Beauty and Art in the Lab: What Empirical Aesthetics Can Contribute to Philosophical Aesthetics and What It Cannot (original) (raw)
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Experimental Philosophy of Aesthetics
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.
A Defence of Experimental Philosophy in Aesthetics
Although experimental philosophy is now over a decade old, it has only recently been introduced to the domain of philosophical aesthetics. So why is there already a need to defend it? Because, as I argue in this paper, we can anticipate the three main types of objection generally addressed to experimental philosophy and show that none of them concern experimental philosophers in aesthetics. I begin with some general considerations about experimental philosophy and its, sometimes conflicting, characteristics. This framework is designed to help me situate the experimental practice in aesthetics within the general movement. I then present the objections and respond to them in turn. Their failure should convince aestheticians to embrace the practice early on and opponents of experimental philosophy to revise their usual objections before addressing them to experimental philosophers in aesthetics.
Philosophical Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics: A Common Future?
The future of the art/science relationship does not only concern the field of artistic creation, but also the field of aesthetic experience. In fact, whereas aesthetics has existed as a philosophical discipline since the 18th century, more and more scientific experimental works study aesthetic experience. Philosophical aesthetics now shares its object of study with what is often called neuroaesthetics. The aim of this chapter is to shape a common vision enabling philosophical aesthetics and neuroaesthetics to pool their results and their tools so that the research world does not suffer from a regrettable scission in the field of theory of artistic theory. Indeed, aesthetics seems to have a lot to gain from physiological studies dealing, on the one hand, with the capacity of cognitive processes to adapt to non-routine situations and, on the other hand, with the capacity of these adaptations to be felt by individuals.
Introducing the special issue on Empirical Aesthetics
2021
What is the nature of aesthetic responses to art forms and are there any universal preferences for particular arrangements within the arts? Conceptual work in philosophical aesthetics suggests there are many more issues about art and aesthetic matters than these two. Moreover, such conceptual work helps make explicit what assumptions about art and aesthetics a researcher is working with. How to deal with the tension between empirical and philosophical aesthetics? Introducing a special issue on empirical aesthetics. Arguably, the beginnings of empirical aesthetics took place in 1876, the year Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887) published his Vorschule der Ästhetik (Preschool of Aesthetics). Fechner, also credited with founding psychophysics, examined aesthetic responses to (mostly) visual forms, and explored the socalled Golden Section hypothesis. This very roughly suggests the main interests of early empirical psychology in matters of aesthetics: the nature of aesthetic responses to ...
It. Estetica empirica, Fr. Esthétique empirique, Germ. Empirische Ästhetik, Span. Estetica empirica. The idea of an empirical approach to aesthetics is rooted in 18 th century philosophical empiricism, which attempted to distinguish a naturalistic view on aesthetics from the tradition of speculative aesthetics. Today, empirical aesthetics designates all research that involves the use of evidence aimed at investigating the factors (formal and material characteristics of an object or artwork, context, education, or experience) that contributes to a person's aesthetic experience. In a more specific sense, empirical aesthetics focuses on people's cognitive and affective responses in front of natural and artistic beauty and is today mainly defined as experimental aesthetics, where the subjective responses to art and beauty are analysed by means of rigorous experimental methods from psychology and neuroscience, in order to develop insights on the workings of our mind during our aesthetic experience.
Syllabus: Aesthetics and Experimental Aesthetics: Summer School Courses
Zenodo, 2023
This course explores some aesthetic concepts through the analysis of some of the most important philosophical and scientific texts in the history of Western thought. Students will develop adequate critical and analytical skills by reading philosophical and interdisciplinary texts on topics such as aisthesis, taste, beauty, judgement, imagination, empathy, aura, the beholder’s share, and embodied simulation. Furthermore, students will learn to orient themselves in thinking, addressing the following questions: What is aesthetics? What is the difference between speculative aesthetics and empirical aesthetics? What is the difference between an aesthetic judgment and an aesthetic experience? What is the role of biology in perception? This course explores these and other questions by focusing on the works of leading philosophers and scientists.
Philosophical Aesthetics and Cognitive Science
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 dialogue 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.
2020
The experimental philosophy analysed in this work is a current that emerged in the late 20th century, as a reaction against the supposedly dogmatic nature of conceptual analysis. It seeks to cast doubt on a priori concepts, in order to deconstruct “armchair” philosophy and to question its unexamined intuitions1. Until this point, its audience had remained restricted in France, where for a majority of the cultured public, its name alone was a kind of oxymoron. However, a growing number of studies (for example on reasoning or the emotions) refer to it readily, particularly in sectors such as economics, where theoretical concerns meet behavioural considerations. Since its motivation is epistemological as well as practical (because it concerns the legitimation of empirically based knowledge), we can understand why its influence tends to spread to other domains, including fields like ethics and aesthetics that do not