Neuroaesthetics as an enactive enterprise

Christian Tewes

pp. 229-244

in: Aesthetics and the embodied mind, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to delineate how the explanatory power of neuroaesthetic interdisciplinary oriented research can be formed and enhanced within an enactive framework. To this end, the paper will focus on a neurodynamical model of intentionality and emotion that is centred on a sensorimotor approach to cognition. This enables the critique and further development of one of the most advanced psychological accounts of aesthetic judgements and emotions of recent years that is especially apt to integrate and synthesize neuroaesthetic research. Finally, it will be shown that recent research foci in neuroaesthetics already indicate the benefits and fruitfulness of what can be called a "front-loaded' enactive approach to aesthetic phenomena.