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Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind: Beyond Art Theory and the Cartesian Mind-Body Dichotomy

  • The first scholarly volume in the field of aesthetics to present an embodied approach to human experience
  • Presents a wide range sub-disciplines within aesthetics
  • Highlights new research questions within the field of aesthetics, and they grapple with the embodied mind thesis

Part of the book series: Contributions to Phenomenology (CTPH, volume 73)

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Table of contents (19 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
  2. Introduction to a Non-classical View of Meaning-Making and Human Cognition

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
  3. Embodied Aesthetics: The Anti-Cartesian View and Aesthetics of Life

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21
    2. The Aesthetics of Embodied Life

      • Mark Johnson
      Pages 23-38
    3. Emotionally Charged Aesthetic Experience

      • Pentti Määttänen
      Pages 85-99
  4. Neuroscience, Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 101-101
    2. Embodied Aesthetics: Insight from Cognitive Neuroscience of Performing Arts

      • Luca F. Ticini, Cosimo Urgesi, Beatriz Calvo-Merino
      Pages 103-115
  5. Art Beyond Art Theory and the Cartesian Mind-Body Dichotomy

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 139-139
  6. Radicalizing the Anti-Cartesian View: Enactivism in Aesthetics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 209-209
    2. Neuroaesthetics as an Enactive Enterprise

      • Christian Tewes
      Pages 229-244

About this book

The project of naturalizing human consciousness/experience has made great technical strides (e.g., in mapping areas of brain activity), but has been hampered in many cases by its uncritical reliance on a dualistic “Cartesian” paradigm (though as some of the authors in the collection point out, assumptions drawn from Plato and from Kant also play a role). The present volume proposes a version of naturalism in aesthetics drawn from American pragmatism (above all from Dewey, but also from James and Peirce)—one primed from the start to see human beings not only as embodied, but as inseparable from the environment they interact with—and provides a forum for authors from diverse disciplines to address specific scientific and philosophical issues within the anti-dualistic framework considering aesthetic experience as a process of embodied meaning-making. Cross-disciplinary contributions come from leading researchers including Mark Johnson, Jim Garrison, Daniel D. Hutto, John T. Haworth, Luca F. Ticini, Beatriz Calvo-Merino.

The volume covers pragmatist aesthetics, neuroaesthetics, enactive cognitive science, literary studies, psychology of aesthetics, art and design, sociology.

Editors and Affiliations

  • EuCog III, European Network of Excellence, London, United Kingdom

    Alfonsina Scarinzi

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind: Beyond Art Theory and the Cartesian Mind-Body Dichotomy

  • Editors: Alfonsina Scarinzi

  • Series Title: Contributions to Phenomenology

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9379-7

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-017-9378-0Published: 04 December 2014

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-024-0650-4Published: 23 August 2016

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-017-9379-7Published: 24 November 2014

  • Series ISSN: 0923-9545

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-1915

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 330

  • Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations, 19 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Phenomenology, Aesthetics, Cognitive Psychology

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access