Fifth International School On Mind, Brain And Education
2010, August 1-6
Learning, Arts,
and the Brain
Directors: Antonio M. Battro and Kurt W. Fischer
Program officer: María Lourdes Majdalani
Institute for Social Medicine - State University of Rio de Janeiro. BRAZIL
An axiomatic truth? Varieties of neuroesthetic experience
In a 2002 article in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, Semir Zeki, professor of Neuroesthetics at University College London, declared, “My approach is dictated by a truth that I believe to be axiomatic – that all human activity is dictated by the organization and laws of the brain; that, therefore, there can be no real theory of art and aesthetics unless neurobiologically based.” Our presentation will examine in what sense Zeki’s postulate is said to be a truth and in what sense it is axiomatic, its forms in different varieties of neuroesthetics, and the broader contexts and consequences in the framework of contemporary “neurocultures.”