‘Face-to-face with Academics’: Lecture from Professor Zhu Rui
At 2:30 p.m. on July 30th , Professor Zhu Rui from Renmin University of China was invited by the School of Philosophy and Sociology to lecture on the theme of ‘Philosophy of Mind, Neurophilosophy with Aesthetics, and Cognitive Science’.
Professor Zhu introduced his research interests, including visual neurology and neuroaesthetics which is still in its infancy, with many sub-fields to be explored. He elaborated the prominent role of poetry, art, and literature in the human experience of life, which underpins the basic dignity of human existence and constitutes an anti-physicalism belief, while neuroaesthetic attempt was to connect physicalism and anti-physicalism in explaining scientifically why poetry, art, literature and others conveys a unique aesthetic experience. According to Prof. Zhu, philosophy is not supposed to be pigeonholed as a traditional discipline, for it does not have a study object in the traditional sense. Philosophy is all-pervasive, and it deals with many more fundamental issues in human life.
Prof. Zhu also referred to the German philosopher Ernst Cassirer’s view that perspective in western painting is not only an expression of space, but also a manifestation of culture, a world view. ‘While Eastern, ancient Greek, and ancient Egyptian painting all reached a high level, only Renaissance Europe discovered perspective, a method of painting that is against human vision and psychological laws, and the laws of art.’ He pointed that this is the artistic influence of the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance and further illustrated that Kant’s view of space-time is the theoretical epitome of perspective since the Renaissance. Several results of current brain science research were listed on spatial patterns such as allocentric space, egocentric space and direction space, which suggest that the human brain does not have a unified spatial pattern.
Prof. Zhu’s lecture showed the students the charm of philosophy, enlightened them to consider philosophical issues from new perspective and with new perceptions.
