A Darwinian theory of beauty | Denis Dutton

Summary

In this talk, the speaker explores the concept of beauty through an evolutionary lens, drawing on Charles Darwin's theories. They discuss the universality of aesthetic appreciation across cultures and suggest that our sense of beauty is an evolved trait. The speaker argues that beauty is not just subjective but has adaptive significance, influencing our decisions for survival and reproduction. From the symmetry of ancient hand axes to the emotional resonance of modern art, beauty is deeply ingrained in human psychology, a legacy of our ancestors' intelligence and emotional depth.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The concept of beauty is complex and varies widely across different things like human beings, natural landforms, works of art, and skilled human actions.
• 🧠 The speaker suggests that the most powerful theory of beauty comes from Charles Darwin, relating it to evolutionary biology rather than art or cultural theory.
• 🌍 Beauty is not just subjective; it has universal, cross-cultural elements that can be found in various forms of art and nature.
• 🔍 To understand beauty, the speaker proposes a Darwinian evolutionary history that traces our aesthetic tastes back to prehistoric environments and social situations.
• 🧬 The experience of beauty is part of our evolved human psychology, serving as an adaptive effect that we extend in art and entertainment.
• 🐦 Sexual selection, as seen in the peacock's tail, is a mechanism of evolution that influences our perception of beauty, suggesting that beauty can be a signal of fitness.
• 🏞️ The preference for certain landscapes, resembling the pleistocene savannas where we evolved, is an example of how our aesthetic tastes are shaped by our evolutionary history.
• 🏺 Prehistoric artifacts like Acheulian hand axes, which exhibit beauty in their craftsmanship, suggest that artistic creation and appreciation of beauty are ancient human behaviors.
• 💍 The appreciation for skilled performances and craftsmanship in art is an innate human trait that has persisted from our ancient ancestors to modern times.
• 🌟 Beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder; it is deeply ingrained in our minds as a result of the intelligent skills and rich emotional lives of our ancestors.

Q & A

What is the main subject discussed in the script?

The main subject discussed in the script is the concept of beauty, its various manifestations, and the theory of beauty from an evolutionary perspective.

What does the speaker do for a living?

The speaker is involved in the philosophy of art and aesthetics, trying to understand the experience of beauty intellectually, philosophically, and psychologically.

Why is the subject of beauty considered complicated?

The subject of beauty is considered complicated because the things we call beautiful are extremely diverse, ranging from human beings, natural landforms, works of art, to skilled human actions.

Who is the expert on barnacles, worms, and pigeon breeding mentioned in the script, and why is this relevant?

The expert mentioned is Charles Darwin, and he is relevant because the speaker discusses the theory of beauty from a Darwinian evolutionary perspective.

What is the common saying about beauty that the speaker mentions, and how does the speaker challenge this notion?

The common saying is 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.' The speaker challenges this notion by suggesting that beauty is not just a matter of personal or cultural taste, but deeply rooted in our evolved human psychology.

How does the speaker explain the universality of aesthetic tastes across cultures?

The speaker explains the universality of aesthetic tastes by suggesting that they are a result of our shared evolutionary history and the environments in which we evolved.

What are the two main mechanisms of evolution mentioned in the script?

The two main mechanisms of evolution mentioned are natural selection and sexual selection.

How does the speaker relate the peacock's tail to the concept of beauty?

The speaker relates the peacock's tail to the concept of beauty by using it as an example of sexual selection, where the tail's beauty is a result of the mating choices made by peahens, not for natural survival.

What is the significance of the Acheulian hand axes in the context of the script?

The Acheulian hand axes are significant because they represent one of the earliest known works of art, suggesting that the creation and appreciation of beauty is deeply ingrained in human evolution.

Why does the speaker believe that beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder?

The speaker believes that beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder because it is a universal experience that is part of our evolved human psychology, influenced by our ancient ancestors' intelligent skills and emotional lives.

What conclusion does the speaker draw about the permanence of our reaction to beauty?

The speaker concludes that our powerful reaction to beauty, including images, art, music, and the night sky, is a permanent part of human nature and will persist for as long as the human race exists.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 The Complexity and Evolution of Beauty

The speaker begins by expressing their passion for the subject of beauty and their profession as a philosopher of art and aesthetics. They acknowledge the complexity of defining beauty due to the vast array of things considered beautiful, ranging from natural landscapes to works of art and human actions. The speaker introduces Charles Darwin's theory as a powerful explanation for beauty, challenging the common notion that beauty is subjective and culturally determined. Instead, they propose that our aesthetic tastes have evolved through our Pleistocene environments and social situations, suggesting that the experience of beauty is an adaptive effect that we extend in art and entertainment. The speaker also touches on the universality of aesthetic pleasures across cultures, hinting at a deeper, evolutionary explanation for our shared appreciation of beauty.

05:01

🌿 The Role of Natural and Sexual Selection in Aesthetics

In this paragraph, the speaker delves into the mechanisms of evolution, particularly natural selection and sexual selection, to explain our attraction to beauty. They use the example of the peacock's tail to illustrate sexual selection, where the tail's beauty is a result of mating choices rather than survival needs. The speaker argues that the experience of beauty is a tool used by evolution to encourage adaptive decisions for survival and reproduction. They also discuss the universal appeal of certain landscapes, like the savannas of the Pleistocene era, which are found aesthetically pleasing across cultures. The speaker suggests that our preference for these landscapes is hardwired into our psychology as a result of our evolutionary history.

10:04

🪨 The Ancient Aesthetic of Acheulian Hand Axes

The speaker explores the concept of artistic beauty by examining prehistoric artifacts, specifically the Acheulian hand axes. These tools, dating back to Homo erectus, are found across continents and are characterized by their symmetry and craftsmanship, suggesting they served an aesthetic purpose beyond their functionality. The speaker posits that these hand axes represent the earliest known works of art, where practical tools were transformed into objects of beauty and skill. They argue that the creation of such artifacts was an evolutionary advantage, as they signaled desirable traits like intelligence and craftsmanship, which could have led to higher reproductive success. The speaker emphasizes the enduring human appreciation for skill and beauty in art, which dates back to our ancient ancestors.

15:06

🌌 The Timeless Nature of Human Aesthetic Experience

In the final paragraph, the speaker concludes by emphasizing the enduring and innate nature of our aesthetic experiences. They suggest that our reactions to beauty in art, music, and the natural world are deeply rooted in our human psychology and have been passed down through generations. The speaker reflects on the universality of these experiences, indicating that they will continue to be a part of human existence. The speaker thanks the audience and receives applause, signifying the end of their talk.

Keywords

💡Beauty

Beauty, as discussed in the video, is a complex and multifaceted concept that encompasses a wide array of things, from natural landscapes to artistic creations and human actions. It is central to the video's theme, as the speaker explores the philosophical, psychological, and evolutionary aspects of what constitutes beauty. The speaker uses examples such as a baby's face, a Van Gogh painting, and a World Cup soccer goal to illustrate the diversity of things we perceive as beautiful.

💡Aesthetics

Aesthetics is the philosophical study of the nature of beauty, art, and taste. It is integral to the video's exploration of beauty, as the speaker delves into the intellectual and philosophical dimensions of the experience of beauty. The term is used to frame the discussion on how beauty is perceived and understood across different cultures and historical periods, as well as its role in human psychology.

💡Darwinian Evolution

Darwinian Evolution refers to the process of change in species over time through natural selection and sexual selection, as proposed by Charles Darwin. The video uses this concept to explain the universality of aesthetic tastes and the evolution of our appreciation for beauty. The speaker suggests that our tastes in beauty have evolved as adaptive traits, serving purposes in survival and reproduction, and are not solely culturally determined.

💡Natural Selection

Natural Selection is a key mechanism of evolution, where traits that enhance survival and reproduction become more common in successive generations. In the context of the video, natural selection is used to explain basic human revulsions and pleasures, such as the smell of rotting meat or the enjoyment of sweet foods. It is also linked to the development of aesthetic preferences that have survival value.

💡Sexual Selection

Sexual Selection is a form of evolution where certain traits become more prevalent due to their attractiveness to mates, rather than their direct contribution to survival. The video uses the example of the peacock's tail to illustrate sexual selection and suggests that our appreciation for beauty may have evolved through similar processes, where aesthetically pleasing traits became valued for their own sake.

💡Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is a geological epoch that spans from about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago, a period during which many human ancestors evolved. The video references the Pleistocene to discuss the environments in which our aesthetic tastes may have been shaped, suggesting that our preferences for certain landscapes and forms are remnants of our evolutionary past.

💡Culturally Conditioned

Culturally Conditioned refers to the idea that aesthetic tastes and perceptions of beauty are influenced by cultural factors. The video addresses this concept by acknowledging the role of culture in shaping beauty standards but also challenges it by arguing for a deeper, evolutionary basis for our shared aesthetic experiences.

💡Acheulian Hand Axes

Acheulian Hand Axes are stone tools dating back to the Lower Paleolithic period, crafted by early human ancestors. The video discusses these artifacts as early examples of human-made objects that exhibit aesthetic qualities, such as symmetry and craftsmanship, suggesting that the creation and appreciation of beauty may have deep evolutionary roots.

💡Virtuoso Displays

Virtuoso Displays refer to performances or creations that demonstrate exceptional skill or talent. The video connects the appreciation for virtuoso displays in the arts to our evolutionary history, arguing that the beauty we find in skilled performances is a fundamental aspect of human psychology that has been passed down through generations.

💡Adaptive Effect

An Adaptive Effect is a trait or behavior that has evolved because it aids survival and reproduction. In the video, beauty is described as an adaptive effect, suggesting that our perception of beauty has evolved to motivate us towards actions that are beneficial for our survival and the continuation of our species.

Highlights

The speaker discusses the complexity of defining beauty due to its diverse manifestations.

A list of varied things considered beautiful, from human to natural and artistic, is presented.

The introduction of Charles Darwin's theory as a powerful explanation for beauty.

The common belief that beauty is subjective and culturally conditioned is challenged.

Evidence of cross-cultural appreciation for beauty in arts and nature is provided.

The concept of reverse-engineering our aesthetic tastes to understand their evolutionary origins.

The role of prehistoric environments and social situations in shaping our aesthetic preferences.

The assertion that the experience of beauty is part of our evolved human psychology.

Evolutionary mechanisms like natural selection and sexual selection are related to the experience of beauty.

The peacock's tail as an example of sexual selection and its relevance to beauty.

Beauty as a means for evolution to influence our decisions for survival and reproduction.

The universal appeal of certain landscapes, resembling the pleistocene savannas where humans evolved.

The idea that artistic beauty is not solely cultural but has deep evolutionary roots.

Prehistoric artifacts like Acheulian hand axes as early examples of human-made aesthetic objects.

The significance of symmetry, materials, and craftsmanship in early tools as indicators of beauty.

The role of hand axes as 'fitness signals' and their impact on social status and reproduction.

The enduring human appreciation for skilled performances and virtuoso displays in the arts.

The conclusion that beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder but is deeply ingrained in our minds.

The speaker's final thoughts on the enduring nature of our reaction to beauty.

Transcripts

Delighted to be here

and to talk to you about a subject dear to my heart,

which is beauty.

I do the philosophy of art, aesthetics,

actually, for a living.

I try to figure out intellectually,

philosophically, psychologically,

what the experience of beauty is,

what sensibly can be said about it

and how people go off the rails in trying to understand it.

Now this is an extremely complicated subject,

in part because the things that we call beautiful

are so different.

I mean just think of the sheer variety --

a baby's face,

Berlioz's "Harold in Italy,"

movies like "The Wizard of Oz"

or the plays of Chekhov,

a central California landscape,

a Hokusai view of Mt. Fuji,

"Der Rosenkavalier,"

a stunning match-winning goal

in a World Cup soccer match,

Van Gogh's "Starry Night,"

a Jane Austen novel,

Fred Astaire dancing across the screen.

This brief list includes human beings,

natural landforms,

works of art and skilled human actions.

An account that explains the presence of beauty

in everything on this list

is not going to be easy.

I can, however, give you at least a taste

of what I regard

as the most powerful theory of beauty

we yet have.

And we get it not from a philosopher of art,

not from a postmodern art theorist

or a bigwig art critic.

No, this theory

comes from an expert

on barnacles and worms and pigeon breeding,

and you know who I mean:

Charles Darwin.

Of course, a lot of people think they already know

the proper answer to the question,

"What is beauty?"

It's in the eye of the beholder.

It's whatever moves you personally.

Or, as some people,

especially academics prefer,

beauty is in the culturally conditioned

eye of the beholder.

People agree that paintings or movies or music

are beautiful

because their cultures determine a uniformity of aesthetic taste.

Taste for both natural beauty and for the arts

travel across cultures

with great ease.

Beethoven is adored in Japan.

Peruvians love Japanese woodblock prints.

Inca sculptures are regarded as treasures

in British museums,

while Shakespeare is translated

into every major language of the Earth.

Or just think about American jazz

or American movies --

they go everywhere.

There are many differences among the arts,

but there are also universal,

cross-cultural aesthetic pleasures

and values.

How can we explain

this universality?

The best answer lies in trying to reconstruct

a Darwinian evolutionary history

of our artistic and aesthetic tastes.

We need to reverse-engineer

our present artistic tastes and preferences

and explain how they came

to be engraved in our minds

by the actions of both our prehistoric,

largely pleistocene environments,

where we became fully human,

but also by the social situations

in which we evolved.

This reverse engineering

can also enlist help

from the human record

preserved in prehistory.

I mean fossils, cave paintings and so forth.

And it should take into account

what we know of the aesthetic interests

of isolated hunter-gatherer bands

that survived into the 19th and the 20th centuries.

Now, I personally

have no doubt whatsoever

that the experience of beauty,

with its emotional intensity and pleasure,

belongs to our evolved human psychology.

The experience of beauty is one component

in a whole series of Darwinian adaptations.

Beauty is an adaptive effect,

which we extend

and intensify

in the creation and enjoyment

of works of art and entertainment.

As many of you will know,

evolution operates by two main primary mechanisms.

The first of these is natural selection --

that's random mutation and selective retention --

along with our basic anatomy and physiology --

the evolution of the pancreas or the eye or the fingernails.

Natural selection also explains

many basic revulsions,

such as the horrid smell of rotting meat,

or fears, such as the fear of snakes

or standing close to the edge of a cliff.

Natural selection also explains pleasures --

sexual pleasure,

our liking for sweet, fat and proteins,

which in turn explains a lot of popular foods,

from ripe fruits through chocolate malts

and barbecued ribs.

The other great principle of evolution

is sexual selection,

and it operates very differently.

The peacock's magnificent tail

is the most famous example of this.

It did not evolve for natural survival.

In fact, it goes against natural survival.

No, the peacock's tail

results from the mating choices

made by peahens.

It's quite a familiar story.

It's women who actually push history forward.

Darwin himself, by the way,

had no doubts that the peacock's tail

was beautiful in the eyes of the peahen.

He actually used that word.

Now, keeping these ideas firmly in mind,

we can say that the experience of beauty

is one of the ways that evolution has

of arousing and sustaining

interest or fascination,

even obsession,

in order to encourage us

toward making the most adaptive decisions

for survival and reproduction.

Beauty is nature's way

of acting at a distance,

so to speak.

I mean, you can't expect to eat

an adaptively beneficial landscape.

It would hardly do to eat your baby

or your lover.

So evolution's trick

is to make them beautiful,

to have them exert a kind of magnetism

to give you the pleasure of simply looking at them.

Consider briefly an important source of aesthetic pleasure,

the magnetic pull

of beautiful landscapes.

People in very different cultures

all over the world

tend to like a particular kind of landscape,

a landscape that just happens to be similar

to the pleistocene savannas where we evolved.

This landscape shows up today

on calendars, on postcards,

in the design of golf courses and public parks

and in gold-framed pictures

that hang in living rooms

from New York to New Zealand.

It's a kind of Hudson River school landscape

featuring open spaces

of low grasses

interspersed with copses of trees.

The trees, by the way, are often preferred

if they fork near the ground,

that is to say, if they're trees you could scramble up

if you were in a tight fix.

The landscape shows the presence

of water directly in view,

or evidence of water in a bluish distance,

indications of animal or bird life

as well as diverse greenery

and finally -- get this --

a path

or a road,

perhaps a riverbank or a shoreline,

that extends into the distance,

almost inviting you to follow it.

This landscape type is regarded as beautiful,

even by people in countries

that don't have it.

The ideal savanna landscape

is one of the clearest examples

where human beings everywhere

find beauty

in similar visual experience.

But, someone might argue,

that's natural beauty.

How about artistic beauty?

Isn't that exhaustively cultural?

No, I don't think it is.

And once again, I'd like to look back to prehistory

to say something about it.

It is widely assumed

that the earliest human artworks

are the stupendously skillful cave paintings

that we all know from Lascaux

and Chauvet.

Chauvet caves

are about 32,000 years old,

along with a few small, realistic sculptures

of women and animals from the same period.

But artistic and decorative skills

are actually much older than that.

Beautiful shell necklaces

that look like something you'd see at an arts and crafts fair,

as well as ochre body paint,

have been found

from around 100,000 years ago.

But the most intriguing prehistoric artifacts

are older even than this.

I have in mind

the so-called Acheulian hand axes.

The oldest stone tools are choppers

from the Olduvai Gorge in East Africa.

They go back about two-and-a-half-million years.

These crude tools

were around for thousands of centuries,

until around 1.4 million years ago

when Homo erectus

started shaping

single, thin stone blades,

sometimes rounded ovals,

but often in what are to our eyes

an arresting, symmetrical pointed leaf

or teardrop form.

These Acheulian hand axes --

they're named after St. Acheul in France,

where finds were made in 19th century --

have been unearthed in their thousands,

scattered across Asia, Europe and Africa,

almost everywhere Homo erectus

and Homo ergaster roamed.

Now, the sheer numbers of these hand axes

shows that they can't have been made

for butchering animals.

And the plot really thickens when you realize

that, unlike other pleistocene tools,

the hand axes often exhibit

no evidence of wear

on their delicate blade edges.

And some, in any event, are too big

to use for butchery.

Their symmetry, their attractive materials

and, above all,

their meticulous workmanship

are simply quite beautiful

to our eyes, even today.

So what were these ancient --

I mean, they're ancient, they're foreign,

but they're at the same time

somehow familiar.

What were these artifacts for?

The best available answer

is that they were literally

the earliest known works of art,

practical tools transformed

into captivating aesthetic objects,

contemplated both for their elegant shape

and their virtuoso craftsmanship.

Hand axes mark

an evolutionary advance in human history --

tools fashioned to function

as what Darwinians call "fitness signals" --

that is to say, displays

that are performances

like the peacock's tail,

except that, unlike hair and feathers,

the hand axes are consciously

cleverly crafted.

Competently made hand axes

indicated desirable personal qualities --

intelligence, fine motor control,

planning ability,

conscientiousness

and sometimes access to rare materials.

Over tens of thousands of generations,

such skills increased the status

of those who displayed them

and gained a reproductive advantage

over the less capable.

You know, it's an old line,

but it has been shown to work --

"Why don't you come up to my cave, so I can show you my hand axes?"

(Laughter)

Except, of course, what's interesting about this

is that we can't be sure how that idea was conveyed,

because the Homo erectus

that made these objects

did not have language.

It's hard to grasp,

but it's an incredible fact.

This object was made

by a hominid ancestor,

Homo erectus or Homo ergaster,

between 50,000 and 100,000 years

before language.

Stretching over a million years,

the hand axe tradition

is the longest artistic tradition

in human and proto-human history.

By the end of the hand axe epic, Homo sapiens --

as they were then called, finally --

were doubtless finding new ways

to amuse and amaze each other

by, who knows, telling jokes,

storytelling, dancing, or hairstyling.

Yes, hairstyling -- I insist on that.

For us moderns,

virtuoso technique

is used to create imaginary worlds

in fiction and in movies,

to express intense emotions

with music, painting and dance.

But still,

one fundamental trait

of the ancestral personality persists

in our aesthetic cravings:

the beauty we find

in skilled performances.

From Lascaux to the Louvre

to Carnegie Hall,

human beings

have a permanent innate taste

for virtuoso displays in the arts.

We find beauty

in something done well.

So the next time you pass a jewelry shop window

displaying a beautifully cut

teardrop-shaped stone,

don't be so sure

it's just your culture telling you

that that sparkling jewel is beautiful.

Your distant ancestors loved that shape

and found beauty in the skill needed to make it,

even before

they could put their love into words.

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?

No, it's deep in our minds.

It's a gift handed down from the intelligent skills

and rich emotional lives

of our most ancient ancestors.

Our powerful reaction to images,

to the expression of emotion in art,

to the beauty of music, to the night sky,

will be with us and our descendants

for as long as the human race exists.

Thank you.

(Applause)