Thinker · TH-0139
Edward Bullough
Edward Bullough was a British aesthetician and scholar of modern languages who taught at the University of Cambridge. In a 1912 essay he introduced…
1880 – 1934 · Cambridge
Traditions: Modern European
Edward Bullough was a British aesthetician and scholar of modern languages who taught at the University of Cambridge. In a 1912 essay he introduced 'psychical distance': the aesthetic attitude involves putting a phenomenon out of gear with our practical needs and ends, so that it can be experienced for its own sake. His example of a fog at sea, frightening to sailors yet strangely beautiful when seen with distance, became a classic of twentieth-century aesthetics.
Key ideas
- Aesthetic experience requires 'psychical distance' from practical concerns.
- Distance is a matter of degree: too much leaves us cold, too little turns art into personal or practical concern.
- The best aesthetic response reduces distance as far as possible without losing it altogether.
- The same object, such as a fog at sea, can be experienced practically or aesthetically.
Major works
- "'Psychical Distance' as a Factor in Art and an Aesthetic Principle" (1912)
- Aesthetics: Lectures and Essays (1957, posthumous)