Introduction
Melissa Percival
From The Appearance of Character: Physiognomy and Facial Expression in Eighteenth-Century France (1999), pp. 1-12, doi:10.59860/td.c37b78e
Click cover to enlarge
| Part of the book: The Appearance of Character Melissa Percival MHRA Texts and Dissertations 47 W. S. Maney & Son Ltd for the Modern Humanities Research Association EnlightenmentFrenchPhilosophyopen Abstract. Physiognomy has always been controversial, largely because of its perennial claim to scientific status. If people can agree in a vague, indeterminate sense that we all judge by appearances, they are less convinced by attempts, however enthralling, to classify or systematise human features according to a particular scientific method. One of the greatest problems of physiognomy has been the misapplication of the principles of the 'hard' sciences to a more unquantifiable human science. Yet the boundaries between science and pseudo-science are notoriously difficult to draw, a fact which is most obvious in physiognomy's persistent and pervasive relationship with medicine over the centuries. Full text. This contribution is published as Open Access and can be downloaded as a PDF, or viewed as a PDF in your web browser, here: |
Open access under: