Readers of this book receive an overview of the main perspectives and research of recent decades in the fruitful collaboration between Classics and Cognitive studies. It is intended as a stocktaking of various branches of Classics, such as literary criticism and poetics, linguistics, ancient history and archaeology. Four major research areas or clusters have been chosen for the presentation of the chapters. Chapter one discusses recent studies of 'cognitive' materiality and material agency in relation to the human mind, chapter two the so-called 'spatial turn' and cognition and the perception of space in place in relation to antiquity, chapter three imagination and vision and cognitive approaches to seeing, while chapter four considers experience and experientiality and the 'sensory turn' as applied to ancient sources. Finally, the fifth chapter is a special case and a different medium: it consists of three interviews with three well-known pioneers of the study of emotions in antiquity, David Konstan, Angelos Chaniotis and Douglas Cairns, who in various direct and indirect ways have greatly influenced the interplay and dialogue between classical studies and cognitive approaches in recent decades.
This book takes stock of a rapidly developing and highly controversial field that is currently in full bloom.Helpful guide for understanding a new and rapidly growing field. Suited for students and scholars of Classics and Cognitive studies.Gives an overview of the main perspectives and research of recent decades.
Anna A. Novokhatko is professor at the Department of Humanities, University of Trento
From Introduction: Why the Search for Cognition in Classical Studies? (pag. 1-2)
This book is intended primarily as an explanatory introduction for students, but more generally for anyone interested in a new and rapidly growing field. The field is very attractive because it is multidisciplinary and open to diverse discussions and questions, whilst also being challenging and very complex. In a time of “growing excitement about the brain”, interest in a dialogue between modern natural science research on human cognition and research in the humanities has been expressed for some years now.
Cognitive studies examine the production and perception of information in interdisciplinary contexts that encompass thinking and feeling, in humans and in animals and even in machines. In this sense, there is a growing awareness that cognitive science offers insights for a new understanding of the classical world and its sources, and of classical literature and conventions.
First of all, what do we mean by ‘cognitive’? ‘Cognitive’ is, after all, a broad term that refers to the interest in and engagement with active mental processing by which we explain and interpret human behaviour. Given the enormous diversity of research programmes on mental processing, ‘cognitive studies’ is used as an umbrella term throughout this book. It is an interdisciplinary endeavour akin to ‘cultural studies’, bound together by a set of shared concerns, affiliations and references,
rather than a cohesive body of knowledge unified by agreed parameters and methodologies.As Felix Budelmann recently pointed out in his writing on cognitive approaches to literature, “Like feminist criticism, poststructuralist criticism, or New Materialism, cognitive literary studies, and indeed the cognitive humanities as a whole, are a set of loosely connected enterprises rather than a focused programme of research. What holds these enterprises together, and justifies the umbrella term, is a shared interest in cognition, and in dialogue with research into cognition in other subjects”.
The traditional understanding of the human mind and behaviour in terms of Cartesian dualism has been actively criticised in recent years, and new models for conceptualising cognition, emotion and behaviour have emerged. Cognition is no longer contrasted with feelings: it includes perception, intuition, and emotion insofar as they are related to how someone gathers knowledge about the environment and finds their way through it. New questions about literature, language, material culture, performance and religion come about by incorporating information from physiology and cognitive processes. In turn, the humanities, and ancient studies in particular, can also help neuroscientists and experimentalists ‒ people who work in the fascinating field of scientific research into the structure and function of the nervous system and brain ‒ gain important insights into the structure of the brain. To give an example, it might be of interest to consider the lifestyles and patterns of behavior, conversation and dealing with emotional crises in Classical Athens during Pericles’ time, or in Nero’s Rome. It may also be beneficial to consider instances where individual emotions appear to align with collective sentiments. In a modern context, scientific insights from a variety of societies, particularly those facing political challenges and personal struggles, can be valuable. By comparing these patterns with our own society, we might be able to gain some inspiring insights for both classicists and experimentalists.
Finally, some distinctions should be made in the fuzzy use of ‘cognitive’ terminology. Basically, cognitive science, cognitive approaches, cognitive research, cognitive theories and cognitive studies are all used interchangeably when applied to Classics. A strict distinction should actually be made between the empirical/scientific and theoretical nature of the material on which scholars base their use of the term. In particular, the term ‘cognitive science’ will be used in this book to refer to empirical research (encompassing neuroscience and psychology, which involve empirical, data-driven research methods similar to those used in biology or chemistry, as well as theoretical, computational, and philosophical approaches) which is often the case in religious studies.
Courtesy by De Gruyter