Looming Looming Looming is a term found in the study of perception, as it relates directly to psychology. Looming refers to the rapid expansion in the size of any given image. As the image becomes increasingly large on the perceiver's retina, i.e., when an object "looms", there is an automatic physiological response to perceive the object as an approaching object or surface, instead of one that is stationary or receding. Evidence indicates that looming perception is not limited to the visual modality, but can occur due to auditory or even tactile stimuli. There is a different type of mirage that is
The Sense of Beauty one finds in the stars (§25). Santayana points out that memories and other predispositions (″mental habits″) contribute to the perception of an object and hence of its value (§28) - that may ultimately be beauty. Here, another distinction is made between ″value of a form″ and ″value of the type as such″; in the latter sense, an object also has a value in how well it is an example of its class (§28). Santayana here also introduces the concept of ″indeterminate″ objects that are in some way vague or incoherent and thus require and allow the observer to further interpret