Aesthetics and the Sciences of Mind
Greg Currie, Matthew Kieran, Aaron Meskin, and Jon Robson
Abstract
Through much of the twentieth century, philosophical thinking about works of art, design, and other aesthetic products has emphasized intuitive and reflective methods, often tied to the idea that philosophy’s business is primarily to analyse concepts. This ‘philosophy from the armchair’ approach contrasts with methods used by psychologists, sociologists, evolutionary thinkers, and others who study the making and reception of the arts empirically. How far should philosophers be sensitive to the results of these studies? Is their own largely a priori method basically flawed and their views on ae ... More
Through much of the twentieth century, philosophical thinking about works of art, design, and other aesthetic products has emphasized intuitive and reflective methods, often tied to the idea that philosophy’s business is primarily to analyse concepts. This ‘philosophy from the armchair’ approach contrasts with methods used by psychologists, sociologists, evolutionary thinkers, and others who study the making and reception of the arts empirically. How far should philosophers be sensitive to the results of these studies? Is their own largely a priori method basically flawed and their views on aesthetic value, interpretation, imagination, and the emotions of art to be rethought in the light of best science? The essays in this volume seek answers to these questions, many through detailed studies of problems traditionally regarded as philosophical but where empirical inquiry seems to be shedding interesting light. No common view is looked for or found in this volume: a number of authors argue that the current enthusiasm for scientific approaches to aesthetics is based on a misunderstanding of the philosophical enterprise and sometimes on misinterpretation of the science; others suggest various ways that philosophy can and should accommodate and sometimes yield to the empirical approach. The authors provide a substantial introduction which sets the scene historically and conceptually before summarizing the claims and arguments of the essays.
Keywords:
art,
aesthetics,
cognitive science,
criticism,
evaluation,
fiction,
imagination,
interpretation,
perception,
philosophy of art
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199669639 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2014 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669639.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Greg Currie, editor
University of York
Matthew Kieran, editor
University of Leeds
Aaron Meskin, editor
University of Leeds
Jon Robson, editor
University of Nottingham
More
Less
