Of All Studies, Study Your Present Condition: Essay Review of Denis Dutton's The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)

Abstract

AbstractIn this review I will assess the validity of Denis Dutton's provocative argument for Darwinian aesthetics. In The Art Instinct Dutton draws on the insights of Darwin and the evolutionary psychologists Geoffrey Miller and Steven Pinker to analyse art as the product of evolution. Pinker asserts on the dust cover that ‘this book marks out the future of the humanities – connecting aesthetics and criticism to an understanding of human nature from the cognitive and biological sciences' and that ‘Dutton has made a bold and original contribution to this exciting new field’. Miller's opinion of The Art Instinct is noticeable by its absence. In his review of The Art Instinct, arts academic Richard Hickman concludes: ‘for educators, if we accept that young people have an “art instinct”, then it is incumbent upon us to ensure that this instinct is nurtured and developed’. I agree. My aim is to critically assess Dutton's contribution and speculate about how it might inform future directions in educational research.