BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:2049@ub.edu DTSTART:20210413T140000Z DTEND:20210413T160000Z DTSTAMP:20250928T161943Z URL:https://www.ub.edu/grc_logos/activities/how-to-be-a-moderate-optimist- about-neuroscience-in-philosophy-of-film-and-other-places/ SUMMARY:How to Be a Moderate Optimist about Neuroscience in Philosophy of F ilm and Other Places DESCRIPTION:Bill Seeley (Southern Maine) Research in cognitive science and aesthetics is on the rise. The most visible form of this research has play ed out in what Alva Noë\; calls the key of neuroscience. This is nowhe re more apparent than the broad array of books\, book chapters\, and artic les written on neuroscience and film. There has\, not surprisingly\, been a healthy dose of skepticism directed at this emerging research field. The focus of this paper is a skeptical position called moderate pessimism. Mo derate pessimists grant that neuroscience might play a role modeling our b est theories about the nature of film and other arts and so might help con firm existing theories and adjudicate debates about the nature of our enga gement with artworks. But\, they argue that it will be little help with th orny conceptual questions that are at the heart of understanding the natur e of the arts. These kinds of questions are prior normative questions that are beyond the scope of neuroscience. They are best left to film theorist s and philosophers. Moderate optimists like myself note in contrast that t he scope of research in the arts in the key of neuroscience\, like other e mpirical matters\, cannot be resolved in advance. One must dive in\, look under the hood\, and evaluate each case on its merits. In what follows\, I evaluate the debate between moderate optimism and moderate pessimism\, in troduce a diagnostic recognition framework for neuroscience of film\, and\ , drawing on research from the neurophysiology of attention and affective neuroscience\, explore the role the framework can play in discussions of n arrative understanding and a spectator'\;s emotional engagement with ch aracters at the movies. I conclude that\, all things equal\, while defensi ve pessimism is a natural and adaptive attitude in the face of novelty\, m oderate optimism is a more promising methodological fit to collaborative r esearch in neuroscience of film. CATEGORIES:Extra talks LOCATION:Online X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=\, Spain;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100 ;X-TITLE=Online:geo:0,0 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR