ABSTRACT

If human nature is factored into biological and cultural components, the biological component of behavior is likely to manifest itself in properties observed across all cultures through space and time, whereas the cultural component of behavior is likely to vary from one society to the next. Arnheim (1988, pp. 1–2) extended this argument into the world of aesthetics. Although there is a great degree of variation in the arts of different cultures, there is also much that is common among them. In particular, factors such as balance, harmony, symmetry, and periodicity, as well as an elegant simplicity of the component forms, are universal laws of aesthetics. This suggests that these aspects of aesthetic judgment are likely to be properties inherent in the human mind. One of the most prominent features of human aesthetics is a pronounced preference for symmetry and periodicity. This preference is seen in all of our decorative arts, especially the patterns of ornament with which we adorn our clothing, carpets, wallpaper, floors, vases, lamps, and such—in fact virtually every artifact that we use, and most especially those items of symbolic and ceremonial use in which we place the most value. It can hardly be an accident that these most general properties of aesthetic preference are also characteristic properties of harmonic resonance: symmetry and periodicity both in simple and compound hierarchical form, as well as simplicity and elegance of the basic repeating elements.