Physiognomy
Physiognomy or face reading, sometimes known by the later term anthroposcopy, is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term physiognomy can also refer to the general appearance of a person, object, or terrain without reference to its implied characteristics—as in the physiognomy of an individual plant or of a plant community.
Physiognomy as a practice meets the contemporary definition of pseudoscience and is regarded as such by academics because of its unsupported claims; popular belief in the practice of physiognomy is nonetheless still widespread and modern advances in artificial intelligence have sparked renewed interest in the field of study. The practice was well-accepted by ancient Greek philosophers, but fell into disrepute in the 16th century while practised by vagabonds and mountebanks. It revived and was popularised by Johann Kaspar Lavater, before falling from favour in the late 19th century. Physiognomy in the 19th century is particularly noted as a basis for scientific racism. Physiognomy as it is understood today is a subject of renewed scientific interest, especially as it relates to machine learning and facial recognition technology. The main interest for scientists today are the risks, including privacy concerns, of physiognomy in the context of facial recognition algorithms.
Ancient
Notions of the relationship between an individual's outward appearance and inner character date back to antiquity, and occasionally appear in early Greek poetry. Siddhars from ancient India defined as identifying personal characteristics with body features. Chinese physiognomy or Chinese face reading dates back to at least the Spring and Autumn period.Early indications of a developed physiognomic theory appear in 5th century BC Athens, with the works of Zopyrus, an expert in the art. By the 4th century BC, the philosopher Aristotle frequently referred to theory and literature concerning the relationship of appearance to character. Aristotle was receptive to such an idea, evidenced by a passage in his Prior Analytics:
The first systematic physiognomic treatise is a slim volume, Physiognomonica, ascribed to Aristotle, but probably of his "school", rather than created by Aristotle himself. The volume is divided into two parts, conjectured as originally two separate works. The first section discusses arguments drawn from nature and describes other races and concentrates on the concept of human behavior. The second section focuses on animal behavior, dividing the animal kingdom into male and female types. From these are deduced correspondences between human form and character.
After Aristotle, the major extant works in physiognomy are:
- Polemo of Laodicea, , in Greek
- Adamantius the Sophist, , in Greek
- An anonymous Latin author, de Physiognomonia
After inspecting Socrates, a physiognomist announced he was given to intemperance, sensuality, and violent bursts of passion—which was so contrary to Socrates's image, his students accused the physiognomist of lying. Socrates put the issue to rest by saying, originally, he was given to all these vices, but had particularly strong self-discipline.
Middle Ages and Renaissance
During the Islamic Golden Age, the 12th-century Persian theologian and philosopher Fakhr al-Din al-Razi discussed physiognomy in his work Kitab al-Firasa, exploring the link between physical features and moral qualities. His contributions represent an early integration of physiognomic ideas within Arab thought.The term 'physiognomy' was common in Middle English, often written as 'fisnamy' or 'visnomy', as in the Tale of Beryn, a spurious addition to The Canterbury Tales: "I knowe wele by thy fisnamy, thy kynd it were to stele".
Physiognomy's validity was once widely accepted. Michael Scot, a court scholar for Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, wrote Liber physiognomiae in the early 13th century concerning the subject. English universities taught physiognomy until Henry VIII of England outlawed "beggars and vagabonds playing 'subtile, crafty and unlawful games such as physnomye or 'palmestrye'" in 1530 or 1531. Around this time, scholastic leaders settled on the more erudite Greek form 'physiognomy' and began to discourage the entire concept of 'fisnamy'.
Leonardo da Vinci dismissed physiognomy in the early 16th century as "false", a chimera with "no scientific foundation". Nevertheless, da Vinci believed that facial lines caused by facial expressions could indicate personality traits. For example, he wrote that "those who have deep and noticeable lines between the eyebrows are irascible".
Modern
Johann Kaspar Lavater
The principal promoter of physiognomy in modern times was the Swiss pastor Johann Kaspar Lavater who was briefly a friend of Goethe. Lavater's essays on physiognomy were first published in German in 1772 and gained great popularity. These influential essays were translated into French and English, and influenced early criminological theory.Lavater's critics
Lavater received mixed reactions from scientists, with some accepting his research and others criticizing it. His harshest critic was scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, who said pathognomy, or discovering the character of a person by observing their behavior, was more effective. English religious writer Hannah More complained to her contemporary writer Horace Walpole, "In vain do we boast ... that philosophy had broken down all the strongholds of prejudice, ignorance, and superstition; and yet, at this very time ... Lavater's physiognomy books sell at fifteen guineas a set."Thomas Browne
Lavater found confirmation of his ideas from the English physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne, and the Italian Giambattista Della Porta. Browne in his Religio Medici discusses the possibility of the discernment of inner qualities from the outer appearance of the face, and wrote:Browne reaffirmed his physiognomic beliefs in Christian Morals :
Browne also introduced the word caricature into the English language, whence much of physiognomical belief attempted to entrench itself by illustrative means, in particular through visual political satire.
Italian scholar Giambattista della Porta's works are well represented in the Library of Sir Thomas Browne including Of Celestial Physiognomy, in which della Porta argued that it was not the stars but a person's temperament that influences their facial appearance and character. In De humana physiognomia , della Porta used woodcuts of animals to illustrate human characteristics. Both della Porta and Browne adhered to the 'doctrine of signatures'—that is, the belief that the physical structures of nature such as a plant's roots, stem, and flower, were indicative keys to their medicinal potentials.
Period of popularity
The popularity of physiognomy grew throughout the first quarter of the 18th century and into the 19th century. It was discussed seriously by academics, who believed in its potential.Use in fiction and art
Many European novelists used physiognomy in the descriptions of their characters, notably Balzac, Chaucer and portrait artists, such as Joseph Ducreux. A host of 19th-century English authors were influenced by the idea, notably evident in the detailed physiognomic descriptions of characters in the novels of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Charlotte Brontë. Descriptions over one's appearance in the written form was a way for one to gauge the character's intelligence, ability, morals, and social status. While it did provide some benefits like more accurate and detailed written descriptions of appearance, it also had a negative effect on gender, class, and race due to increased stereotyping and manipulation.In addition to Thomas Browne, other literary authors associated with Norwich who made physiognomical observations in their writings include the romantic novelist Amelia Opie, and the travelogue author George Borrow.
Physiognomy is a central, implicit assumption underlying the plot of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. In 19th-century American literature, physiognomy figures prominently in the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe.
Phrenology
, a pseudoscience that measures the bumps on the skull in order to determine mental and personality characteristics, was created around 1800 by German physician Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Spurzheim, and was widely popular in the 19th century in Europe and the United States. In the U.S., physician James W. Redfield published his Comparative Physiognomy in 1852, illustrating with 330 engravings the "Resemblances between Men and Animals". He finds these in appearance and character, e.g. Germans to Lions, Negroes to Elephants and Fishes, Chinamen to Hogs, Yankees to Bears, Jews to Goats. While phrenology and physiognomy are separate from each other, they were so closely connected during the early nineteenth century that the terms were often used in place of each other.A prominent nineteenth century physiognomist, Samuel Wells, published New Physiognomy, or, Signs of Character in 1867 as a way to explain the principles of physiognomy and phrenology, as well as showing the connection between the two concepts. Wells included four principles to introduced readers to the subject:
- The brain is the special organ of the mind. The essence and mode of operation of the mind itself are inscrutable; we can only study its manifestations.
- The mind, though essentially a unit, is made up of about forty different faculties, each of which is manifested by means of a particular part of the brain, set apart exclusively for it and called its organ .
- When other conditions are the same, the larger the brain the stronger it is; and the larger portion of the brain occupied for the manifestation of a faculty, the stronger its manifestation.
- Those portions of the brain used for faculties related to each other are located together. Thus the brain is divided into regions or groups, as well into organs. The location and boundaries of these organs and regions may be best learned from the Phrenological bust, and the accompanying diagram .