Review by Choice Review
Evolutionary aesthetics seeks to naturalize the study of the human aesthetic impulse and identify its role in human evolutionary development. One of the major open questions in evolutionary aesthetics is whether the uniquely human impulse to adorn ourselves and our surroundings is an adaptive trait (i.e., serving a fitness-enhancing function) or merely a by-product of other adaptive traits (i.e., an accident supervening on other adaptive biological traits). Arguing in favor of the former position, Høgh-Olesen (Univ. of Aarhus, Denmark) provides a brief introduction to major areas of inquiry: whether the pursuit of aesthetic stimulation is driven by pleasure or need, how aesthetic pursuit may have been conditioned in prehistory, how aesthetic value is connected to reproductive success, how our proclivity for decoration is rooted in a biological need to signal fitness and social status, and how aesthetic behavior is at the biological, psychological, and neurological foundation of the human species. This is a satisfactory introduction to the field, though readers seeking a more robust introduction, with greater attention to the interplay between the philosophy and biology of aesthetics, may prefer Dutton's The Art Instinct (CH, Sep'09, 47-0074). Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates and general readers. --Lane Alan Wilkinson, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
