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The art instinct : beauty, pleasure and human evolution
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The art instinct : beauty, pleasure and human evolution

by Denis Dutton

This study explores the relationship between art and evolutionary science, arguing that human aesthetic preferences are inherited traits shaped by natural selection rather than social constructs. It examines how universal values of beauty and skill define the arts.

Accession 3449 ISBN 9781596914018 Publisher Bloomsbury
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TAGS
Curated Derived
Animals Art Beauty Communication Culture Evolution History Life Sciences Linguistics Literature Music Philosophy Pleasure Psychology Science Sex Social Sciences
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Dutton argues, our love of beauty is inborn, and many aesthetic tastes are shared across remote cultures―just one example is the widespread preference for landscapes with water and distant trees, like the savannas where we evolved. --blurb

Subjects & people

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Denis Dutton
tags→ tags
Art, Arts, Science, Life sciences, Literature, Philology, Philosophy, Social sciences, Civilisation, Sociology, Language and languages, Communication, Art -- Philosophy, Fiction, Evolution (Biology), Biology, Genetics, Sex (Biology), Natural selection, Life, Aesthetics, Language and languages -- Etymology, Neolithic period, Stone age, Adaptation (Biology), Mind and body, Philosophical anthropology, Language and languages in art, Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics, Mind and body in art
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Piero Manzoni (b.1933, d.1963), Immanuel Kant (German, b.1724, d.1804), Steven Pinker (b.1954)
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