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The art instinct : beauty, pleasure, & human evolution /

By: Publication details: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.Description: 278 pages, [4] pages of plates : color illustrations ; 25 cmISBN:
  • 9780199539420
  • 0199539421
  • 9780199580736
  • 0199580731
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • N71 .D88 2009
Contents:
Introduction -- 1: Landscape and longing -- 2: Art and human nature -- 3: What is art? -- 4: But they don't have our concept of art -- 5: Art and natural selection -- 6: Uses of fiction -- 7: Art and human self-domestication -- 8: Intention, forgery, Dada: three aesthetic problems -- 9: Contingency of aesthetic values -- 10: Greatness in the arts -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
Summary: Product Description: The Dinka have a connoisseur's appreciation of the patterns and colours of the markings on their cattle. The Japanese tea ceremony is regarded as a performance art. Some cultures produce carving but no drawing; others specialize in poetry. Yet despite the rich variety of artistic expression to be found across many cultures, we all share a deep sense of aesthetic pleasure. The need to create art of some form is found in every human society. In The Art Instinct, Denis Dutton explores the idea that this need has an evolutionary basis: how the feelings that we all share when we see a wonderful landscape or a beautiful sunset evolved as a useful adaptation in our hunter-gather ancestors, and have been passed on to us today, manifest in our artistic natures. Why do people indulge in displaying their artistic skills? How can we understand artistic genius? Why do we value art, and what is it for? These questions have long been asked by scholars in the humanities and in literature, but this is the first book to consider the biological basis of this deep human need. This sparking and intelligent book looks at these deep and fundamental questions, and combines the science of evolutionary psychology with aesthetics, to shed new light on longstanding questions about the nature of art.
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Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book Whitecliffe Library NZ & Pacific NZ & Pacific NZ&P N 71 DUT (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 0007711

New Zealand author.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-268) and index.

Introduction -- 1: Landscape and longing -- 2: Art and human nature -- 3: What is art? -- 4: But they don't have our concept of art -- 5: Art and natural selection -- 6: Uses of fiction -- 7: Art and human self-domestication -- 8: Intention, forgery, Dada: three aesthetic problems -- 9: Contingency of aesthetic values -- 10: Greatness in the arts -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Product Description: The Dinka have a connoisseur's appreciation of the patterns and colours of the markings on their cattle. The Japanese tea ceremony is regarded as a performance art. Some cultures produce carving but no drawing; others specialize in poetry. Yet despite the rich variety of artistic expression to be found across many cultures, we all share a deep sense of aesthetic pleasure. The need to create art of some form is found in every human society. In The Art Instinct, Denis Dutton explores the idea that this need has an evolutionary basis: how the feelings that we all share when we see a wonderful landscape or a beautiful sunset evolved as a useful adaptation in our hunter-gather ancestors, and have been passed on to us today, manifest in our artistic natures. Why do people indulge in displaying their artistic skills? How can we understand artistic genius? Why do we value art, and what is it for? These questions have long been asked by scholars in the humanities and in literature, but this is the first book to consider the biological basis of this deep human need. This sparking and intelligent book looks at these deep and fundamental questions, and combines the science of evolutionary psychology with aesthetics, to shed new light on longstanding questions about the nature of art.

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