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The age of context: Maria Brincker at TEDxCooperUnion

2,747 views · Published 18 June 2012 · 8:36 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: TEDx Talks · 2012 · Nonprofits & Activism

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Maria Brincker received her Ph.D. in Philosophy and Cognitive Science from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2011. She is currently an Arts & Neuroscience fellow at the Italian Academy for advanced studies in America at Columbia University and will be Assistant Professor of Philosophy at UMass Boston starting Fall 2012. Brincker has previously taught philosophy at the Fashion Institute of Technology, City College, Long Island University and LaGuardia Community College.

Her doctoral thesis Moving Beyond Mirroring -- a social affordance model of sensorimotor integration is a critical analysis of the traditional theoretical frameworks surrounding the neurological discovery and popularization of so-called mirror neurons. Brincker proposes an alternative "social affordance model" for understanding these sensorimotor processes and their various cognitive functions. The case study of mirror neuron research is used to advocate at a broader paradigm shift towards more relational and embodied frameworks for understanding the mind.

While at Columbia University's Italian Academy Brincker has developed and expanded the framework of 'social affordances' in multiple directions, hereunder to the area aesthetics. Brincker proposes that to get a fruitful dialog between neuroscience and aesthetics we need to analyze what she calls the "aesthetic stance" and the various kinds of aesthetic affordances that supports the specific cognitive modes of beholders.

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