摘要
艺术作为一种人类活动是具有生物学基础的,要理解艺术的生物学基础,我们必须先探索知识的生物学基础,因为艺术不仅是知识的一种重要组成形式,其本身也是一种知识。本文从神经美学的角度探讨但丁、米开朗琪罗和瓦格纳这三位西方文化巨子的艺术,在这三位艺术家的例子中,与其说是爱情,不如说是他们大脑中创造的“爱的理念”激发了他们的艺术活动。但不论是哪种,其创作的动力都来自大脑创造出的概念和理念。因此我将从神经科学的角度探究“理念”的概念以及大脑形成这一概念的过程。首先,我会论证理念的形成是大脑有效知识获取系统的必要和必然的产物。其次,大脑为了有效获取知识会付出高昂的代价,而这一消耗可以通过艺术进行缓解。我采用的方法是由一个不言自明的真理决定的,即所有人类活动都由大脑的组织和规律决定;因此,除非基于神经生物学,否则就没有真正的艺术和美学理论。
Art has a biological basis,like all other human activities.To understand the biological foundations of art,we must enquire into the biological foundations of knowledge,for art constitutes a form of knowledge;indeed is knowledge.In this essay,I try to discuss the art of three Titanic figures in Western culture-Dante,Michelangelo and Wagner-in neurological terms.It is in fact not so much love,but the ideal of love that each had created in their brains,that governed the artists5 work.None of the three found that ideal in real life,and each was impelled in a different way to create works of art in response to that gap.The ideal of love is of course not the only one that artists have tried to translate into their works.An artist may want to recreate simpler ideals,for example of natural scenery or even a straight line.But in every case the motive force comes from the creation of ideals and concepts by the brain.I therefore begin by enquiring neurologically into the concept of ideals and their formation by the brain.I will speak exclusively in terms of the brain,and begin by arguing that the formation of ideals is the necessary and unavoidable by-product of an efficient knowledge-acquiring system,which is what the brain is.But the imperative in terms of efficiency in acquiring knowledge also exacts a high toll,which can be alleviated through art.My approach is dictated by a truth that I believe to be axiomatic that all human activity is dictated by the organization and laws of the brain.
出处
《马克思主义美学研究》
2022年第1期132-148,369,共18页
Research on Marxist Aesthetics
基金
吉林省哲学社会科学基金项目(2021C102)
教育部人文社会科学研究规划基金项目(21YJA751012)的阶段性成果
关键词
抽象
概念
知识
艺术
abstraction
concept
knowledge
art
作者简介
萨米尔·泽基(Semir Zeki),英国伦敦大学学院细胞与发育生物学系教授,“神经美学”的先驱和创始人。英国皇家学会会员、学术欧洲会员、欧洲科学与艺术学会会员、美国哲学学会外籍专家;高晓芳,浙江大学传媒与国际文化学院博士研究生,主要从事认知神经美学、当代美学研究;孟凡君,吉林大学副教授,主要从事认知神经美学、马克思主义美学研究。
