Art and Instinct: A Darwinian Perspective

Introduction

• Dennis Dutton is a professor of aesthetics and philosophy of art at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
• He founded and edits the Johns Hopkins University Press Journal on Philosophy and Literature, focusing on philosophical discourse in arts.
• Dutton also conceived and continues to edit arts and letters daily, a website providing news and opinion in science, arts, and ideas.

A Different Perspective on Art

• Dutton aims to offer a distinct approach to arts and criticism, contrasting with obscure, jargon-ridden, and politically charged discourses common in humanities.
• He advocates examining the arts through Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, emphasizing an "instinct for art."
• This instinct is described as a collection of instincts, capacities, and pleasures that underpin the arts, viewed as a fundamental human reality.

The Prevailing Academic View

• The prevailing stance in academia, especially in fields such as English, art history, cultural studies, anthropology, and sociology, opposes the idea of a biologically hardwired basis for art.
• The dominant idea suggests that artistic values and senses of beauty are socially constructed and vary significantly across cultures.
• This perspective is often backed by anecdotal stories and urban legends that may not hold up under scrutiny.

Challenging Cultural Relativism

• The assertion that Eskimos possess hundreds of words for snow, implying a different experiential world, is challenged as an urban legend, lacking empirical support.
• Similarly, the notion that African tribesmen cannot comprehend photographs without extensive enculturation is questioned based on Dutton's experiences in New Guinea, where he found quick adaptation and understanding.
• The story of audiences mistaking Ravi Shankar's sitar tuning for music is debunked, as it oversimplifies cross-cultural musical understanding.

Universal Human Experience

• Dutton's time as a Peace Corps volunteer in India led him to recognize the inherent understandability of diverse cultures, acknowledging both unique traits and common ground.
• He studied the sitar extensively and discovered that Indian music, although distinct, shares fundamental elements with Western music, including rhythmic drive, harmonic anticipation, lucid structure, and melody.

Flaws in Ethnographic Studies

• Dutton contends that the field suffers from flawed ethnography and ethnological malpractice, where researchers may skew observations.
• Anthropologists sometimes exaggerate the uniqueness of local customs to the point of claiming they are incomprehensible to outsiders.

The Role of Philosophy

• Philosophers often seek to rationalize existing intuitions rather than critically questioning the origins and validity of these intuitions.
• They construct rational systems around intuitive worldviews in ethics and aesthetics without thoroughly investigating why certain value judgments are consistently observed across cultures.

Adaptations and Innate Preferences

• Dutton suggests approaching artistic and aesthetic intuitions as adaptations, which represent innate systems of pleasures, capacities, and interests shaped for survival value.
• These adaptations facilitate intercultural communication by providing a shared emotional and cognitive framework, contributing to the universal constituents of the arts.

The Concept of Art

• The anthropologist making claims compares Indian women's preparatory wall decorations to Rothko's and Diebenkorn's works in museums, a false comparison.
• The comparison misleadingly concludes that Indian women are "signing" their art in the same way as New York gallery pieces, ignoring cultural context.
• A more accurate comparison would involve comparing these decorations to similar decorations made by American or German women for pre-wedding celebrations.

Universal Characteristics of Art

• Dutton proposes a "cluster concept of art" defined by 12 features:
  • Direct pleasure: Works of art provide pleasure as an end in itself, offering intrinsic enjoyment.
  • Style: Works of art are made in recognizable styles, allowing them to be categorized and understood within specific artistic traditions.
  • Expressive individuality: Works of art give the impression of an individual creator, reflecting personal expression and unique vision.
  • Creativity and novelty: Works of art are characterized by creativity and novelty, pushing boundaries and exploring new forms of expression.
  • Criticism: Works of art are important enough to generate critical discourse, inviting interpretation and evaluation.
  • Intellectual challenge: Works of art engage the brain and offer intellectual stimulation, prompting deeper understanding and reflection.
  • Traditions and institutions: Works of art are created within traditions and institutions, shaped by historical and cultural contexts.
  • Emotional saturation: Works of art are imbued with emotion, evoking feelings and responses in viewers or listeners.
  • Representation: Works of art represent or imitate real and imaginary experiences, capturing aspects of the world or conjuring new realities.
  • Skill and virtuosity: Works of art demonstrate specialized skills, showcasing mastery and technical proficiency.
  • Special focus: Works of art are set apart from real life, distinguished as objects of aesthetic contemplation.
  • Imaginative experience: Works of art provide imaginative experiences for producers and audiences, fostering creativity.

Art as Adaptation

• Dutton posits that uniformity in arts worldwide arises from an ensemble of Darwinian adaptations, forming an "art instinct" that drives artistic creation and appreciation.
• Adaptations are inherited biological or behavioral traits that enhance survival and reproduction, shaped by natural selection over generations.
• The three key markers of an adaptation are pleasure, universality (appearing across cultures), and spontaneous development (emerging naturally without explicit instruction).

Pleistocene Environment

• The Pleistocene epoch, spanning 1.6 million years, is critical for human development, shaping our bodies, personalities, likes, dislikes, and fears through evolutionary pressures.
• Our ancestors who survived and reproduced during this period were those who were wary of snakes, afraid of heights, enjoyed sweet and fatty foods (essential for energy), and sought sexual experiences (for reproduction).

Storytelling

• Storytelling is an ancient and universal art that arises spontaneously and provides great pleasure, fulfilling a deep-seated human need for narrative.
• The average Briton spends 6% of waking life enjoying fictions, underscoring the significance of storytelling as a pervasive form of entertainment and engagement.
• Imagination, fostered through storytelling, allows for weighing evidence, making inferences, and intellectual stimulation, enhancing cognitive skills.
• Stories provide low-cost experimentation, enabling learning about potential threats and solutions without real-world risks, preparing individuals for survival.

Spontaneous Development

• The ability of three-year-olds to engage in pretend play and differentiate between real and pretend scenarios demonstrates innate capabilities that cannot be explicitly taught but emerge naturally.
• Stories offer low-cost, low-risk surrogate experiences, addressing potential problems and threats faced by our ancestors and providing a safe space for exploration and learning.

Storytellers

• Works of art often showcase virtuoso displays of skill and talent, reflecting the dedication and practice required to achieve mastery.
• Human intelligence and creativity transform landscapes and plot outlines into literary and artistic masterpieces, demonstrating the power of imagination and intellect.

The Problem of Profligacy

• Works of art can also be expressions of individuals, which are important to courtship by signaling desirable traits and attracting potential mates.
• Darwin noted the contrast between economical natural selection and extravagant features like the peacock's tail, raising questions about the purpose of seemingly wasteful ornamentation.

Sexual Selection

• Sexual selection involves mate choices that drive the development of certain traits, where individuals with more appealing characteristics are more likely to reproduce.
• In humans, this process may have led to a form of self-domestication during the Pleistocene, favoring traits like cooperation, communication, and emotional expression.
• Natural selection is primarily about survival, ensuring species can withstand environmental pressures, while sexual selection is about being charming enough to reproduce, driving trait evolution through mate preference.

Wastefulness in Courtship and Art

• Wastefulness in courtship, such as giving flowers or chocolates, signals the ability to spend resources on useless things, indicating affluence and status.
• Thorsten Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class" highlights the association of cost with beauty, suggesting that expensive items are valued because they demonstrate wealth and leisure.

Predictions About Art

• Based on Veblen's ideas and Darwinian theory, Dutton makes predictions about art:
  • Works of art are often made of rare or expensive materials,