Aesthetics after Darwin - The Multiple Origins and Functions of the Arts

The book reveals a strong humanist heritage which renders Darwin's theory of song and poetic language far more nuanced and interesting than a monolithic "singing for sex" hypothesis.

List of contents

Introduction

1. Competitive Courtship and Aesthetic Judgment/Choice: Darwin¿s Model of the Arts
2. The Arts as Promoters of Social Cooperation and Cohesion
3. Engagement in the Arts as Ontogenetic Self-(Trans-)Formation
4. A Cooptation Model of the Evolution of the Human Arts: The Special Role of Play Behavior, Technology, and Symbolic Cognition
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Winfried Menninghaus is Director of the Department of Language and Literature at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (Frankfurt) and Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. His empirical, evolutionary, and philosophical work on aesthetics has a special focus on the nature and the emotional effects of poetic language.

Summary

Darwin famously proposed that sexual competition and courtship is (or at least was) the driving force of "art" production not only in animals, but also in humans. This book argues that Darwin's hypothesis is strongly informed both by classical rhetoric and by English and German philosophical aesthetics.

Product details

• Authors: Winfried Menninghaus
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2021
• EAN: 9781644696101
• ISBN: 978-1-64469-610-1
• No. of pages: 176
• Series: Evolution and Cognition; Evolution, Cognition, and the Arts
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Antiques; Non-fiction book > Psychology, esoterics, spirituality, anthroposophy > Applied psychology; History of Art, Evolutionary anthropology, Evolutionary anthropology / Human evolution