Film, Art, and the Limits of Science

"Malcolm Turvey offers an original and persuasive argument for the humanities as an explanatory rather than simply an interpretative enterprise, but one that is irreducible to science. Turvey’s book is notable for its nuanced and judicious evaluation of where scientific explanations can contribute to humanistic explanation and where they lapse into nonsense. It will be profitably read by all scholars and administrators who seek to cultivate the humanities in our scientific age."   —Richard Allen, Chair and Professor of Film and Media Art, City University of Hong Kong   "In this balanced and compelling apology for humanistic knowledge, Malcolm Turvey engages successfully with work in an impressive range of fields, including epistemology, philosophy of science, aesthetics, cognitive science, sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, literary theory, art history, and cinema studies. I strongly recommend this admirably lucid book, which is clearly the product of decades of sharp-minded reading and reflection."   —Paisley Livingston, Professor Emeritus Department of Philosophy, Lingnan University  

There is currently a vigorous debate in film studies and related disciplines about the extent to which scientific paradigms like evolutionary psychology and neuroscience can explain the cinema and other artforms. This debate tends to devolve into extreme positions, with many film scholars and other humanists insisting that science has little or no role to play in the study of the arts, while a minority contends that it is always needed to fully account for cultural phenomena like film.

Malcolm Turvey advocates for a more moderate position. He argues that, while the sciences can explain much about film and the other arts, there is much about these phenomena that only humanistic methods can account for. He thereby mounts a trenchant defence of the purpose and value of humanistic explanation, one that nevertheless acknowledges and welcomes the legitimate contribution of the sciences to the study of the arts.

Malcolm Turvey is Sol Gittleman Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Tufts University and was the founding Director (2015-2021) of Tufts' Film & Media Studies Program. He is also an editor of the journal October.