Aesthetics and Cognitive Science

Stokes, Dustin

doi:10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00226.x

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…This is all the more surprising because there are obvious natural connections between aesthetics and cognitive sciences: aesthetics is not only interested in aesthetic properties, be they instantiated in natural objects or works of art, but also in aesthetic experience and the psychological mechanisms underlying the appreciation of said aesthetic properties (Stokes, ). For example, imagination is a topic that has attracted the attention both of cognitive scientists and aestheticians, fostering exciting interdisciplinary dialogues (see, for example, Paul Harris' work on imagination in Harris, , but also the discussion of imagine resistance by Weinberg & Meskin , , grounded on the account of imagination developed by Nichols and Stich, ).…”

Section: Neuroaesthetics Empirically Informed Aesthetics and Experimentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Philosophy of Aesthetics

2015

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In the past decade, experimental philosophy -the attempt at making progress on philosophical problems using empirical methods -has thrived in a wide range of domains. However, only in recent years has aesthetics succeeded in drawing the attention of experimental philosophers. The present paper constitutes the first survey of these works and of the nascent field of 'experimental philosophy of aesthetics'. We present both recent experimental works by philosophers on topics such as the ontology of aesthetics, aesthetic epistemology, aesthetic concepts, and imagination, as well as research from other disciplines that not only are relevant to philosophy of aesthetics but also open new avenues of research for experimental philosophy of aesthetics. Overall, we conclude that the birth of an experimental philosophy of aesthetics is good news not only for aesthetics but also for experimental philosophy itself, as it contributes to broaden the scope of experimental philosophy.

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Section: Neuroaesthetics Empirically Informed Aesthetics and Experimentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Philosophy of Aesthetics

2015

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“…135 For more work at the intersection of philosophical aesthetics and cognitive science, see Shimamura and Palmer, 136 Goldie and Schellekens, 137 Currie et al, 138 and Currie et al 139 For another overview of cognitive science and aesthetics, see Stokes. 140 The preceding has shown that the relationship between contemporary aesthetics and cognitive science is a fruitful one. Not only are aestheticians taking on board the results of the cognitive sciences, they are making substantive contributions to the cognitive science themselves-both by cataloging intriguing aesthetic phenomena and by doing their own experimental research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the significance of findings about mirror neurons for the philosophy of dance has been hotly debated, and there is a growing body of work at the intersection of the philosophy of music and cognitive science on such topics as musical understanding and musical emotions . For more work at the intersection of philosophical aesthetics and cognitive science, see Shimamura and Palmer, Goldie and Schellekens, Currie et al, and Currie et al For another overview of cognitive science and aesthetics, see Stokes …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Philosophical aesthetics and cognitive science

Meskin

Robson

Ichino

et al. 2017

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Philosophical aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which explores issues having to do with art, beauty, and related phenomena. Philosophers have often been skeptical about the place of empirical investigation in aesthetics. However, in recent years many philosophical aestheticians have turned to cognitive science to enrich their understanding of their subject matter. Cognitive scientists have, in turn, been inspired by work in philosophical aesthetics. This essay focuses on a representative subset of the areas in which there has been fruitful dialog between philosophical aestheticians and cognitive scientists. We start with some general topics in philosophical aesthetics—the definition of art and the epistemic status of aesthetic judgments. We then move on to discussing research concerning the roles that imagination and perception play in our aesthetic engagement. We conclude with a discussion of the emerging field of experimental philosophical aesthetics. WIREs Cogn Sci 2018, 9:e1445. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1445 This article is categorized under: Philosophy > Value

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“…The psychology of aesthetic experience is focused on the mental processes that are related to the sensory valuation across various forms of art such as visual art, architecture, dance and music (Skov & Nadal, 2018, 2019 as well as non-art contexts, such as facial attractiveness or natural scenes (Aharon et al, 2001;Augustin et al, 2012;Fischer et al, 2018;Hagerhall et al, 2004;Han, 2007;Martín-Loeches et al, 2014;Vartanian et al, 2019;Vessel et al, 2018). In contrast, the psychology of art is a branch of aesthetics that is concerned more specifically with aesthetic experiences that are tied to art contexts (Goldman, 2001;Nadal & Skov, 2015;Stokes, 2009). Although art experience is just one type of aesthetic experience, the terms 'art' and 'aesthetics' are often used interchangeably.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Generalised Semantic Cognition Account of Aesthetic Experience

Bara¹,

Binney²,

Ward³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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To date, neuroaesthetics research has primarily framed aesthetic experiences as a special case of cognition. In the current paper, we argue that the dominance of this specialised approach needs rethinking. Instead, we propose a generalised framework that is inspired by the semantic cognition literature and that treats aesthetic experience as just one way to gain meaning from the environment, rather than as a special case. According to our framework, aesthetic experiences are underpinned by the same cognitive and brain systems that are involved in deriving meaning from the environment in general, such as modality-specific conceptual representations and controlled processes for retrieving the appropriate type of information. By embracing broader and more mature fields of research within cognitive neuroscience, our generalised semantic cognition view of aesthetic experience has substantial implications for theory development; it leads to novel, falsifiable predictions and it reconfigures a central debate by forcing researchers to assess foundational assumptions regarding the specificity of systems that may be involved in aesthetic experiences.

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Aesthetics and Cognitive Science

Cited by 11 publications

References 94 publications

Experimental Philosophy of Aesthetics

Experimental Philosophy of Aesthetics

Philosophical aesthetics and cognitive science

A Generalised Semantic Cognition Account of Aesthetic Experience

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