Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts: A Guide for Humanists

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 272 pages
• Published by: Routledge
• Edition: 1st Edition July 3, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0415942446
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0415942447
• Book Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Review
Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts provides a much needed critical introduction to the cognitive study of the verbal, visual, and musical arts, basing its claims on the methods and findings of mainstream cognitive science. Written with authority, verve, and above all clarity, Hogan's exciting new book will prove an indispensable guide for those new to the field and a provocative and challenging overview for those already engaged in cognitive criticism and theory..
–Alan Richardson, Professor of English, Boston College and author of British Romanticism and the Science of the Mind

Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts provides a much needed critical introduction to the cognitive study of the verbal, visual, and musical arts, basing its claims on the methods and findings of mainstream cognitive science. Written with authority, verve, and above all clarity, Hogan's exciting new book will prove an indispensable guide for those new to the field and a provocative and challenging overview for those already engaged in cognitive criticism and theory..
–Alan Richardson, Professor of English, Boston College and author of British Romanticism and the Science of the Mind



Product Description
Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts is the first student-friendly introduction to the uses of cognitive science in the study of literature, written specifically for the non-scientist. Patrick Colm Hogan guides the reader through all of the major theories of cognitive science, focusing on those areas that are most important to fostering a new understanding of the production and reception of literature. This accessible volume provides a strong foundation of the basic principles of cognitive science, and allows us to begin to understand how the brain works and makes us feel as we read.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Cognitive Science, Literature, and the Arts: A Guide for Humanists (Paperback) This is an important book on an important subject. Hogan's purpose here is to introduce the humanities reader to the ways and insights of cognitive science and to summarize some of the attempts to apply those ways and insights to literature and the arts. This is an activity that is long overdue. The growth in knowledge of the human brain and human cognition has been as dramatic as the distance from that knowledge exhibited by studies within the humanities, which have often been more interested in `theorizing' science in postmodern ways than in joining with scientists to understand the humanities in more scientific ways. While this effort is of enormous importance, it is at a very preliminary stage. For one thing, the actual functioning of the brain is so sophisticated and complex that many descriptions of cognitive processes are more metaphoric than conventionally `scientific'. That does not mean that they are not systematic or thoughtful. Rather, they depict the processes of cognition in terms that are far more simple than what is clearly going on. It is no surprise that Kant is key to their procedures, for the Kantian model of a human observer trying to bridge an unbridgeable gulf, constrained by decidedly `human' equipment but nevertheless attaining useful knowledge, is much in evidence here. Given the `metaphoric' nature of this knowledge, it should come as no surprise that its conclusions often square with those of thinkers whose methods and materials predate those of cognitive science. For example, Hogan's interesting discussion about creativity involving both novelty and aptness squares precisely with Samuel Johnson's demands for novelty and what we would term something like `faithfulness to the realities of human psychology'. Hogan's argument to the effect that creativity at the highest levels carries common elements and is applicable across fields (the creativity required in writing an epic being comparable to the creativity required in teasing out the realities of the double helix) replicates Johnson's judgment that Newton could have written a fine epic poem, had he so desired. Hogan is particularly strong in his critique of evolutionary psychology and the contradictory lessons that it often draws. His arguments are as trenchant as they are clear and he is able to offer very suggestive examples to support them. In short, this is an excellent introduction to what will become an immensely important subject, but one that carries no illusions with regard to the position in which we now find ourselves.