The Art Instinct: Is Denis Dutton Right That Humans' Perception of Art Has a Common Evolutionary Origin?

Discussions on the origin of art and art appreciation are among the main agenda of the philosophy of art. Various propositions have been and continue to be put forward on a range of issues such as what art is, what people consider art, whether there is a hierarchy between art branches and works, what the characteristics of an impressive work can be, and whether there is a common taste in art.

American philosopher of art Denis Laurence Dutton, The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution, he argues, in short, that humans have a common taste for art and that this common taste was acquired by humans in their own evolutionary process. Our intention in this article is not to introduce Dutton's book by quoting him at length. Anyone who wants to can pick up this work, which has also been translated into Turkish, and study it. You can also easily find Dutton's speeches on Youtube. Our aim here is to discuss Dutton's claim.

In the first chapters of his work, Dutton tries to convince the reader that humanity has a common judgment of taste. In this section, he conducts a philosophical discussion of "human nature" with particular references to David Hume and Immanuel Kant. He then focuses on the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene. We can say that this period has a strong influence on Dutton's thoughts.

The strongest examples that Dutton relied on in constructing his theory were landscape paintings. Dutton likens the appreciation of what he describes as the "ideal savanna landscape" by people all over the world to the fertile geographical environment of the post-Ice Age. More precisely, he argues that this analogy is instinctively made by humans, and for this reason, he presents standard landscape paintings with short grass, trees, paths, puddles, harmless animals such as birds, and mountains in the distance as the most powerful example of the idea of "Artistic Instinct" to his followers.

Why Do We Love Landscapes?

If landscapes are an instinctive product of human taste, as Dutton suggests, then we would expect such visual depictions to have been one of the main subjects of painting since its inception. In these depictions of nature, as Dutton points out, we might even expect to see trees to climb in times of danger, short grasses, animals, fruits and puddles that could be food for humans.

However, when we look at the surviving historical examples of painting - and this includes murals and mosaics - we see the predominantly figurative elements. It is immediately striking that mythological and religious figures have occupied a very important place throughout the history of painting. Especially until the romanticism of the 18th century, the landscape appears more as the spatial element of painting. We can easily say that the landscapes at this point do not have the problem of depicting real nature.

The depiction of nature in painting by attributing a certain meaning to it began with 18th century romanticism. Throughout this period, rural life was the subject of almost all branches of art as an environment where people could be happy. The growing cities and new urban life after the industrial revolution played an important role in the emergence of this thematic relationship with the countryside. In literature, painting and theater, the urban middle classes have a great interest in the depiction of the happy moments of urban people in the countryside.

The main difference of Romantic period countryside paintings from previous depictions of nature is that artists removed the countryside from being a background element. Artists attributed human characteristics such as purity and wisdom to the countryside. On canvas and in literature, the depiction of the countryside has turned into an element where urban romances take place, music and entertainment are held, and wise people find peace and happiness. Before Romanticism, the painter would place the figures of the subject he wanted to depict on the canvas in various forms and then, questioning their relevance to reality, he would attach nature and architectural elements to the painting as locations. With Romanticism, we can say that paintings whose trademark is the countryside started to become popular.

To summarize, the strong depiction of the countryside/nature is a kind of "escape from the city" story. It can be said that at the root of the interest in nature and countryside paintings is the depression that people feel from the requirements of being urbanized.

Do People Have Common Likes?

Some paintings and painters are more popular than some other paintings and painters. Some music and musicians have reached a wider audience than some other music and musicians. Some literary works and writers have been translated into more languages and appealed to a larger audience than some other literary works and writers. This list can be extended. What we mean is that there are works and artists whose tastes are shared by millions of people. This shows us that humanity can have a common taste.

But is the source of common taste based on our biological evolution, as Dutton claims? If this were the case, we would have to talk about an unchanging common taste. However, when we look at the history of art, we see that this common taste can change. In almost every phase of our history, we see that common tastes change according to the social/cultural environment and accordingly the groups that represent good taste. In antiquity, good taste was determined by the tastes of the slave-owning urban classes. In the Middle Ages, the church and the aristocracy were the representatives of good taste. After the industrial revolution, the bourgeoisie became the representative of good taste with romanticism. Museums, works of literature, plays and concert halls began to reflect the tastes of the bourgeoisie. We can say that all this is related to the groups that finance/consume art. It is a very new possibility for the artist to perform his/her own art as he/she wishes. This opportunity became possible after the industrial revolution, when the bourgeoisie and the middle classes became a powerful social class as art consumers. It is roughly in the last 200-300 years that artists have been able to reach the means to produce and present their own products, rather than making products on commission or being tied to the aristocracy and producing products as the artist of a palace.

To summarize, what we want to say is that humanity has a common taste, but this common taste changes according to historical and social conditions.

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