Science and Imagination In the Aesthetic Appreciation of Nature: An Approach to the Work of Tim Birkhead and John Baker
Keywords:
Aesthetics of nature, Scientific Cognitivism, Aesthetic Imagination, Tim Birkhead, John BakerCopyright (c) 2015 Fernando Arribas Herguedas
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This article sketches a moderately pluralist perspective of the aesthetic appreciation of nature, harmonizing the central thesis of Allen Carlson’s cognitive-scientific model with other approaches that award the imagination a crucial role, such as those of Ronald Hepburn and Emily Brady. To do this, we appeal to a parallel reading of two works that are not strictly philosophical: Bird Sense, by the biologist Tim Birkhead, and The Peregrine by John A. Baker. Both works intend to contemplate the world from a different consciousness that demands the simultaneous concurrence of the scientific method and the imaginative effort particular to philosophical discourse and the aesthetic sensibility.
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