Share <Embed>

Buy New

$24.61

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Sold by Lexington Park and Fulfilled by Amazon.

This item ships to Finland. Get it by Friday, Sept. 6 Choose this date at checkout. Learn more

Deliver to Finland

Buy Used

$11.59

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Deliver to Finland

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Southeastern Bargains

Fulfilled by Amazon

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Add to Cart

$24.61
& FREE Shipping on eligible orders. Details

Sold by: markable

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Denis Dutton

The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution Hardcover – December 23, 2008

by Denis Dutton (Author)

56 customer reviews

See all 11 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$24.61

$20.11

$4.00

Paperback

"Please retry"

—

$53.15

$6.00

In a groundbreaking new book that does for art what Stephen Pinker's The Language Instinct did for linguistics, Denis Dutton overturns a century of art theory and criticism and revolutionizes our understanding of the arts.

The Art Instinct combines two fascinating and contentious disciplines―art and evolutionary science―in a provocative new work that will change forever the way we think about the arts, from painting to literature to movies to pottery. 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.

Sure to provoke discussion in scientific circles and uproar in the art world, The Art Instinct offers radical new insights into both the nature of art and the workings of the human mind.

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

Dutton, an aesthetic philosopher best known as the curator of the Web site Arts & Letters Daily, sets out to do for art what Steven Pinker and others have done for psychology, language, and religion: consider it from a Darwinian standpoint. Along the way, he gives an engaging, if opinionated, survey of various currents in aesthetic debate; it is perhaps unavoidable that he seems on more solid foundations here than in the realm of science. When trying to assess whether artistic impulses should be considered adaptive or merely by-products of the evolutionary process, a crucial question raised by his approach, he argues by analogy and tries to have it both ways. But the book is ultimately animated less by its grand thesis than by all the questions tossed up along the way�why did no art form develop to exploit smell, as music does hearing?�and by Dutton�s infectious and wide-ranging love of art, a passion that clearly goes beyond anything that could be considered an adaptive trait.
Copyright ©2008 Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker

From Booklist

We talk about the maternal instinct and the mating instinct, why not, asks Dutton, the art instinct? We are a species “obsessed with creating artistic experiences,” so surely there’s a coded-in-our-genes reason for that. Darwinian concepts have been applied with illuminating effect to psychology, history, and politics, why not art? And who better to attempt this mind-expanding analysis than Dutton, a professor of aesthetics and the philosophy of art, and founder and editor of Arts & Letters Daily, named the “best Web site in the world” by the Guardian. Creative, nimble, and entertaining, Dutton discusses landscape art, pottery, Aristotle, forgeries, and ready-mades. Rigorous in his definition of the “signal characteristics” of art and application of evolutionary science, Dutton identifies cross-cultural commonalities in art, explicates our innate feel for images and stories (devoting an entire chapter to the “uses of fiction”), and explores art’s role in individual expression and community cohesiveness. Marshaling intriguing examples and analogies in a cogent, animated argument destined to provoke debate, Dutton formulates the best answer yet to the question, “What’s art good for?” --Donna Seaman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Press; 1 edition (December 23, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1596914017
ISBN-13: 978-1596914018
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 56 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,328,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1015 in Philosophy Aesthetics
- #7790 in Evolution (Books)
- #6874 in Arts & Photography Criticism

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

56 customer reviews

Review this product

Write a customer review

Showing 1-8 of 56 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Stan

I felt that a good portion of the book was an argument for the ...

April 21, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I comment not as one knowledgeable in the evolutionary sciences or the philosophy or art, but as an artist curious of the opinions of those who attempt to explain what art is and what role it plays in our lives. As others have posted, I felt that a good portion of the book was an argument for the importance of considering Darwin's evolutionary views, sexual selection included, as they apply to our Art instinct (an intellectually overwhelming argument for me). Slowly at first, but eventually, Dutton moves into what I most enjoyed about the book, theorizing as to what great art is and why we create and make art so important in our lives and in our world. I especially appreciated comments such as this: "The greatest works of art unite every aspect of human experience; intellect and the will, but also emotions and human values of every kind. Psychologically, some of the most staggering moments in aesthetic experience, the ones we may remember all of our lives, are those instants where the events that make up the whole of a vast novel, an opera, or a poem, sonata, or a painting fall meaningfully into place....Artistic masterpieces fuse myriad disparate elements, layer upon layer of meaning, into a single, unified self-enhancing whole". Beautifully, although dangerously stated, for such comments evoke the importance of "belief", which the scientist finds troublesome. I think this is the essence of the duality that any author faces when attempting to reconcile science with belief, cognitive with intuitive, mind with heart. I believe most would say that the art experience is heavily a non-scientific experience, difficult to analyze. For those who, like me, find the book initially overwhelming, hang in there, as one nears the end, things come together, centering on what I think most would consider the truth of the question, what is art? Primarily a matter of the heart.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Wry Wreviewer

Introduction to evolutionary aesthetics

March 25, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Art and the philosophy of art have locked themselves up in a self-referential hidey-hole from which Denis Dutton attempts to pry them. He makes a persuasive case that not only is art not culturally specific ("they don't have our concept of art"), it's not exclusively cultural. There is an evolutionary basis to what we find aesthetically pleasing. The list of criteria by which something can be judged to be art or not art is fascinating by its very existence, and worth writing the book around.

Nevertheless, I particularly perked up at the chapter on the adaptive uses of fiction, and again at the chapter on forgeries. I think that the topics Dutton brings up here are pivotal -- they have changed my opinion completely about what I do and why I do it.

Furthermore, and I wish he'd expanded on it, there is a connection between what is aesthetic and what is moral. An example given in the appendix seems to bear this out. Bullfighting, he says, despite Hemingway's opinion, is not an art, because the bull is killed. Otherwise, it meets enough of his criteria to constitute an art. But why does he think that the bull dying relieves it of artfulness? There are at least two possibilities: first, that he has an aesthetic objection, that the death of the bull pulls the entire display down into an unartful literalness. Or, more simplistically, because it's morally wrong to kill animals needlessly. And are these the same argument? that is, is not the simple (presumably moral) assumption that it's wrong to kill animals needlessly a compacted statement of the first? I wish Dutton had spelled that out. (Philosophers seldom have the familiarity with animals that would be required if the subject were anything else. This is a cultural (I think!) misconception -- as though having a set of teeth made you a dentist.)

The book breezily assumes at least a passing familiarity with a wide range of art, and doesn't talk down to its readers. This is a feat.

Read this book, and Steven Pinker, Brian Boyd and Ellen Dissanayake as well.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Susan Waters-Eller

Essential science on why the arts are important

October 24, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

At a time when institutions are cutting back on arts programs, the importance of art for our minds and self-awareness is being ignored. Looking at art from an evolutionary perspective, Dutton shows why art has survived and what its survival value is, noting the universal appreciation of virtuosity and skill as well as creativity.

Helpful

Comment

William Irwin

a remarkable book

February 20, 2009

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is a remarkable book, tightly argued and clearly written. For too long the philosophy of art has tried to remain apart from science. The Art Instinct finally brings the two together. Its central thesis is that the reasons we like what we like and produce what we produce in the realm of art are rooted in human nature understood in terms of evolution. While readers may find some points to quibble with, the case is persuasive and the span of sub-topics is impressive. The Art Instinct is a landmark that will influence the philosophy of art for many years to come.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Rider

Academic... Revised Review

May 20, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

As an artist working almost exclusively in landscapes, with an avid appreciation for the influence of natural selection on human perception, (e.g., the subliminal effects of complimentary colors in the natural environment) I was eager to receive this offering. Though well written, and intriguing, it is ultimately rather dry and academic. It really didn't inform my art as I had hoped.

When I recently returned to The Art Instinct, I realized that my lukewarm initial appraisal was premature, and based more on my preconceived expectations of content and topic, and how these might be introduced. The first two chapters provide, as it turns out, a well constructed and highly relevant foundation for fully embracing and appreciating the real value of the book for the artist. The final sentence in chapter 2 reads, ..."And along the way in developing all of this ("evolved life"), the arts were born". I should have held my judgement until I had actually read this remarkable book.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Amazon Customer

Great book for teaching the humanities

January 13, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I can not say enough about t his book. Great book for teaching the humanities.

Helpful

Comment

M Brennan

Five Stars

September 3, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

If you are into evolutionary psychology, this book is fascinating.

Helpful

Comment

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy

Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account	Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Handpicked Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Inspire Digital Educational Resources

Amazon Rapids Fun stories for kids on the go	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services	Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics

CreateSpace Indie Print Publishing Made Easy	DPReview Digital Photography	East Dane Designer Men's Fashion	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities

IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital Publishing Made Easy	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing

Ring Smart Home Security Systems	eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Subscribe with Amazon Discover & try subscription services	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Second Chance Pass it on, trade it in, give it a second life

Buy New

$24.61

Buy Used

$11.59

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution Hardcover – December 23, 2008

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

From Booklist

Product details

Related video shorts (0)

Be the first video

56 customer reviews

Review this product

Customer images

Read reviews that mention

Showing 1-8 of 56 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Buy New $24.61

Buy Used $11.59

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution Hardcover – December 23, 2008

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

From Booklist

Product details

Related video shorts (0)

Be the first video

56 customer reviews

Review this product

Customer images

Read reviews that mention

Showing 1-8 of 56 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Buy New

$24.61

Buy Used

$11.59