A biosemiotic approach to landscapes: Alois Riegl’s theories of Kunstwollen and Stimmung revisited in the contexts of cognitive and evolutionary aesthetics

This study explores the art historian Alois Riegl’s heuristic terms ‘Kunstwollen’ and ‘Stimmung’ in the contexts of cognitive and evolutionary aesthetics. To begin with, the author draws on notions of instinct theorized by George Romanes, Charles Darwin and Charles Peirce. They are shown to have embraced instinct and associated it with states of mindfulness, good reasoning and intelligence of survival. Another art historian, August Schmarsow, is also shown to have favoured instinctive attitudes and mental trials and errors as the sophisticated approach to art. These rigorous theorizations of instinct serve to expand Riegl’s idea that Kunstwollen suggests a relatively strong human will and desire for art. Further, to verify how viewers may attain states of Kunstwollen and Stimmung, the author draws on two landscapes (Landscape with Roman Ruins, 1536; The Heart of the Andes, 1859) to broaden viewers’ horizons. Viewers are advised to take full advantage of the medium made up by light, air and space so as to work out perspectives that favour their mental wellbeing and the reception of artworks. Finally, the author integrates Riegl’s theories into current research and emphasizes the necessity of unifying biological and cultural factors for the attainment of knowledge or original thinking in inquiries. In brief, Riegl’s theories appear fairly biosemiotic when we consider the rich evolutionary, psychological and semiological contexts surrounding the birth of his insights

The dual essence of pleasure: Willing, imagining and planning the Saussurean sublime and beautiful in surviving daunting nature and culture

This study seeks to update and expand the models of mind and consciousness that Ferdinand de Saussure conceived for the appreciation of linguistic signs. As a response to his theorization of the dual essence of language (a mixture of sounds and concepts), this study proposes a theorization of pleasure and understanding (a blending of different perspectives) deriving from our engagement with daunting situations in nature and culture. To begin with, the author discusses current neuroimaging findings that reveal how we may gain from low-arousal emotions. Certain benefits have been recognized that increase the pleasure and delight we may obtain through conscientious mental work rather than via instincts and preferences. Thus, in this context, the Saussurean network of differences is seen to be capable of generating motivated neural links that function to adjust our viewpoints. Further, in light of Adolphe Pictet’s mingling of philosophical aesthetics and linguistics, this study corrects a misapplication of another Saussurean model (a conjunction of our perceptions of time and space, synchrony and diachrony) in appreciating the Kantian notions of imagination and the sublime. Instead of judging this model as a revelation of one single ideal viewpoint, Pictet’s approach invites us to appreciate it as the functioning of a rigorous yet practical mind that is capable of devising multiple and useful perspectives. Notions of the sublime, the ugly and the beautiful are therefore equated as legitimate viewpoints that we should draw on so as to survive dealing with daunting situations in nature and culture. Finally, this study unifies and fortifies the Saussurean models through aligning them with a phenomenological approach to our memories, sensations and perceptions. Such integration empowers our imagination and confidence while we are widening our horizons to invent larger contexts for our objects of inquiry. All in all, the author cherishes the Saussurean models as a combination of the linguistic, the aesthetic and the moral laws that altogether sharpen our way of devising rationales that may boost the wellbeing of the community

Between emotion, imagination and cognition: Play as a hybrid neuro-evolutionary concept in bridging Saussure, Hegel and Alexander von Humboldt

This study seeks to discover hidden links between Saussure’s Third Course of Lectures on General Linguistics, Hegel’s Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics / Philosophy of Mind and Alexander von Humboldt’s Cosmos. To begin with, the notion of play is employed to examine the interplay between our emotion, imagination and cognition, and to examine how such a composite of faculties serves to unify conceptualizations of communication-modelling systems, philosophical hermeneutics and moral psychology in our times. At discovering a certain future-oriented and symbiotic scheme of time implied in these theories, the inquiry moves on to engage with certain perspectives on the evolution of our verbal and nonverbal capacities. Further, observations concerning the actual functioning of mirror neurons in humans are introduced to revise our understanding of the enactive power of nonverbal capacities such as feeling and imagining. The hypothesis made by neuropsychologists concerning the correlation between the mirror and sign systems reveals signifi cant connections between Saussure, Hegel and Humboldt: our emotions and imagination are as schematic and extensive as our speech acts in teaming up with diverse beings and pushing for new solutions and deeper understandings. Finally, this study draws on implications of the empowered sign-cum-mirror system for revisiting certain controversial issues such as the emergence of language-ready brain and the urgency of overcoming eeriness in our linguistic and artistic world-making. It is suggested that we employ our capacities as a somatosensory system so as to on the one hand observe the changing coordination between our body and mind, and on the other, generate rewarding strategies for a greater success at dealing with intriguing patterns found in art, nature and culture

Between emotion, imagination and cognition: Play as a hybrid neuro-evolutionary concept in bridging Saussure, Hegel and Alexander von Humboldt

This study seeks to discover hidden links between Saussure’s Third Course of Lectures on General Linguistics, Hegel’s Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics / Philosophy of Mind and Alexander von Humboldt’s Cosmos. To begin with, the notion of play is employed to examine the interplay between our emotion, imagination and cognition, and to examine how such a composite of faculties serves to unify conceptualizations of communication-modelling systems, philosophical hermeneutics and moral psychology in our times. At discovering a certain future-oriented and symbiotic scheme of time implied in these theories, the inquiry moves on to engage with certain perspectives on the evolution of our verbal and nonverbal capacities. Further, observations concerning the actual functioning of mirror neurons in humans are introduced to revise our understanding of the enactive power of nonverbal capacities such as feeling and imagining. The hypothesis made by neuropsychologists concerning the correlation between the mirror and sign systems reveals signifi cant connections between Saussure, Hegel and Humboldt: our emotions and imagination are as schematic and extensive as our speech acts in teaming up with diverse beings and pushing for new solutions and deeper understandings. Finally, this study draws on implications of the empowered sign-cum-mirror system for revisiting certain controversial issues such as the emergence of language-ready brain and the urgency of overcoming eeriness in our linguistic and artistic world-making. It is suggested that we employ our capacities as a somatosensory system so as to on the one hand observe the changing coordination between our body and mind, and on the other, generate rewarding strategies for a greater success at dealing with intriguing patterns found in art, nature and culture

Spectatorship as a play on moral ambiguities: Neuro-evolutionary semiotic approach to lowly arousal emotions

This study seeks to outline a neuro-evolutionary semiotic model for our perception and interpretation of moral ambiguities in the wake of neuroaesthetics. This model is actually an integration of the Saussurean network of differences and the recently discovered default mode network: it serves on the one hand to rectify automatic responses generated by the mirror system in real-life situations, and on the other, to expand the applicability of the sign system for our appreciation of eerie or scary details found in the arts. Such a framework functions not only to blur binary oppositions set between high and lowly arousal emotions, but also to enhance our skills and confidence in dealing with uncertainties and oddities found in the arts. As opposed to experimental schemes devised in neuroaesthetics, which quantify our instant ratings of specific audial and visual inputs, the neuro-evolutionary model allows us some freedom and flexibility to re-evaluate our perceptions of motives concealed in characters’ behaviors. This study therefore enlarges on a qualitative approach to conceptualizing spectatorship in the world of art. We as intelligent and self-governing spectators should manage to align with odd characters’ positions so as to regain meaning, understanding, and harmony from our dealings. By way of comparing and contrasting two film characters’ dealings with valuable paintings and endearing families, the author argues for the fruitful functioning of the neuro-evolutionary sign system in revising our biases against seemingly immoral characters. It is observed that the sign system is characterized with the capacity of multiplying meaningful connections between characters’ motives, choices, and actions. It enables us to sort out and to appreciate strings of actions that enlarge on characters’ persistence and consistence of achieving certain goals. All in all, our choice of engaging with the daunting and the disconcerting fosters not only our pleasure and intelligence of viewing, but also the survival of odd characters in our community

Being Barefoot as the Absolutely Beautiful: Moral Creativity Regained and Empowered through Perceiving Milkmaids Painted and Retouched by Peter Paul Rubens

This paper problematizes the feature of being barefoot that appears to be an idiosyncratic feature found in Rubens’s depictions of ðmilkÞmaids, mythical and biblical female figures. To appreciate oddities Rubens created, the paper starts with a discussion that enlarges on the merits that we may gain from contemplating allegories set against pleasant-looking landscapes. It then scrutinizes the heated debates over the validity of iconic signs, which enables us to recognize our application of certain laws and principles as the essential condition in carrying out semiotic cum hermeneutic inquiries. We, therefore, become empowered on the one hand to perceive oddities as manifestations of freedom and play and, on the other, to unify different approaches the painter adopted on the same horizons of judging. All in all, this paper argues for the urgency of our developing morally creative conditions in justifying and interpreting strange and deviant forms

Between emotion, imagination and cognition: Play as a hybrid neuro-evolutionary concept in bridging Saussure, Hegel and Alexander von Humboldt

This study seeks to discover hidden links between Saussure’s Third Course of Lectures on General Linguistics, Hegel’s Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics / Philosophy of Mind and Alexander von Humboldt’s Cosmos. To begin with, the notion of play is employed to examine the interplay between our emotion, imagination and cognition, and to examine how such a composite of faculties serves to unify conceptualizations of communication-modelling systems, philosophical hermeneutics and moral psychology in our times. At discovering a certain future-oriented and symbiotic scheme of time implied in these theories, the inquiry moves on to engage with certain perspectives on the evolution of our verbal and nonverbal capacities. Further, observations concerning the actual functioning of mirror neurons in humans are introduced to revise our understanding of the enactive power of nonverbal capacities such as feeling and imagining. The hypothesis made by neuropsychologists concerning the correlation between the mirror and sign systems reveals signifi cant connections between Saussure, Hegel and Humboldt: our emotions and imagination are as schematic and extensive as our speech acts in teaming up with diverse beings and pushing for new solutions and deeper understandings. Finally, this study draws on implications of the empowered sign-cum-mirror system for revisiting certain controversial issues such as the emergence of language-ready brain and the urgency of overcoming eeriness in our linguistic and artistic world-making. It is suggested that we employ our capacities as a somatosensory system so as to on the one hand observe the changing coordination between our body and mind, and on the other, generate rewarding strategies for a greater success at dealing with intriguing patterns found in art, nature and culture