Beauty

This collection challenges conventional ideas of beauty by exploring unconventional approaches to the topic in the arts, sciences and mathematics.

Lauren Arrington (Edited by), Zoe Leinhardt (Edited by), Philip Dawid (Edited by)

9781107693432, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 May 2013

210 pages, 67 b/w illus.
24.5 x 17.4 x 1.1 cm, 0.39 kg

Beauty challenges conventional approaches to the subject through an interdisciplinary approach that forges connections between the arts, sciences and mathematics. Classical, conventional aspects of beauty are addressed in subtle, unexpected ways: symmetry in mathematics, attraction in the animal world and beauty in the cosmos. This collection arises from the Darwin College Lecture Series of 2011 and includes essays from eight distinguished scholars, all of whom are held in esteem not only for their research but also for their ability to communicate their subject to popular audiences. Each essay is entertaining, accessible and thought-provoking and is accompanied by images illustrating beauty in practice. Contributors include the artist José Hernández, Nobel Prize Laureate Frank Wilczek, Lord May of Oxford and Jeanne Altmann (Eugene Higgins Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University).

Introduction: beauty, truth and the sublime Lauren Arrington, Zoe Leinhardt and Philip Dawid
1. Beauty and truth Robert May
2. Beauty and the grotesque José Hernández
3. Quantum beauty Frank Wilczek
4. The sound of beauty Elizabeth Eva Leach
5. Beauty and attraction: in the 'eye' of the beholder Jeanne Altmann
6. Beauty and happiness: Chinese perspectives Jason Kuo
7. Terror by beauty: Russo-Soviet perspectives Evgeny A. Dobrenko
8. The science and beauty of nebulae Carolin Crawford.

Subject Areas: Cultural studies [JFC], Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], Philosophy [HP], History of art / art & design styles [AC]