The biological origins of art
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The biological origins of art
（Human evolution, behavior, and intelligence / Seymour W. Itzkoff, series editor）
Praeger, 1998
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Beginning with Plato, philosophers have theorized about art, asking What is art? and How does art evoke emotion? Their answers, evolving from Plato's Idealism, have led to Nihilism. Art cannot be defined is the current answer to the first question, and the second has not been dealt with in any significant way since Langer's Feeling and Form in 1953.
How art affects our emotions is considered not from a philosophical viewpoint but from an evolutionary standpoint. How are emotions aroused? is a biological question, and, as Aiken clarifies, it has been answered by neuroscientists. Art is usually thought of as pleasurable, but it can be ugly, disgusting, or fearsome. Aiken argues that fear, for example, can be elicited by simple shapes, lines, colors, or sound. Rather than just a source of pleasure, Aiken shows how art becomes a powerful tool of social and political manipulation. Through art, people can be conditioned to fear leaders, nations, gods, and ideas. A provocative work of interest to scholars and researchers as well as all people interested in art and human behavior.
Table of Contents
Preface
Big Questions
Emotional Response to Art
Biological Constraints on Human Behavior
A Particular Kind of Biological Constraint: The Releaser-Response Package
The Defense Reaction: A Releaser-Response Package Which Can Evoke Emotion in Art
The Defense Reaction, Emotion, and Art
Threat Stimuli Used in Art
From Threat to Pleasure
Answers to Big Questions
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
