Annamaria Contini

Abstract

The paper aims at reconstructing the influence exercised by some aesthetic categories on the epistemological thinking of Claude Bernard (1823 -1878), the scientist who made physiology an independent and experimental science. In particular this paper highlights the aesthetic matrix of Bernard’s thinking that identifies in the plastic-formative processes the specific trait of life and, at the same time, the peculiar object of the new biological science. Through a meticulous analysis of Bernard’s texts, the paper shows that the concept of vital creation is progressively taking shape on the concept of artistic creation, obtaining not only important examples, but also a theoretical repertoire: the reference to the domain of art is crucial, in Bernard’s biological thought, to theorize about properties and processes not definable yet in literal terms. As well as deepening a chapter little known of the relationships between aesthetics and biology, the essay focuses on the emergence of a new paradigm on the border of the two knowledges.

Annamaria Contini is researcher in aesthetics at the Department of Education and Human Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Her research areas concern philosophy and aesthetics in 19^th and 20^th century France, metaphor as cognitive instrument and meaning of aesthetic experience in multicultural society. Some publications : Jean-Marie Guyau. (L’Harmattan, 2001); Marcel Proust. Tempo, metafora, conoscenza (Clueb, 2006); La fantasia del reale (ed., with N. Barbieri; Diabasis 2008).