Cartesian sensory perception, agreeability, and the puzzle of aesthetic pleasure
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21597883 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Domenica Romagni (0000-0002-2805-1681, Colorado State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 434-455 |
| Publication date | 2022-05-04 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal for the History of Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0960-8788 • E-ISSN: 1469-3526 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09608788.2021.2002262 |
| OpenAlex | W4200540141 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 30 |
In this paper, I address Descartes’ claims that sensory perceptions function to aid and preserve the subject in interacting with the world, and focus specifically on the ‘valence’, or agreeable/disagreeable quality, that characterizes many sensations. I show how Descartes considers this aspect of sensation to be a significant factor in the ecological role of sensory perception and I then turn to a kind of case that seems to pose a problem for this view: that of aesthetic pleasure. I consider Descartes’ remarks on a particular kind of aesthetic pleasure – that found in musical consonance – and argue that his discussion of this phenomenon reveals that he distinguishes between two distinct kinds of valence – evaluative sensory valence and aesthetic valence – only one of which functions to report directly on ecological evaluation. Further, I suggest that the best way to understand the distinction between these is by appealing to Descartes’ three grades of sensory perception
Aesthetics · Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Perception · Phenomenon · Physics · Pleasure · Sensation · Sensory system · Historical Philosophy and Science · Multisensory perception and integration · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |