Beauty, Architecture, and the Affective Sciences: A Political Discourse
(2025) Beauty in architecture, perspectives from theory and practise — ISBN: [978-1350477278], published
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- Authors
Sik, Daniel 
- Abstract
- This chapter discusses the recent interest in the affective sciences (such as neuroscience, psychology, etc.) in discussions of architectural beauty. Specifically, it analyses the use of such scientific language and literature to defend reactionary architectural thinking. This chapter suggests that the affective sciences may remain ill-suited to fight in style wars or defend any politically polarised vision of architectural beauty. This ill-suitedness is explored through four disciplinary lenses; the philosophy of science, evolutionary psychology, neuroaesthetics, and perceptual psychology. In each, reactionary claims are contextualised in a more holistic state of the art, and the gaps and incoherences resulting from their selective usage are teased out. This chapter does not aim to debunk reactionary theories -- but suggests that architectural theorists should approach affective scientists as cowanderers, instead of tools to support a priori political positions.
- Affiliations
Citations
Sik, D. (2025). Beauty, Architecture, and the Affective Sciences: A Political Discourse. In De Raedt, Nele ; Delbeke, Maarten (ed.), Beauty in architecture, perspectives from theory and practise. Bloomsbury Visual Arts. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/266334