A philosopher makes the case for thinking of works of art as tools for
investigating ourselves
What is art? Why does it matter to us? What does it tell us about ourselves?
Normally, we look to works of art in order to answer these fundamental
questions. But what if the objects themselves are not what matter? In Strange
Tools: Art and Human Nature, the philosopher and cognitive scientist Alva Noë
argues that our obsession with works of art has gotten in the way of
understanding how art works on us.
For Noë, art isn't a phenomenon in need of an explanation but a mode of
research, a method