Happiness and Beauty
The theme of this month's session in the Humanities Dialogues at ASU Poly series is "Happiness and Beauty" and features the following two presentations on Thursday, Nov. 8, from noon to 1:15 p.m.:
“Happiness, Self-Knowledge and Self-Acceptance: Promoting Inner Peace Through Cognitive Paradigm Shifts”
This discussion, led by Elaine Yoshikawa, lecturer in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, will focus on two key indicators of a happy life: self-acceptance and inner peace. In order to enhance human flourishing, it is beneficial to understand the conceptual connection between cognitive paradigm shifts and a cognitive theory of emotions. This awareness may provide a strategy for decreasing inner conflicts and increasing psychological harmony, peace and joy.
Elaine Yoshikawa earned a doctorate in philosophy from ASU, and bachelor’s degree in philosophy from University of California, Berkeley. She has written articles and given public presentations and interviews on happiness, virtue ethics, Christian and Buddhist ethics, and consciousness.
“Beauty, Desire and Fertility in Early Modern Europe”
How was beauty defined in the Renaissance? Was beauty a sign of virtue or a provocation to wicked sensuality? What was the relation between beauty and power? In this talk, Ian Moulton, professor of English and cultural history in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, will explore all these issues through the work of Renaissance artists, writers and philosophers, with special emphasis on the notion that beauty was necessary for fertility.
Ian Moulton is a leading scholar of the history of gender and sexuality in early modern Europe. His current project is part of a volume entitled “Pretty Ugly: A Cultural History of Beauty,” edited by Sarah Toulalan and Karen Harvey, forthcoming from Bloomsbury Press.
Public domain image of Judith Leyster's oil on canvas "Carousing Couple," 1630.