The Objective Existence of Beauty.

2. The Objective Conception of Beauty in Artistic Representation.

3. Other Instances of the Objective Conception of Beauty.

4. The Subjective Approach to Beauty.

collapse section

II. MODES OF PERCEPTION AND RESPONSE

1. Metaphysical Foundation.

2. Immediate Perception.

3. The Process of Knowledge.

collapse section

III.

THEORIES OF BEAUTY SINCETHE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY

I. BEAUTY IN DECLINE

II. CONCEPTS OF BEAUTY

III. STUDIES OF BEAUTY

SUMMARY

collapse section

II.

I. THE INTELLECTUAL ANCESTRY OF BEHAVIORISM

II. THE IMMEDIATE ORIGINS OF WATSON'S BEHAVIORISM

III. THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BEHAVIORISM

IV. SUMMARY AND EVALUATION

collapse section

I.

BIOLOGICAL CONCEPTIONSIN ANTIQUITY

I. THE FOUR ELEMENTS

V. CLASSIFICATION

collapse section

I.

BIOLOGICAL HOMOLOGIESAND ANALOGIES

collapse section

I.

BIOLOGICAL MODELS

WHAT IS A MODEL?

FUNCTIONS OF MODELS

DETERMINISTIC AND STOCHASTIC MODELS

collapse section

VI.

collapse section

VII.

collapse section

III.

collapse section

VII.

collapse section

VII.

CAUSATION IN HISTORY

I. SUBSTANTIVE THEORIES

II. ANALYTICAL APPROACHES

collapse section

VII.

CAUSATION INISLAMIC THOUGHT

collapse section

V.

CAUSATION IN LAW

collapse section

VI.

CAUSATION IN THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY

I. PRE-NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHERS IN ENGLAND

II. DESCARTES AND HIS SUCCESSORS

III. NEWTON AND LEIBNIZ

collapse section

VI.

CAUSATION IN THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY, FINAL CAUSES

1. THE CRITICS OF FINAL CAUSES

II. DEFENDERS OF FINAL CAUSES

collapse section

VI.

CERTAINTY IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY THOUGHT

collapse section

VI.

CERTAINTY SINCE THESEVENTEENTH CENTURY

collapse section

VI.

collapse section

VII.

collapse section

III.

collapse section

IV.

CHINA IN WESTERN THOUGHTAND CULTURE

collapse section

VI.

CHRISTIANITY IN HISTORY

I. THE EARLY CHURCH

II. THE MIDDLE AGES

III. THE REFORMATION AND COUNTER-REFORMATION

IV. THE MODERN WORLD

V. THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

collapse section

VI.

CHURCH AS ANINSTITUTION

collapse section

VI.

MODERNISM IN THECHRISTIAN CHURCH

collapse section

V.

I. ANCIENT CITIES

II. MEDIEVAL “ORGANIC” TOWN

III. RENAISSANCE IDEAS OF THE CITY

IV. MODERN CITY PLANNING

collapse section

V.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

collapse section

V.

collapse section

III.

CLASSICISM IN LITERATURE

collapse section

III.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE ARTS

II. THE MIDDLE AGES

III. THE RENAISSANCE

IV. MODERN TIMES

collapse section

VII.

CLASSIFICATION OFTHE SCIENCES

collapse section

III.

SENSE OF THE COMIC

collapse section

I.

CONSERVATION OFNATURAL RESOURCES

collapse section

V.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. NONIDEOLOGICAL CONSERVATISM

III. CONSERVATISM AS A POLITICAL IDEA AND IDEOLOGY

IV. VARIOUS TYPES OF CONSERVATIVE THOUGHT

collapse section

V.

CONSTITUTIONALISM

collapse section

VII.

CONTINUITY ANDDISCONTINUITY IN NATURE AND KNOWLEDGE

I. INTRODUCTION

II. PHYSICAL SCIENCE

III. ATOMISM AND DISCONTINUITY IN THEOLOGY

IV. MATHEMATICS

V. GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY

VII. HISTORIOGRAPHY

collapse section

VI.

collapse section

I.

collapse section

I.

collapse section

I.

COSMOLOGY FROMANTIQUITY TO 1850

collapse section

I.

COSMOLOGY SINCE 1850

I. INTRODUCTION

II. DISCREPANCIES IN THE NEWTONIAN UNIVERSE

III. CONTRADICTIONS IN THE NEWTONIAN COSMOLOGY

IV. COSMOLOGY AND THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY

V. THE EINSTEIN STATIC UNIVERSE

VI. THE DE SITTER EMPTY EXPANDING UNIVERSE

VII. THE NONSTATIC MODELS OF A NONEMPTY UNIVERSE

VIII. MODEL UNIVERSES WITH THE COSMICAL CONSTANT EQUAL TO ZERO

IX. MODELS OF THE UNIVERSE WITH THE COSMICAL CONSTANT DIFFERENT FROM ZERO

X. THE STEADY-STATE THEORY AND OTHER COSMOLOGIES

collapse section

VI.

CREATION IN RELIGION

1. THE RATIONALE OF CREATIO EX NIHILO

II. PERSISTENT CREATIONIST ISSUES

collapse section

III.

CREATIVITY IN ART

collapse section

IV.

CRISIS IN HISTORY

collapse section

III.

LITERARY CRITICISM

collapse section

IV.

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTIN ANTIQUITY

collapse section

IV.

CULTURE AND CIVILIZATIONIN MODERN TIMES

SPECULATIONS ON CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

collapse section

IV.

I. COSMIC CYCLES

II. CYCLES IN HUMAN AFFAIRS

III. TWENTIETH-CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS

collapse section

VI.

collapse section

VI.

DEATH AND IMMORTALITY

collapse section

I. IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

II. RESURRECTION

III. REINCARNATION

collapse section

VI.

collapse section

V.

collapse section

III.

collapse section

VI.

DESIGN ARGUMENT

I. ANCIENT ORIGINS OF THE ARGUMENT

II. THE MEDIEVAL “SYNTHESIS”

III. MODERN DEVELOPMENTS OF THE ARGUMENT

IV. THE ARGUMENT SINCE DARWIN

collapse section

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

SUMMARY

Though displaced from their central or dominant
position in the aesthetician's field of concern, the con-
cepts of beauty have continued to be of interest, and
indeed have been the subject of numerous books and
smaller studies, especially in English, French, German,
and Italian. Philosophers have carefully explicated the
distinctions, and the logical connections, among these
concepts, and have proposed solutions to the philo-
sophical problems about beauty. To a lesser extent,
other researchers have investigated the empirical
problems about beauty. But it has not lost its capacity,
evident from the beginning of aesthetic inquiry, to
tease and puzzle thought.