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The art instinct : beauty, pleasure, & human evolution / Denis Dutton.

The art instinct : beauty, pleasure, & human evolution / Denis Dutton.
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Barcode Collection Volume Ref. Status Due Date Res.
20202484 General Borrowing   . Available .  
. Catalogue Record 175 ItemInfo Beginning of record . Catalogue Record 175 ItemInfo Top of page .
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ISBN 9781596914018 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1596914017 (hbk. : alk. paper)
Name Dutton, Denis author.
Title The art instinct : beauty, pleasure, & human evolution / Denis Dutton.
Portion of title Beauty, pleasure, & human evolution
Edition 1st U.S. ed.
Published New York : Bloomsbury Press, 2009.
©2009.
Description 278 pages ; 25 cm.
Note Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-268) and index.
Contents Introduction -- Landscape and longing -- Art and human nature -- What is art? -- "But they don't have our concept of art" -- Art and natural selection -- The uses of fiction -- Art and human self-domestication -- Intention, forgery, Dada : three aesthetic problems -- The contingency of aesthetic values -- Greatness in the arts.
Summary Publisher's description: Human tastes in the arts, Dutton argues, are evolutionary traits, shaped by Darwinian selection. They are not, as the past century of art criticism and academic theory would have it, just socially constructed. 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. Using forceful logic and hard evidence, Dutton shows that we must premise art criticism on an understanding of evolution, not on abstract theory. He restores the place of beauty, pleasure, and skill as artistic values.
Donated by Meg Sheehan ;
Subjects Aesthetics
Aesthetics
Art -- Philosophy
Evolution (Biology)
Instinct
Genre Nonfiction
Catalogue Information 175 Beginning of record . Catalogue Information 175 Top of page .

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