Evolving Hamlet Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy and the Ethics of Natural Selection |
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| Author:
| Fletcher, Angus |
| Series title: | Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-1-283-06734-8 |
| Publication Date: | Jan 2011 |
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan
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| Book Format: | Ebook |
| List Price: | USD $90.00 |
Book Description:
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Using "Hamlet" and a number of other popular and influential seventeenth-century tragedies as case-studies, this book shows how aesthetic experience can help organize the biological functions of our brains into adaptive social networks. Seen this way, art is not - as many recent cognitive scientists have suggested - simply a mirror of our natural mental functions, rather, it is also a useful tool for translating the discoveries of science into progressive ethical practice.
Using "Hamlet" and a number of other popular and influential seventeenth-century tragedies as case-studies, this book shows how aesthetic experience can help organize the biological functions of our brains into adaptive social networks. Seen this way, art is not - as many recent cognitive scientists have suggested - simply a mirror of our natural mental functions, rather, it is also a useful tool for translating the discoveries of science into progressive ethical practice.