IDEA Lecture with Bence Nanay

Art is not a Western monopoly. Nor is aesthetics. One old assumption in aesthetics that has gone unchallenged for a long time is some form of universalism: no matter where and when you have grown up and what kind of perceptual and cognitive background you have, your aesthetic experience would be the same. This assumption is very much present in some recent empirical work on aesthetics as well. My aim is to question this assumption and do so on the basis of empirical findings about a number of ways in which aesthetic experience depends on one’s cultural, perceptual and cognitive background. 

The lecture will be in English.

If you would like to attend, please contact  sek.musik@ae.mpg.de

Bence Nanay

Bence Nanay (Professor of Philosophy and BOF Research Professor) is a cognitive scientist and philosopher of mind, working on perception, attention, mental imagery and action. He also works on topics in aesthetics.

IDEA Lectures

The IDEA Lectures (Interdisciplinary Debates on the Empirical Aesthetics of Music) aim at bringing together internationally well-known researchers who discuss questions that relate to the production and reception of music from various perspectives. Musicologists from all branches of their discipline take part as do musicians, psychologists, cognitive scientists, sociologists, philosophers and ethnologists.