On Prägnanz

Riccardo Luccio

pp. 123-148

in: Liliana Albertazzi (ed), Shapes of forms, Berlin, Springer, 1999

Abstract

In 1984 the late Professor Gaetano Kanizsa and I presented a paper on the ambiguities of the concept of Prägnanz at a conference on Wolfgang Metzger held at the University of Macerata. Two years later the paper was published in German with minor changes in Gestalt Theory under the title "Die Doppeldeutigkeiten der Prägnanz'. Unfortunately, neither Italian nor German are languages widely read today in the psychological world, so the article aroused discussion only among psychologists able to read Italian or German.¹ Subsequently, Kanizsa and myself developed the line of argument put forward in the paper.² Today, ten years later, it may be worth reflecting again on the concept of Prägnanz.

Cited authors

Kanizsa Gaetano