Neurocinema

Speaker details
Professor Murray Smith University of Kent
Event contact
Professor Lucia Nagib University of Leeds

Event resources

Download presentation

Neurocinema or The Pit of Naturalism: Reflections on Neuroscience and Naturalised Aesthetics

Abstract

Following fast on the heels of Ramachandran and Zeki’s proposals for a ‘neuroaesthetics,’ a range of criticisms have been articulated concerning the possibility of such an approach, from figures such as Raymond Tallis, Jerry Fodor and John Hyman. In this paper I assess the validity of these criticisms and put forward some positive proposals concerning the contribution of neuroscience to the study of film.
In a recent interview, Raymond Tallis complained of the ‘pit of naturalism’ opened up by the (in his view) inappropriate extension of knowledge and methods from the natural sciences into the domain of human behaviour and experience. Tallis had neuroscience in particular in mind, though his comments were aimed as much at evolutionary theory and any other branch of natural science with similar ambitions. As an eminent gerontologist who has sustained a remarkable second career as a commentator on the humanities, Tallis’ remarks are particularly telling – and what they suggest is that, in certain quarters at least, the divide between the ‘two cultures’ is as wide and as entrenched as ever. Notwithstanding Tallis’ hostility to the idea, however, a significant movement has emerged over the last decade embracing the ‘third culture,’ or the sustained integration of knowledge from the natural and human sciences. Against this backdrop, I review the objections of Tallis and others (Fodor, Hyman, Hacker and Bennett) to the project of ‘neuroaesthetics,’ as proposed by V.S Ramachandran and Semir Zeki. I then sketch some ways in which evidence from neuroscience might play a positive role in aesthetic theory, with a particular focus on the aesthetics of film, taking neuroscientific and eye-tracking research on 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' as a case study. I conclude with some general remarks on the prospects for a ‘naturalized aesthetics’ aiming to bridge the gap between the two cultures, exploring the principles and methods that inform a naturalistic approach (to art in general and film in particular).

Biography

Murray Smith is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Kent and the author of, among other works, 'Engaging Chraracters: Fiction, Emotion, and the Cinema' (Oxford, 1995).