Dennis Dutton on a Darwinian Theory of Beauty

Denis Dutton argues that the human concept of beauty is not in the culturally conditioned eye of the beholder, but that it is adaptive effect that we extend and identify in our enjoyment of and creation of works of art and entertainment. He argues that we can explain universal cross-cultural aesthetics and values through a Darwinian evolutionary history of our artistic and aesthetic tastes. The experience of beauty belongs to our evolved human psychology as one component in a whole series of adaptations. Appreciation of beauty is an adaptive effect which we extend and identify in our enjoyment of and creation of works of art and entertainment.

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