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Art and fiction are signals with indeterminate truth values

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Nathaniel Rabb
Nathaniel Rabb*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. natrabb@gmail.com
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Abstract

Menninghaus et al. distinguish art from fiction, but no current arguments or data suggest that the concept of art can be meaningfully circumscribed. This is a problem for aesthetic psychology. I sketch a solution by rejecting the distinction: Unlike most animal communication, in which signals are either true or false, art and fiction consist of signals without determinate truth values.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e373
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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