The psychology of reasoning / by W.B. Pillsbury.

  • Walter Bowers Pillsbury
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychology of reasoning / by W.B. Pillsbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    asks the question, “Is this really true?” belief departs. This testing of the presentation by a partial experience, a partial knowledge, is character- istic of the artistic consciousness wherever we find it. In music, in painting, in sculpture, as in the novel and on the stage, what is character- istic of the attitude of the artist during the development and of the appreciator in his en- joyment of the works of art, is the limitation of the extent of the guiding and testing experience. With him one is willing and able for the mo- ment to emphasize one phase of one’s experi- ence and through that, one phase of life, while everything else is for the moment excluded. Enjoyment comes from the fact that one can for a time banish all conflicting considerations and look with an eye single to that phase or aspect of life. The fact that the figure is of marble, not flesh, that the painting is flat, that the scenery on the stage is canvas, is not per- mitted to interfere with the truth that is de- picted. If one fails to perceive the picture’s meaning, persists in looking in the light of a complete experience or under any other set of experiences than that intended by the artist, there is no truth and so no pleasure. In this
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