Abstract
In his landmark article for this journal, Francis Mechner (2017) presents a novel analysis of the confluence of unique combinations of variables accounting for aesthetic experiences, a phenomenon he calls synergetics. He proposes that artists, musicians, and writers use novel devices to capitalize on those effects. In my response to Mechner's fascinating article, I question the generality of such synergetic experiences to a wide array of audience members. I also question whether the evolutionary basis for aesthetic creativity accounts for the ubiquity of aesthetic activity, as Mechner suggests. I do share `Mechner’s emphasis on the importance of culturally nesting aesthetic contributions. But I suggest understanding aesthetic activities across cultures and subcultures requires additional mechanisms serving important bridging functions. I explore dispositional analysis, drawing on both Wittgenstein’s aesthetic language games and derived stimulus relationships. The behavioral functions of aesthetic experiences are those playing roles in cultural contingencies: motivational events, antecedent stimulus events, and consequences of aesthetic activities. Two kinds of aesthetic responses are discussed: 1) aesthetic creative responses by artists, writers or musicians, and 2) responses of audience members to those creations. These resulting aesthetic stimuli may play critical roles in cultural metacontingencies.
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Notes
This section based on Thompson (2011).
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Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Francis Mechner, A. Charles Catania, Phillip Hineline, and David Palmer for sharing their creative thoughts as part of a symposium on aesthetics and behavior analysis at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, May 2017, in Denver, Colorado. I am grateful to my friend Peter Killeen who gracefully presided over and extemporaneously commented on the speakers' remarks, and Ruth Anne Rehfeldt for cosponsoring the session and coediting the resulting publications. This symposium and the resulting articles grew out of numerous discussions with Jack Marr, who has been in no small measure responsible for the richness and depth of these explorations. I am also indebted to Julio de Rose, William McIlvane, and their colleagues, who have provided much of the empirical foundation of an experimental analysis of cultural aesthetics briefly discussed in my article.
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The title is derived from "Two things are necessary: science and art, reason and emotion,” by Claude Bernard, quoted in Bernard (1967).
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Thompson, T. Behavioral Functions of Aesthetics: Science and Art, Reason, and Emotion. Psychol Rec 68, 365–377 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-018-0314-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-018-0314-z