Ken starts of this weeks show with a big word: Neuroaesthetics—a fancy of way of saying what happens to your brain when it is on art. The field of neuroaesthetics combines the cutting edge of neuroscience—fMRI and brain scans—with philosophical ideas on aesthetics investigate in order to investigate how people experience with art. While Ken is excited to dive in, John starts off a bit skeptical: as he asks Ken, what do neurons firing tell us about the nature of beauty, or artistic talent? Ken agrees that brain waves may not have a lot to say about the value of art, but he thinks neuroaesthetics has a lot to tell us about the way humans experience art and maybe unlock the secrets of creative ability.

After an interesting interlude for Shuka Kalantari’s Roving Philosophical Report, John and Ken welcome Gabrielle Starr, a professor of English at New York University. After talking about how Professor Starr moved from English literature to neuroscience, the three dive into a discussion of neuroaesthetics. John asks her, one humanist to another, to explain how neuroscience could shed light on subjective aesthetic experience. Professor Starr argues to the hosts how all subjective experience isembodied: it is mediated by the way our bodies—and brains—work.

The three take a short break, and, on returning, Professor Starr talks about what brain systems are involved in experiencing art. Interestingly, there is one brain system—the default mode network—that is only involved in intense aesthetic experience. During daily pleasures or other experiences, the network is silent: but when a person experiences something aesthetically captivating—a painter’s masterpiece, or a magnificent opera—the default mode network switches on. It seems that the default mode network is involved in introspection, envisioning the future and the past, and imagining other people and their feelings. The three talk about what this might tell us about what experiencing great art feels like.

然后，教授们继续讨论是什么让每个人以不同的方式体验不同的艺术作品。他们提出的问题包括文化在不同的体验中扮演什么角色，以及一个人的大脑结构在多大程度上影响他们的艺术体验，无论是一幅画还是一首诗。然后，三人接受广播听众的提问。一位客人打电话来询问品味和鉴赏之间的区别:他说他能欣赏一件伟大的艺术作品，即使它对他个人并不感兴趣。神经美学能解释这些对艺术的对比评价吗?斯塔尔教授谈到，当一个人将一件艺术作品视为重要或相关的东西时，如何能有一种对艺术的更认知的体验，但当一个人发现它扣人心弦和强大时，又如何能有一种更个人或情感的艺术体验。这三位教授讨论了大脑中的区别，以及我们如何从哲学上解释它。

• Roving Philosophical Report (seek to 7:15):Shuka Kalantari asks adults (and kids) their thoughts on abstract painter Jackson Pollock’s drip paintingFull Fathom Five(1947). She compares their takes to the opinions of expert art critics.
  
• 60-Second Philosopher (seek to 45:50):伊恩·肖尔斯在他的第62秒片段中深入探讨了艺术史——是的，整个历史。他谈到了早期宗教和崇拜中的艺术，一直到法国艺术学院(它告诉世界“什么是艺术”)，一直到达达主义和现代艺术。