Artists, Artworks, Aesthetics, Cognition

Skepticism about neuroaesthetics emerges from a contrast between aesthetic and cognitivist theories of art. Neuroaesthetics represents an aesthetic approach to understanding art. Aesthetic approaches identify the defining features of artworks by their aesthetic features and the affective profile of the experiences they engender. Cognitivist theories, in contrast, define artworks as communicative devices intentionally designed to convey some point, purpose, or meaning. In the article under discussion, the author argues that the conflict between these two views is overblown. He introduces a diagnostic recognition framework for understanding art grounded in a biased competition theory of selective attention. The framework defines artworks as attentional engines intentionally designed to orient perceivers to diagnostic features, including aesthetic features, that carry information about their point, purpose, or meaning. The artistic salience of aesthetic features of a work on this account, consistent with a cognitivist approach, lies in the semantic role they play in the expression of the work’s point, purpose, or meaning.