<p>"If you’ve ever wondered how we’ve gotten to the point where virtually every cultural theory field now boasts a ‘bio-’  or ‘neuro-’ subfield, Carsten Strathausen’s <i>Bioaesthetics</i> is an excellent guide. Setting the stage with scrupulous readings of historical controversies, Strathausen then incisively critiques the reductionist ‘biologism’ he finds in ‘literary Darwinism,’ ‘biopoetics,’ ‘neuroaestethics,’ and so on, before judiciously tackling Deleuze and affect theory. A powerful and insightful study, <i>Bioaesthetics</i> rewards the reader with clarifying and careful mappings of important contemporary concepts."—John Protevi, author of <i>Life, War, Earth: Deleuze and the Sciences</i></p>

In recent years, bioaesthetics has used the latest discoveries in evolutionary studies and neuroscience to provide new ways of looking at art and aesthetics. Carsten Strathausen’s remarkable exploration of this emerging field is the first comprehensive account of its ideas, as well as a timely critique of its limitations. Strathausen familiarizes readers with the basics of bioaesthetics, grounding them in its philosophical underpinnings while articulating its key components. Importantly, he delves into the longstanding problem of the “two cultures” that separate the arts and the sciences. Seeking to make bioaesthetics a more robust way of thinking, Strathausen then critiques it for failing to account for science’s historical and cultural assumptions. At its worst, he says, biologism reduces artworks to mere automatons that rubber-stamp pre-established scientific truths. Written with a sensitive understanding of science’s strengths, and willing to refute its best arguments, Bioaesthetics helps readers separate the sensible from the specious. At a time when humanities departments are shrinking—and when STEM education is on the rise—Bioaesthetics makes vital points about the limitations of science, while lodging a robust defense of the importance of the humanities.
Les mer
ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionThe Biological Nature of What?Against Consilience What Is Bioaesthetics?Structure and Chapters1. Human Nature after KantKant and BiologyPreformation and Epigenesis before 1800Emergent Life (Autopoiesis and Cognition)Sensus Communis Aestheticus2. Marxism and BiologyMarx and DarwinChance and Necessity, or, Kant RevisitedScience and PoliticsA Biologistic Theory of HistoryOn Norm-Circularity and Aleatory Materialism3. Cultural EvolutionSociobiologyEvolutionary Psychology (EP)Social Learning and SociogenesisOf Memes and Culturgens Technogenesis4. Evolutionary AestheticsArt and NatureA Survey of the FieldLiterary Darwinism RevisitedCognitive Studies5. NeuroaestheticsHow to “Read” a Brain ScanThe Cerebral SubjectConsciousnessNeuronal Aesthetics: The Historical ViewNeuroaesthetics: The Scientific View“The Pre-existing Idea within Us”: Zeki’s PlatonismCodaDeleuze and AffectA Posthuman Aesthetics?NotesIndex
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781517900755
Publisert
2017-10-15
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Minnesota Press
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Dybde
38 mm
AldersnivĂĽ
01, P, UU, 06, 05
SprĂĽk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
304

Om bidragsyterne

Carsten Strathausen is professor of German and English and Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair in Humanities at the University of Missouri. He is editor of A Leftist Ontology: Beyond Relativism and Identity Politics (Minnesota, 2009) and author of The Look of Things: Poetry and Vision around 1900, as well as translator of Under Suspicion: A Phenomenology of Media by Boris Groys.Â