Worringer, Dewey, Goodman, and the Concept of Aesthetic Experience: A Biological Perspective

: The purpose of this essay is to advocate the ideas of Wilhelm Worringer, John Dewey, and Nelson Goodman on the roles of perception, empathy, emotion, and enjoyment in aesthetic experience. I will attempt to do this by offering a novel interpretation of some of these thinkers’ insights from a biological perspective. To this end, I will consider the following questions. What is an aesthetic experience? Does such a thing exist at all? If yes, is there a correlation between the concept of the aesthetic and perception? Is it possible, then, to find a biological basis for aesthetic experience? My argument is that a fresh analysis of the aesthetics of Worringer, Dewey, and Goodman, in light of some of the discoveries and theories of the cognitive neurosciences – such as the biological correlations of emotions, the “as-if-body-loop” theory, the discovery of mirror neurons, and the phenomenon of embodied simulation – may provide a contribution to longstanding philosophical problems relating to the nature of aesthetic experience.

biological process underlying the perception of objects, or, better yet, sense perception .

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In fact, as Peters asserts, for Aristotle (384-322 BC) «aisthesis became a philosophical question as well as a physiological one» .For this reason, it seems advantageous to 4 investigate the concept of aesthetics and the phenomenology of (sense) perception from a neuroscientific perspective.
In On the Soul, Aristotle provides his own definition of sensation or aisthesis.He states that «sense [aistheseos] is that which is receptive of the form of sensible objects [aistheton] without the matter» (424a) .Thus, in Aristotle, aisthesis is something that 5 deals with sense perception.In another passage, he maintains that «sense [aisthesis] is affected by that which has colour, or flavour, or sound, but by it, not qua having a particular identity, but qua having a certain quality» (424a) .Therefore, the etymology 6 of the word "aesthetics" suggests that aesthetic experience is essentially related to the sense perception of objects possessing certain kinds of qualities.
It was not until Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714-1762), however, that the word "aesthetic" gave rise to a distinct philosophical branch: aesthetics.In his 1735 thesis Philosophical Meditations Pertaining to Some Matters Concerning Poetry (Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus), Baumgarten, in line with the ancient Greek meaning of the term, defines "aesthetic" as the science of perception: As our definition is at hand, a precise designation can easily be devised.The Greek philosophers and the Church fathers have already carefully distinguished between things perceived [αίσθητά] and things known [νοητά].It is entirely evident that they did not equate things known with things of sense, since they honoured with this name things also removed from sense (therefore, images).Therefore, things known are to be known by the superior faculty as the object of logic; things perceived [are to be known by the inferior faculty, as the object] of the science of perception, or aesthetic .( §116) 7 However, he does not specify how this new discipline might be a science of perception.
Sense perception is the understanding gained through the use of one (or more) of the senses -such 3 as sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing.
It is in his Aesthetica (1750) that Baumgarten develops these first intuitions.
Continuing the idea he outlined in the Meditations, Baumgarten begins the "Prolegomena" of the Aesthetica with his own explanation of the concept of aesthetics: «Aesthetics (the theory of the liberal arts, the logic of the lower capacities of cognition [gnoseologia inferior], the art of thinking beautifully, the art of the analogon rationis) is the science of sensible cognition» ( §1) .Thus, by "aesthetics" Baumgarten meant what 8 we today call philosophy of perception, that is, the study of sense perception.In a further section, he adds another important piece of information, that is, that the objective of aesthetics is beauty: «The aim of aesthetics is the perfection of sensible cognition as such, that is, beauty, while its imperfection as such, that is, ugliness, is to be avoided» ( §14) .9 On the basis of what we have said so far, we can affirm that the concept of aesthetics refers to the ways people perceive the world sensorially; consequently, aesthetics should be connected to perception.But is this always the case?In this regard, Bence Nanay maintains that aesthetic experiences are not necessarily perceptual and that it is not «only perceivable entities [that] can be experienced aesthetically» .It is therefore 10 possible to have aesthetic experiences of entities that are not perceivable, such as ideas (for instance when dealing with conceptual art), ideologies, large-scale narrative structures, or mathematical proofs .From this assumption, we can derive that there are 11 different kinds of aesthetic experiences: for instance, those that involve emotions, those that involve pleasure, those that are about beauty, those that are about the identification with a character, those that involve musical frissons, and so on .
12 Does this mean that all experiences are aesthetic?If we consider, for instance, the existence of religious experience , perceptual experience , and emotional experience, This is further complicated by the fact that -probably for this reason -many, sometimes contradictory definitions have been proposed.To answer this question, I will focus on the formulations provided by Worringer, Dewey, and Goodman, who outlined from different perspectives the phenomenal characters that they consider to be proprietary to aesthetic experiences.Their definitions of aesthetic experience are certainly not comprehensive, but taken together they may provide the foundation for further investigations into the subject.Following this, the second aim of this essay is to See Nanay, Aesthetics as Philosophy of Perception, p. 12.
examine how the brain-body system may work when humans have aesthetic experiences of the kinds described by Worringer, Dewey, and Goodman.To accomplish this goal, I will focus on specific neuroscientific data -including those on the biological correlations of emotions, empathy, embodied simulation, and interoception -obtained from published experiments.This, I hope, will help us to better understand the relationship between the aesthetic and perception, and to propose an updated definition of perceptual aesthetic experience.Worringer links the concept of self-alienation to the phenomenon of empathy, inasmuch as empathy, in his reasoning, is the result of an impulse to momentarily distance oneself from one's own feelings or activities:

Worringer and the Theory of Empathy
The fact that the need for empathy as a point of departure for aesthetic experience also represents, fundamentally, an impulse of self-alienation is all the less likely to dawn upon us the more clearly the formula rings in our ears: "Aesthetic enjoyment is objectified self-enjoyment".For this implies that the process of empathy represents a self-affirmation, an affirmation of the general will to activity that is in us .

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Thus we arrive at the following formula: «In this self-objectification lies a selfalienation» .That is, in order to experience the sensations of others (empathy), I need 30 to forget myself (which contains my sensations).
In sum, Worringer defines aesthetic experience as a consequence of the human urge to experience and empathise, with the aim to enjoy oneself in an external object.In this regard, he attributes «all aesthetic enjoyment -and perhaps even every aspect of the human sensation of happiness -to the impulse of self-alienation as its most profound and ultimate essence» .Furthermore, in his definition of aesthetic experience, he also 31 includes the classical concepts linked to the term aisthesis, that is, perception and sensation, which must be understood at a physiological level.

Dewey and Art as Experience
To provide an explanation of the process involved in aesthetic experience, in 1934, John Dewey coined and developed the locution "art as experience".First, he provides a definition of experience in general: Ibid., pp.23-24.
30 Ibid.,p. 25. 31 experience occurs continuously, because the interaction of live creature and environing conditions is involved in the very process of living.Under conditions of resistance and conflict, aspects and elements of the self and the world that are implicated in this interaction qualify experience with emotions and ideas so that conscious intent emerges .

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From this passage, it emerges that experience is continuous and may involve emotions.
Further on, Dewey adds: «the experience itself has a satisfying emotional quality because it possesses internal integration and fulfilment reached through ordered and organised movement.This artistic structure may be immediately felt.In so far, it is esthetic» .For this reason, Dewey states that «experience is emotional» and that 33 «emotions are attached to events and objects in their movement» .

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He then indicates the existence of essential conditions for an experience to take place: There are, therefore, common patterns in various experiences, no matter how unlike they are to one another in the details of their subject matter.There are conditions to be met without which an experience cannot come to be.The outline of the common pattern is set by the fact that every experience is the result of interaction between a live creature and some aspect of the world in which he lives .

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In this excerpt, Dewey identifies the existence of patterns that are shared by different experiences.The identification of these common patterns derives from the assumption that an experience is always the consequence of an interaction between a subject and aspects of another subject or object.
Dewey points to another important element in aesthetic experience, that is, perception: An experience has pattern and structure, because it is not just doing and undergoing in alternation, but consists of them in relationship.To put one's hand in the fire that consumes it is not necessarily to have an experience.The action and its consequence must be joined in perception.In this sense, Dewey distinguishes the notion of "artistic" from that of "aesthetic", to then indicate a link between the two: We have no word in the English language that unambiguously includes what is signified by the two words "artistic" and "esthetic".Since "artistic" refers primarily to the act of production and "esthetic" to that of perception and enjoyment, the absence of a term designating the two processes taken together is unfortunate .

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As this extract shows, Dewey claims the necessity for an English word that could combine the concept of "artistic" with that of "aesthetic", that is, the concept of doing with that of perceiving and enjoying.This passage also reveals Dewey's definition of "aesthetic", that is, a kind of experience that consists of perception, appreciation, and enjoyment.This is confirmed in the following passage: «The word "esthetic" refers […] to experience as appreciative, perceiving, and enjoying» .

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Dewey's aim in his essay is «to show how the conception of conscious experience as a perceived relation between doing and undergoing enables us to understand the connection that art as production and perception and appreciation as enjoyment sustain to each other» .In this passage, Dewey condenses his idea of aesthetic experience: that 39 is, a kind of perception and appreciation of a work of art that produces enjoyment in the viewer.In this sense, the term "aesthetic" denotes «the consumer's rather than the producer's standpoint» .This is reiterated in the following sentence: «Perfection in 40 execution cannot be measured or defined in terms of execution; it implies those who perceive and enjoy the product that is executed» .

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Tellingly, Dewey talks about different types of perception, including «organic perception» and «direct perception» : 42 The process of art in production is related to the esthetic in perception organically […] The making comes to an end when its result is experienced as good -and that To steep ourselves in a subject-matter we have first to plunge into it.When we are only passive to a scene, it overwhelms us and, for lack of answering activity, we do not perceive that which bears us down.We must summon energy and pitch it at a responsive key in order to take in .

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Therefore, according to Dewey, perception involves an «interaction between the total organism and the objects» .In this sense, Dewey's definition of "aesthetic" is not only 48 in line with the original meaning of the term aisthesis -the one provided by ancient Greek philosophers first and by Baumgarten thereafter (i.e.perception and sensation)but also contains some of the concepts that Worringer associated with the term, that is, perception, experience, enjoyment, and empathy.
Dewey then reaches another important point: that is, that the work of art is the result of both the labour of the artist and the perceptual experience of the viewer: «There is work done on the part of the percipient as there is on the part of the artist» .

Goodman and the Function of Emotion in Aesthetic Experience
In The starting point of Goodman's investigation is the assumption that aesthetic experience, rather than being a passive process, is a dynamic engagement of the subject with the work of art observed, be it a painting, a poem, or any other piece of art .

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Contrary to what Worringer and Dewey claimed, he then argues that aesthetic experience cannot be characterised by pleasure: Attempts are often made to distinguish the aesthetic in terms of immediate pleasure; but troubles arise and multiply here.Obviously, sheer quantity or intensity of pleasure cannot be the criterion.That a picture or poem provides more pleasure than does a proof is by no means clear .

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Even though Goodman argues that pleasure in aesthetics is nevertheless important -«what counts is not pleasure yielded but pleasure "objectified", pleasure read into the object as a property thereof» -he prefers to talk about satisfaction: «Some of these difficulties are diminished and other obscured if we speak of satisfaction rather than pleasure» .
56 However, satisfaction is not, and cannot be, the element that distinguishes an aesthetic experience from a non-aesthetic one; this would be too simplistic an explanation for such a complex phenomenon: «Satisfaction pretty plainly fails to distinguish aesthetic from nonaesthetic objects and experiences» .For these reasons, 57 Goodman operates a «shift from pleasure or satisfaction to emotion-in-general» .In 58 this sense, he states that «the aesthetic is characteristically emotive» .Thus, according 59 to Goodman, aesthetic experience involves emotions, both perceived and felt in response: Often the emotions involved in aesthetic experience are not only somewhat tempered but also reversed in polarity.We welcome some works that arouse emotions we normally shun.Negative emotions of fear, hatred, disgust may become positive when occasioned by a play or painting .

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The fact that aesthetic experience is regulated by emotions produces a positive, sometimes therapeutic effect on the beholder:  Worringer, Dewey, and Goodman grounded their aesthetic investigations on the classical assumption that aesthetic experience consists of perception and sensation (or sense perception), but they then developed other aspects, some of which are partly in contrast with one another.For instance, whereas Worringer and Dewey argue that aesthetic experiences are those that, among other things, provoke enjoyment in the experiencer, Goodman states that though pleasure or satisfaction may be involved in aesthetic experience, they are not the distinguishing features that make an experience an aesthetic one.And whereas Worringer (and, to a certain extent, Dewey), applying the theory of empathy, supports the view that art can be experienced and understood viscerally, Goodman maintains that in art emotions function only cognitively, and therefore that only the brain is involved.
Ibid., p. 251.Despite these differences, I argue that we can provide a physiological explanation for the basic experiences and sensations involved in aesthetic experiences -at least those that have been described by Worringer, Dewey, and Goodman -because they all have a biological root.My contention is also grounded in the meaning of the Greek term aisthesis, which was employed by ancient philosophers to explain the physiological processes underpinning the perception of objects.It is precisely here that the connection between aesthetics and the philosophy of perception -which is part of philosophy of mind and bases some of its arguments on the achievements of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience -lies.
Though I do not maintain that aesthetic experiences are exclusively those which involve the contemplation of artworks, in this section I will deal only with aesthetic experiences of works of art.In so doing, I will address the following questions.What does it mean to perceive and comprehend art sensorially?What are the physiological implications of the observation of emotionally charged works of art?Is it possible to prove, with the aid of science, the existence of empathy in art contemplation?And finally, where does aesthetic enjoyment come from?I will propose an answer to each of these questions by relying on some of the leading neuroscientific and psychological studies on emotion, empathy, and interoception.
In his Emotions Revealed: Understanding Faces and Feelings (2003)  These considerations also have further implications.They help to distinguish aesthetic experiences from other approaches to works of art, such as aesthetic judgements and aesthetic appreciations.This is suggested by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) there are different types of experiences, and that only some of them are aesthetic experiences.This may be clarified by addressing another question: what is the object of an aesthetic experience?To put it another way, are aesthetic experiences confined to the perception of works of art, or can they be extended to the experience of other things?In this sense, Nanay states: «We can experience works of art in a nonaesthetic manner and we can experience objects other than works of art in an aesthetic manner» .In fact, people may have aesthetic experiences of natural scenes and of 15 ordinary objects.In these cases, the concept of aesthetic experience is not necessarily connected with art: «some, but not all, of our aesthetic experiences are of artworks and some, but not all, our experiences of artworks are aesthetic experiences» .16 Although I do not conceive of aesthetic experiences as being exclusively perceptual experiences, in this essay I will deal solely with perceptual aesthetic experiences.But what is an aesthetic experience?Or, better yet, what makes an experience aesthetic?To discern what it is like to have aesthetic or non-aesthetic experiences is not an easy task.
Worringer's, Dewey's, and Goodman's definitions of aesthetic experience, together with the classical meaning of the word aisthesis and Baumgarten's definition of the concept of aesthetics, allow us an insight into the phenomenal character that is proprietary to aesthetic experiences.On this basis, we may propose that aesthetic experiences are those experiences that involve a series of (universal) features, including: sense perception (ancient Greek philosophers, Baumgarten, Worringer, Dewey, and Goodman), empathy (Worringer and, to a certain extent, Dewey), emotion (Dewey and Goodman), and enjoyment or satisfaction(Worringer, Dewey, and Goodman).

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Specific cortical regions, such as the anterior insular cortex, respond to individuals' attention to their own internal bodily changes of states .The insular cortex is also 101 relevant for the experience of emotion.This suggests the existence of a common network for interoceptive and emotional processing that has the anterior insular cortex and, as scientific data demonstrates, the anterior cingulate cortex at its centre .Further 102 imaging studies support the view that emotions are mediated by a number of subcortical and cortical structures, the activity of which is also correlated to changes in internal bodily states .In detail, structures such as the ventral prefrontal, anterior cingulate, gestures and postures , abstract art , and the unfinished in painting, sculpture, and 109 110 111 drawing; phenomena which, most of the time, trigger an empathic engagement between the viewer and the observed work of art.At the core of these neuroaesthetic studies -as well as of Worringer's, Dewey's, and Goodman's aesthetic investigations -lies a profound concern with the ways in which viewers become mentally and corporeally involved in works of art.They thus confirm the physiological implications of aisthesis, or sense perception, pointed out by ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle.Conclusion: Aesthetic Judgement, Aesthetic Appreciation, and the Biology of Aesthetic Experience In this essay, I have proposed a definition of aesthetic experience based on a series of philosophical investigations, and suggested a biological explanation of what may be involved in aesthetic experience.The concept of aesthetic experience on which I have based my analysis refers to the definitions offered by ancient Greek philosophers, who shaped the meaning of the word aisthesis; by Baumgarten, who redefined the concept of aesthetics and put it on a new basis; and by three thinkers of the twentieth century -Worringer, Dewey, and Goodman -who gave a traditional and convincing (though partial) explanation of this phenomenon.The possibility of investigating aesthetic experiences from a biological perspective is suggested by clues such as: (i) the meaning of the Greek word aisthesis (from which the term aesthetics derives), that is, perception See Tononi, The Night of Michelangelo; Tononi, Aby Warburg, Edgar Wind, and the Concept of and sensation; (ii) the way ancient Greek philosophers employed the term aisthesis, that is, to explain the physiological processes underlying the perception of objects; (iii) the concepts employed by Worringer, Dewey, and Goodman -empathy and emotion -to explain aesthetic experience, both of which have a biological root; and (iv) the universalistic character of all these philosophical discussions.In this light, research in the field of contemporary neuroscience allows us to understand the brain-body mechanisms behind the phenomena linked to aesthetic experience -sense perception, empathy, and emotion -from which a sense of enjoyment may derive.In fact, these are the concepts at the base of Worringer's, Dewey's, and Goodman's discussions of aesthetic experience.The primary aim of this study has therefore been to answer the following question: what is the biological basis of aesthetic experience?According to my investigation, the answer is as follows: the biological basis of aesthetic experience (if such a thing exists at all) is structured by the activity of certain brain networks which respond to the empathic engagement with works of art and felt emotions, and which in their turn activate specific bodily sensations such as embodiment and interoception, in response to determinate stimuli -such as figures expressing motions or emotions, gestures or postures, abstract forms or unfinished forms.
concepts of «organic perception» and «direct perception» may refer to what Worringer called empathy, which is the result of a (cognitive, emotional, or somatic) link established between the perceiver and the object or subject perceived.In fact, in a crucial passage Dewey states: «In an emphatic artistic-esthetic experience, the relation is so close that it controls simultaneously both the doing and the perception.Such vital intimacy of connection cannot be had if only hand and eye are engaged» .Then he 44 adds: «Hand and eye, when the experience is esthetic, are but instruments through which the entire live creature, moved and active throughout, operates.Hence the expression is emotional and guided by purpose» .
38Ibid.,Ibid., p. 47. 40 Ibid.41Ibid., p. 49.42 experience comes not by mere intellectual and outside judgment but in direct perception .43 Dewey's 45 Thus, Dewey stresses the implications of the organism in perception: «An act of perception proceeds by waves that extend serially throughout the entire organism» .It 46 is in this respect that Dewey talks about immersion: perceive, a beholder must create his own experience.And his creation must include relations comparable to those which the original producer underwent» .It 50 follows that in order for the work observed to be understood, what the artist creates must be recreated (or imagined) by the beholder's mind:Without an act of recreation the object is not perceived as a work of art.The artist selected, simplified, clarified, abridged and condensed according to his interest.The beholder must go through these operations according to his point of view and interest .51Hence the physiological involvement of the viewer, who is called to experience the work of art with his or her own brain-body system: «Without external embodiment, an experience remains incomplete; physiologically and functionally, sense organs are motor organs and are connected, by means of distribution of energies in the human body and not merely anatomically, with other motor organs» .According to Dewey, then, art 44Ibid.45Ibid., p. 53.46Ibid.47Ibid., p. 54.48Ibid.49because «to 52 can be apprehended through the senses, at a visceral and emotional level.It is in the physiological dimension of the experience and the role attributed to the senses in perception that Dewey establishes another link between his idea of aesthetic experience and the concept of aisthesis coined by ancient Greek philosophers.
Languages of Art, see W. J. T.Mitchell, Realism, Irrealism, and his 1968 work Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols, subsequently revised in 1976, Nelson Goodman tackles the function of emotion in art contemplation and understanding, and proposes his own idea about the nature of aesthetic experience .53Ibid.50 Ibid.51Ibid., p. 51.52For a review of Goodman's pp.155-171; Walton, Languages of Art: An Emendation, in "Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the AnalyticTradition", 22, 1971, pp.82-85; and Wollheim, Nelson Goodman's  Languages of Art, in "Journal of Philosophy", 67, 1970, pp.531-539.
to have the effect of purging us of pent-up and hidden negative emotions, or of administering measured doses of the killed virus to prevent or mitigate the ravages of an actual attack.Art becomes not only palliative but therapeutic, providing both a substitute for good reality and a safeguard against bad reality.Theatres and museums function as adjuncts to Departments of Public Health .Goodman says that the function of emotions in aesthetic experience «is a means of discerning what properties a work has and expresses» .Therefore, emotions are a 67 reliable means for the comprehension of the observed work of art.Feeling emotionswhether positive or negative, pleasant or unpleasant -while contemplating works of art is a way to perceive and understand the work itself.Feeling sadness while seeing a painting, for instance, may be a way to perceive pictorial features of the work.Hence, the emotions serve the understanding.In this regard, Goodman explains that the viewer can either mirror the emotions observed or respond to an emotion by feeling a diverse emotion than that observed: «the frequent disparity between the emotion felt and the emotive content thereby discovered in the object is now readily understood.Pity on the stage may induce pity in the spectator; but greed may arouse disgust, and courage admiration» .It follows that there Even though Goodman succeeds in explaining the role of emotion in aesthetic experience and art perception, he is aware of the fact that this is not enough to identify how and where an aesthetic experience differs from other types of experiences:Although many puzzles are thus resolved and the role of emotion in aesthetic experience clarified, we are still left without a way of distinguishing aesthetic from all other experience.Cognitive employment of the emotions is neither present in every aesthetic nor absent from every nonaesthetic experience.We have already noted that of art have little or no emotive content, and that even where the emotive content is appreciable, it may sometimes be apprehended by nonemotive means .
56Ibid.57Ibid., p. 245.58Ibid.59Ibid., p. 246.60Tragedy is said 63 Goodman supports -he includes the concepts of sensation and perception, which define the Greek term aisthesis.In so doing, he follows the original meaning of the concept of aesthetic, as well as the definition provided by Baumgarten.At the same time, he distances himself from Worringer's and Dewey's ideas of aesthetic experience, inasmuch as he excludes the role of pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction as its distinctive features.The dichotomy between the emotive and the cognitive allows Goodman to contend that «in aesthetic experience the emotions function cognitively» and that, therefore, «the work of art is apprehended through the feelings as well as through the senses» .The 64 cognitive function of emotions «involves discriminating and relating them in order to gauge and grasp the work and integrate it with the rest of our experience and the world» .However, Goodman states, to explore the emotional content of a work of art, 62 Ibid., pp.247-248.63 Ibid., p. 248.64 Ibid.65 Ibid.66 Itinera, N. 23, 2022 68 is a connection between the viewer's response to an object and the properties possessed by that specific object: «Sensory and emotive experiences are related in complex ways to the properties of objects» .Furthermore, Goodman argues, emotions are not 69 separated from each other; rather, they are related to one another and also linked to knowledge: «emotions function cognitively not as separate items but in combination with one another and with other means of knowing» .Therefore, «perception, 70 conception, and feeling intermingle and interact» .This position must be read in 71 opposition to Worringer's idea on the role of empathy in art, which supports the view that artworks can be understood viscerally.67 Ibid., p. 249.68 Ibid.69 Ibid.70 Ibid.71 some works , Paul Ekman addresses the problem of whether emotions are universal or determined by cultural factors.He does so by reading and measuring the facial expressions of emotions.The results of his research led him to advocate Charles Darwin's theory of emotion, according to which facial expressions are the product of human evolution and are therefore universal .He achieved this conclusion after carrying out a number of «cross-For example, in his first study, Ekman showed photographs of facial expressions «to people in five cultures -Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, and the United States -and asked them to judge what emotion was shown in each facial expression» .The majority It follows that expressions do not need to be learned.Another scholar, Antonio Damasio, has tackled the neural correlates of emotion by investigating how viewers become bodily involved with pictures of things and assessing the emotional implications of such involvement .He distinguishes two categories of 78 emotions: primary and secondary.Primary, or universal, emotions -such as happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust -are innate and preorganised, and depend on circuits in the limbic system, which includes the amygdala and anterior cingulate .Emotion and the Amygdala, in J. P. Aggleton (ed.)TheAmygdala:NeurobiologicalAspects ofEmotion, Memory, and Mental Dysfunction, Wiley-Liss, New York 1992, pp.339-351.Depending on the situation, the heart may race, the skin may flush, or the face's muscles may change around the mouth and eyes to create a happy or sad expression .In all are changes in a number of parameters in the function of viscera (heart, lungs, gut, skin), skeletal muscles (those that are attached to your bones), and endocrine glands (such as the pituitary and adrenals).A number of peptide modulators are released from the brain into the bloodstream.The immune system also is modified rapidly .brain, the goal-directed movements seen in another subject, and transmitting signals to sensorimotor structures such that these movements are either "previewed", in simulation mode, or actually executed.Mirror neurons become active not only during the observation of actions, but also during their execution.Furthermore, empirical evidence suggests that other mirroring mechanisms are at the base of the human ability to share the emotions and sensations of others: «the very same nervous structures involved in the subjective experience of emotions and sensations are also active when such emotions and sensations are recognised in others» .Therefore, seeing someoneThe bodily format of a mental representation constrains what such mental representation can represent because of the bodily constraints posed by the specific nature of the human body.Similar constraints apply both to the representations of one's own actions, emotions or sensations and to those of others.Hence, embodied simulation is the reuse of mental states and processes involving representations that have a bodily format .Another important line of research that has recently received special attention from philosophers of mind, experimental psychologists, and neuroscientists is that on interoception .Interoception is the sensing of automatic changes in the body .This Ekman, Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and 74 Emotional Life, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 2003, p. 1. 85 there 83 Ibid.84 Damasio, Descartes' Error, p. 134.85 Ibid.86 Ibid., p. 135.87 Damasio, Looking for Spinoza, p. 115.88 subject's On the basis of these mirroring mechanisms, Vittorio Gallese proposed the theory of embodied simulation .Gallese states that «Embodied simulation theory uses a notion 94 of embodiment according to which mental states or processes are embodied because of their bodily format» .Thus, Gallese stresses the role of the physical body during 95 observation (as Worringer and Dewey did from a philosophical perspective), and sees visual perception as the capacity for "feeling-into" the motion or emotion observed: , who, in his Lectures on Aesthetics, touches on important aspects of aesthetic response .Wittgenstein reflects on the role that aesthetic judgements, 112 expressed with adjectives, play in defining the aesthetic experiences that one may have: «It is remarkable that in real life, when aesthetic judgments are made, aesthetic adjectives such as "beautiful", "fine", etc., play hardly any role at all» .As 113 Wittgenstein's lectures on aesthetics -which he gave to a small group of students in private rooms 112 in Cambridge in the summer of 1938 -were published in 1966 as a collection of notes taken down by his students.However, he neither saw nor checked these notes.See L. Wittgenstein, Lectures on Aesthetics, in C. Barrett (ed.) Ludwig Wittgenstein: Lectures & Conversations on Aesthetics,Psychology and  Religious Belief, Blackwell, Oxford 2007, pp.1-40.Ibid., p. 3.