Limits Of Neuroscience

How would you define art? Tolstoy says that art is beauty, Oxford Dictionaries says it is the expression of human feelings. Da Vinci once said “art is the Queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all generations of the world”. Alva Noë is a professor philosopher at the University of California and the author of the essay “How Art Reveals the Limits of Neuroscience”. According to him, art is “a mode of investigation, a style of research, into what we are” (8). Noë sees art as a way to enlighten human mind and the concept of brain. In his essay, he mainly argues about how neuroscience takes a wrong approach while explaining the concept of human brain and nature (9). He thinks that art will bring new explanations for human mind. To prove

He claims that neuroscience describes humans as a brain in a body made from flesh and bone. However, this is not one of the neuroscience’s discoveries, it is Descartes’s conception with materialist makeover. Noë supports his point by showing how most of the neuroscientists are stuck with single idea which is similar to Cartesian idea (3). Many neuroscientists believe that this idea which is every feeling, thought, experience, and moral value is in our brains. Although, neuroscientists do not know how brains manage all these feelings, they think they are beginning to understand by studying science according to Noë. It is true that neuroscience has a limited view while studying, that is because science relies on the facts. However, art relies on the human feelings and thinking. That is why Noë thinks that art is being pushed aside. It is easier for people to believe “we are just packets of neurons” (3). What Noë meant here is that, art has a more complicated theory about our brains where neuroscience has an easier scientific

Our nervous system is triggered by the outer events. Experiences, feeling or objects can be a stimulus as Noë stated in his essay (4). However, neuroscience denies the fact that art offers a different stimulus than any other trigger for nervous system. Noë disagrees with this conception and offers a new one. He says that we respond to outer events or objects immediately. However, when it comes to art it is not the same story. Getting art requires experience, knowledge and insight as Noë said while comparing getting art to getting joke. Therefore, viewing art stimulates much more feelings in our brain, than seeing regular objects. Noë concludes that the fact that neuroscience ignores this truth and does not give plausible explanation makes it a weak way to study human