Aesthetic cognition. A tribute to Rudolf Arnheim

This paper was written with the ideal purpose of carrying on in the tradition of Rudolf Arnheim’s seminal research and, more generally, in the tradition of Gestalt theory. It argues that the aesthetic criterion (the bipolar dimension of “beautiful/ugly”), through which we evaluate any object or event in the phenomenal world, is a species-specific criterion, which is based on perceptual functioning and orients, drives, and regulates cognition. The author advances this thesis as a contribution to the theme of the relationship between perception and thought, affirming how important it is to study the artistic phenomenon if we are ever to grasp the functioning of the human mind in its entirety.