Evolutionary and Neurocognitive Approaches to Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts (Foundations and Frontiers in Aesthetics Series) - Hardcover

Martindale, Colin; Locher, Paul; Petrov, Vladimir; Berleant, Arnold

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0895033062 ISBN 13: 9780895033062

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

In this book, well-known scholars describe new and exciting approaches to aesthetics, creativity and psychology of the arts, approaching these topics from a point of view that is biological or related to biology and answering new questions with new methods and theories. All known societies produce and enjoy arts such as literature, music and visual decoration or depiction. Judging from prehistoric archaeological evidence, this arose very early in human development. Furthermore, Darwin was explicit in attributing aesthetic sensitivity to lower animals. These considerations lead us to wonder whether the arts might not be evolutionarily based. Although such an evolutionary basis is not obvious on the face of it, the idea has recently elicited considerable attention. The book begins with a consideration of ten theories on the evolutionary function of specific arts such as music and literature. The theory of evolution was first drawn up in biology, but evolution is not confined to biology: genuinely evolutionary theories of sociocultural change can be formulated. That they need to be formulated is shown in several chapters that discuss regular trends in literature and scientific writings. Psychologists have recently rediscovered the obvious fact that thought and perception occur in the brain, so cognitive science moves ever closer to neuroscience. Several chapters give overviews of neurocognitive and neural network approaches to creativity and aesthetic appreciation. The book concludes with two exciting describing brain-scan research on what happens in the brain during creativity and presenting a close examination of the relationship between genetically transmitted mental disorder and creativity.

About this title

From the Publisher:

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Researchers in creativity, aesthetics, and psychology of the arts (visual arts, literature, music).

About the Author:

Colin Martindale is Professor of Psychology at the University of Maine and Honorary Professor at the Perm (Russia) State Institute of Arts and Culture. He received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Harvard University (1970) and a Doctorat Honoris Causa from the Université Catholique de Louvain (1988). He is an Academician of the International Informatization Academy (Moscow). Martindale has been President of American Psychological Association Division 10 (Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts) (1986-87), the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (1994-98), and the Perm Institute of Sociocultural Dynamics (2002-2004). His awards include the 1984 Socio-Psychological Prize, from the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the 1998 Rudolf Arnheim Award for Outstanding Contributions to Psychology and the Arts and the 2001 Paul M. Farnsworth Award for Outstanding Contributions to APA Division 10, from Division 10 of the American Psychological Association; and the 2000 Gustav Theodor Fechner Award for Outstanding Contributions to Empirical Aesthetics, from the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics. He has served as editor of Empirical Studies of the Arts (1983-2005) and Bulletin of Psychology and the Arts (2001-2004) and is currently on the editorial boards of Creativity Research Journal, Journal of Creative Behavior, and Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology. He is the author of more than 200 scientific publications; his major books include Romantic Progression: The Psychology of Literary History (1975), The Clockwork Muse: The Predictability of Artistic Change (1990), Cognition and Consciousness (1981), and Cognitive Psychology: A Neural-Network Approach (1991). Martindale's current research interests include sociocultural evolution, neural-network explanations of aesthetic preference and creativity, and the relationship between physics and psychology.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0895033062
• ISBN 13: 9780895033062
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256