At a Glance. Expert Senses and Productive Thinking Sensi esperti e pensiero produttivo

Abstract

The culture of images, the primacy of the visual seem to characterize our era more than ever before, bringing back old and new questions that, starting from Plato, have animated the theoretical reflection on the role of visual in cognitive processes. The proposed contribution shifts the attention from the debate around the visual culture and the «image theories» (Pinotti, & Somaini, 2009) to «visual thinking» (Arnheim, 1974) as a modality of knowing and experiencing complementary – and not opposed – to the forms of social-linguistic and logical-mathematical knowledge. It highlights the limits in a verb-based educational tradition that has overshadowed the role of sensory intelligence in our cognitive experience.