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April 10, 2008

Down with neuroaesthetics!!

Tallis_tls_314412a

It is important not to suggest that it is only in rather special states of creativity – say, reading or writing poems – that we are distanced from animals. This is a mistake. We are different from animals in every waking moment of our lives. The bellowing on the lavatory that I referred to earlier demonstrates a huge gulf between us and our nearest animal kin. But if we deny this difference (invoking chimps etc) even in the case of creativity – and the appreciation of works of art – then no distance remains. That is why one would expect critics to be on the side of the poets, with their sense of this complexity, rather than siding with the terribles simplificateurs of scientism...

Neuroaesthetics is wrong about the present state of neuroscience: we are not yet able to explain human consciousness, even less articulate self-consciousness as expressed in the reading and writing of poetry. It is wrong about our experience of literature. And it is wrong about humanity.

more from the TLS here.

Posted by Morgan Meis at 11:20 AM | Permalink

Comments

On the absurd allure of neuroscientific explanations!

Posted by: Felix E. F. Larocca MD | Apr 10, 2008 11:46:48 AM

Thanks Morgan. So we have a scientist with a better grasp of what's going on in a John Donne poem by dealing with it as literature than a novelist who tries to deal with Donne via neuroanatomy. This is sad and funny. I was tempted to have a go at A.S.Byatt's work but it will have to wait while I read Raymond Tallis instead.

Posted by: Pete Chapman | Apr 11, 2008 12:58:21 AM

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