Alva Noë is Professor of Philosophy, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also a member of the Center for New Media, and the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences.
In this flowing conversation, Andrea and Alva engage in an enlightening journey together through the realms of philosophy, neuroscience, and the arts, opening the work Noë has done and exploring its themes of self-awareness, identity, action and perception. With insights from influential thinkers and doers like Vico, Dreyfus, Cezanne, Merleau-Ponty, and Noë himself, this conversation delves into the profound connections between love, work, and personal development and becomes a poetic meditation on meaning and connection.
Per usual in Love and Philosophy, we find the motif of the loop that never quite returns to where it started, the dynamic entanglement of life, and how this gets conveyed through writing and language. Alva and Andrea explore the complexities of presence, the role of habits and societal structures, and the evolving understanding of vision and perception. The conversation also shows how interdisciplinary approaches and transformative literature shape our identities and consciousness from childhood on, and ultimately offers a balanced, holistic view of the human experience as difficult but worth it. Tune in for a thought-provoking discourse on the power of performance and the representation of self, including what tricky words like 'representation' and 'agency' might really be pointing at within the intricate dance of art and philosophy.
https://www.alvanoe.com/
#alvanoë #actionperception #metaphysics
Professor Alva Noë is a 2012 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2018 recipient of the Judd Hume Prize in Advanced Visual Studies. Until the end of 2024, he is an Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University in Berlin. He is the author of Action in Perception (2004), Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness (2009), Varieties of Presence (2012), Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature (2015), Infinite Baseball: Notes from a Philosopher at the Ballpark (2019), and Learning To Look: Dispatches from the Art World (2022). His latest book is The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are (2023).
From Intro: Perfect Days by Wim Wenders:
Derek Walcott: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Walcott
00:00 Introduction to Alva Noë
00:48 Themes of Alva Noë's Work
06:43 Conversation with Alva Noë Begins
07:37 Early Life and Self-Awareness
10:15 The Role of Writing and Self-Creation
13:34 Philosophy and Human Consciousness
18:36 Art, Representation, and Consciousness
40:06 The Intersection of Philosophy, Art, and Science
43:41 Philosophy vs. Science: A False Dichotomy
44:24 Skepticism Towards Neuroscience
45:36 The Indeterminate Nature of Human Experience
47:08 Medical Neuroscience and Holistic Approaches
48:43 Perception Beyond the Brain
50:51 The Role of Vision in Perception
56:35 Art, Style, and Human Expression
01:09:32 The Intersection of Philosophy and Personal Growth
01:22:49 The Importance of Art and Philosophy in Society
01:27:15 Embracing Paradox and Rationality
"I no more wrote than read that book / which is The self I am, half-hidden as it is From one and all who see within a kiss / The lounging formless blackness of an abyss. How could I think the brief years were enough / To prove the reality of endless love?"
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