- The brain is evolving rapidly.
- Our ability to read subtle facial expression reveals our ability to empathise and its importance as a social animal.
- Empathy has ethical significance - being able to put ourselves into the shoes of other people and into the skin of animals.
- Our brains function like parallel processors with a serial interface of the inner voice.
Firstly, owing to the fact that people see different things in it may indicate that every one’s brain is slightly different owing to genetic variation and experience. For Charles Darwin (cited in Zeki, 1999) any organ that shows a high degree of variability is one that is evolving very quickly.
Secondly, it is possible that the painting is indeed the essence of Vermeer’s daughter. In this case it contains all her possible expressions. When we look at it, our mind perceives them all simultaneously. A painting that does this is said to show simultaneous vision or ambiguity (Zeki, 1999).
Further, many students have commented that the painting reflects their mood, or 'feels' what they are feeling, and is thus ever changing. In that the painting 'empathises' with them. For my students, this is where the appeal resides.
This is an interesting observation. Empathy is the ability to feel or live the emotion of someone else. "[P]ain exhibits some characteristics of being contagious," says Somerville(2006 p.226; see also Humphrey, 1987 p.97) as she talks about the results of experiments that reveal that the brain patterns of people observing someone in pain ressembles those of the person who is suffering. Wilson(1997 p.282) would possibly call this ability 'moral apitiude'. This he postulates is an inherited characteristic that helps us co-operate with one another and this enhances our chances of survival.
Rolston(2006, pp. 51-52) argues that saving the planet will rely on our capacity to put ourselves into the skin of wild animals and to understand that they not only have value for us in terms of the extent to which they contribute to our own survival (ten Have, 2006; cf Sagoff, 2006) but that they have cares that we can identify with. It is through empathy with them that we are able to afford them respect .
Empathy reveals some aspects of the nature and origins of consciousness. Dawkins(1987, p.59)suggests that consciousness came about when we were able to produce a mental model of the world that includes oneself. This self inclusion, or knowing oneself, led to the capacity to make predictions about what someone else was thinking or feeling would be beneficial.
Psychologist Nicholas Humphrey (cited in Dawkins, 1987 p.281) develops the notion of the "inner eye" or introspection, in which social animals have the some "psychological skill". The capacity to examine our own feelings enables us to understand and detect the sentiments of others. In hierarchical societies where access to resources and mates is determined by alliances and favours from an alpha male, for example, predicting the thoughts, actions and motives based on subtle changes in the facial expression of others would be a significant advantage.
This is part of the fun or intrigue, as you will, in the game of poker - being able to call someone's bluff based on your perception of the cards, the facial expression and body language of the player. Thus, this capacity allows us to predict the intentions of an individual and thus their trustworthiness.
Nevertheless, our ability to predict the feelings of another is not always accurate. Experiments have been done where people are asked to decide whether a smile is real of fake (Click on the link and take the smile test). Results show that women are better at it than men and for that reason would probably make better poker players. However, they may not have the 'stomach' to follow through. Research has shown that when men detect someone who is cheating they receive a kind of pleasurable electric shock. Women on the other hand empathise with the cheater but don't "...get a kick out of it" (Somerville ,2009 pp. 226-227). The reason for the inaccuracy is that maybe it is a dangerous thing to be able to predict with precision what someone thinks of you (ref).
Psychologist Nicholas Humphrey (cited in Dawkins, 1987 p.281) develops the notion of the "inner eye" or introspection. The capacity to examine our own feelings enables us to understand and detect the sentiments of others. Our faces are the windows into our thoughts and feelings. We are either in state of hiding or displaying what we feel. We are all able with varying degrees of success to predict the thoughts, actions and motives based on the subtle changes in the facial expression. In hierarchical societies where access to resources and mates is determined by alliances and favours from an alpha male, being able to predict the motives and actions of others would have its advantages.
For Wilson(1997 p.282) there is a the 'dark side' of our innate ability to predict the sentiments and motives of another person. Even though we are able to feel compassion for a stranger (Somerville, 2009), we are more likely according to Wilson (1997) to be suspicious and distrustful. Xenophobia fuels tribalism and conflict.
So, empathy is strongly connected to our ability to read each others faces. If we could not for the best part it would be difficult to feel for anyone. Somerville(2009) says that pain is contagious but I would expect the other emotions are as well such as interest, joy, humour and so on, all of which are communicated in part by facial expression.
The third and last explanation of the painting is that I believe it is that the mind sees all the possible expressions but filters them giving us one at a time. This fits in with philosopher Daniel Dennett’s computer analogy of human consciousness.
In his book Consciousness Explained, Dennett explains how the brain operates using the analogy of a computer. A computer is made up of two levels: the central processor unit (CPU) and the user friendly interface. The user friendly interface runs in a serial way taking in commands one after the other. The CPU operates as though it is processing commands simultaneously. Some CPUs actually do this and they are called parallel processors.
The brain also operates on two levels. The first receives and processes many types of data at the same time. Lying on top of this is the mind’s inner voice. This is our consciousness, which is aware of and in command of the "lower " levels or parallel parts of the brain.
The existence of consciousness is probably connected to the need for language. The survival of the group is greatly enhanced by communication of experience and the exchange of ideas.
In conclusion, art is often appealing when it succeeds in bombarding the senses with multiple layered messages and meaning. In doing so it exposes to us the nature of consciousness and leads us to contemplate ourselves and how we perceive the world. According to Antonio Domasio, good art and good science are aimed at the same thing: to explain human nature.
References
Dawkins, R. (1987) The Selfish Gene
Humphrey, N. (1987) The Inner Eye.
Rolston, H. (2006)
ten Have, H (2006)
Somerville, M. (2009) The Ethical Imagination
Wilson, E.O. (1997) Consilience.
Zeki, S. (2000) Inner Vision
Nature, Art & Language
© All Copyright, 2007, Ray Genet (Revised 2009)
