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On the Intersections of Neuroesthetics and Art History - Through Onians’s “Neuroarthistory” and the Kantian Notion of Deduction

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2024, 81(2), pp.255-288
  • DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu.81.2.202405.255
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : April 19, 2024
  • Accepted : May 10, 2024
  • Published : May 31, 2024

Jimin Son 1

1단국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to clarify the coevolutive development and the intersections of neuroesthetics and art history and to draw a common object of investigation. It will first summarize Onians’s idea of “neuroarthistory” introduced as a possible intersection and explain its main problems. Since neuroarthistory, as is the case for aesthetics and art history, cannot bypass epistemological approach towards the imperativeness in aesthetic judgment or criticism and artistic intention, asking whether neuroscience can help deal with such problems and approach becomes paramount. It will then be argued that neuroscience, while it can deepen the common methodology of Kantian deduction fundamental to both aesthetics and art history from their very modern outset, cannot nevertheless replace it. I will then critically reflect on the adequacy of neuroarthistory, and show that the overarching task concerning neuroesthetics and art history is an empirical investigation into the nature of aesthetic experience and casuistic-heuristic studies on artistic intentions.

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