ABSTRACT
In 1929 Wolfgang Kohler produced a synthetic exposition of the Gestalt theory. A. Michotte, who while being neither a Gestaltist nor a sympathiser of the Gestalt theory, discovered the phenomenon of causality in perception and studied the question systematically. Most of the Gestaltists who knew Michael Wertheimer and K. Koffka and who, like R. Arnheim, later applied Gestalt theory to the visual arts, greatly exploited this trend, which permits one to explore, at a very basic level, the purely aesthetic properties of perceptible structures. The death of Gestaltism, if it has occurred, has led to the birth of Cognitivism or rather of a number of Cognitivisms, which have replaced or refuted parts of the Gestalt theories. One concept that the Gestaltists introduced into numerous fields was that of “pragnanz” or “good form”. Far more important is the fact that the Gestaltists emphasised how, as well as having tendencies, as well as pragnanz, as well as obeying the minimum principle.
