Philosopher Joerg Fingerhut from Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). In the research project "Affective Aesthetic Cognitivism and Wonder" (AAC_Wonder), his working group will investigate the role of wonder in aesthetic experiences and cognitive processes. The ERC is funding the project for five years.
Wonder is one of the oldest philosophical topics: As early as Plato and Aristotle, it marked the beginning of thinking about the world, while Descartes counted it among the fundamental emotions and made us aware of what is new in the world. Today it is experiencing a scientific renaissance in psychology, cognitive science and neuroaesthetics. AAC_Wonder combines these perspectives and aims to develop the first coherent theory of wonder as an epistemic and aesthetic emotion.
Methodological innovation for philosophy
"Cultural artefacts and art act as tools for our thinking. Amazement opens a window through which we can see the world differently," says Fingerhut. "We all know situations in which a scene from a film, a work of art or outstanding architecture leaves us in awe. It is precisely these moments that I want to philosophically specify and empirically understand: What happens cognitively, emotionally and physically?"
The project also represents a methodological innovation for philosophy. AAC_Wonder combines philosophical theorising with its own neuropsychological experiments and a novel data analysis approach: Philosophically Guided Supplementary Analysis (PGsA). In this method, existing psychological and neuroscientific data sets from the cognitive sciences are re-analysed and specifically opened up for philosophical questions.
About the person
Joerg Fingerhut is a visiting professor of philosophy and head of the Arts and Minds Lab at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin. His research combines philosophy, empirical aesthetics, cognitive science and media research. Fingerhut publishes regularly in internationally renowned philosophical and empirical journals and recently published the book "Theories of Vision: An Introduction" together with Eva Schürmann.
From 2021 to 2022, he held the Chair of Philosophy of Mind at LMU Munich, where he was involved in the Graduate School for Systemic Neuroscience. He was an Art and Neuroscience Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University (Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America) and Visiting Researcher at Yale University and the City University of New York (CUNY). He was also a member of the research group "Functions of Consciousness" at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW).
He is currently leading a Berlin University Alliance Grand Challenges project on neurourbanism as a new approach to global health at Humboldt University, in which he is investigating the effect of cities and architecture on perception and well-being. Previously, he was Principal Investigator in several third-party funded projects, including in the EU H2020 programme, in a consortium project on art and transformation (ART*IS).