Strange
Tools: Art and Human Nature
by Alva Noë
A philosopher makes the case for thinking of works of art as tools for
investigating ourselves.
The philosopher and cognitive scientist Alva Noë argues that our obsession with
works of art has gotten in the way of understanding how art
works on us. For Noë, art isn't a phenomenon in need of an
explanation but a mode of research, a method of investigating what makes us
human--a strange tool. Art isn't just something to look at or listen to--it is
a challenge, a dare to try to make sense of what it is all about. Art aims not
for satisfaction but for confrontation, intervention, and subversion. Through
diverse and provocative examples from the history of art-making, Noë reveals the
transformative power of artistic production. By staging a dance, choreographers
cast light on the way bodily movement organizes us. Painting goes beyond
depiction and representation to call into question the role of pictures in our
lives. Accordingly, we cannot reduce art to some natural aesthetic sense or
trigger; recent efforts to frame questions of art in terms of neurobiology and
evolutionary theory alone are doomed to fail.
By engaging with art, we are able to study ourselves in profoundly novel ways. In
fact, art and philosophy have much more in common than we might think.
Reframing the conversation around artists and their craft, Strange
Tools is a daring and stimulating intervention in contemporary thought.: https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Tools-Art-Human-Nature/dp/0809089165
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