Beauty and truth

Abstract

In the preceding chapter we encountered the asymmetries at the highest point of evolution, the human brain, and their consequences. We saw that asymmetry not only governs life functions -like the use of the hand, the motor regulation of speech -but also cognitive and emotional functions, like speech comprehension, the processing of written and visual information, counting, the appreciation of music, the learning process, the decision between the dictates of reason and of the emotions, creativity, aesthetic sensibility, a sense of humour, and so on. We do not yet understand the precise mechanism of most of these, but we know of their existence. This alone is enough to have an effect on the way in which we interpret and group our knowledge, on the one hand, and on the route by which we gain it, on the other.