The Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience

Alva Noë is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he researches the philosophy of mind—primarily focusing on perception and consciousness—and the philosophy of art. In this episode, Robinson and Alva discuss the latter, for while Alva is already the author of two books in the area—Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature (Farrar Strauss and Giroux, 2015) and Look: Dispatches from the Art World (Oxford, 2021)—June 23, 2023 will mark the release of a new work, The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are (Princeton University Press). Robinson and Alva touch on topics from all three works, including the interrelationship between art, philosophy, phenomenology, and neuroscience.

Alva’s Website: http://www.alvanoe.com

Alva’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/alvanoe

OUTLINE

00:00 In This Episode…

00:38 Introduction

04:08 Mind and Art

10:05 Knowledge and Making

18:39 Attention and Rembrandt

31:28 Viewer and Creator

41:29 Art as a Philosophical Practice

47:00 Neuroscience

57:09 The Entanglement

01:17:15 Phenomenology, Art, and Analytic Philosophy

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.