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Philosophy Talk: This Is Your Brain on Art

"Your Brain on Rainbows" by garlandcannon used under CC license

If you could see inside my brain when I was looking at a piece of art, would you know what it was like for me to look at that art?

Humans actively seek to create and consume art, and the philosophical branch of aesthetics has long investigated its fundamental questions: What is beauty? What is art? What is good taste? Now researchers are applying the tools of neuroscience in an attempt to find answers to these questions. But can the scientific method truly be applied to the study of art? Can brain scans help address the questions of aesthetics, or is the matter simply too abstract? John and Ken set their brains on art with Gabrielle Starr from NYU, author of Feeling Beauty: The Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience. Sunday 5/19 at 11 am and Tuesday 5/21 at 12 noon.