Jess Creighton
For six weeks this summer, the corridors of Skinner Hall were abuzz
with talk of musical perception, mental modules, narrative, pictorial space
and sundry other colorful topics. The occasion was a summer institute titled
"Art, Mind and Cognitive Science", sponsored by the National Endowment
for the Humanities and the American Society for Aesthetics.
Professor Jerrold Levinson directed the institute, along with associate directors Dominic Lopes (Univerity of British Columbia), and Jenefer Robinson (University of Cincinnati). The participants explored cognitive science and the contributions it might make to philosophical theorizing about art. The purpose of the institute was "the fruitful interaction of the two domains of research in a way that is illuminating to both," according to Levinson.
The institute also highlighted what lessons there might be for cognitive science from artistic phenomena. As Levinson puts it, "Among the most important cognitive processes we engage in are ones involved in aesthetic experience and the appreciation of art."
The primary participants were 25 college and university faculty members from across the country. Although philosophers were in the majority, scholars from Musicology, English, French, Education, and Film Studies were represented as well.
Institute members were treated to a rich intellectual diet. Twenty scholars, including Kendall Walton, Colin McGinn, Diana Raffman, Tamar Gendler, Elliot Sober, to name but a few, delivered lectures on a broad range of topics in aesthetics and cogitive science. Discussion was lively and enthusiastic. At least as important as the formal sessions were the opportunities for informal contact and interaction that the insitute afforded its participants.
The University of Maryland was an ideal site for the event because of
its proximity to Washington D.C., and therefore its entertainment and cultural
options, and because of its status as a major research university. But
as Levinson points out, the Maryland department itself was a fitting venue.
"The institute might be seen as symbolizing the synthesis of two of the
traditional major strengths of the Maryland philosophy department: aesthetics
and philosophy of mind."
