Monet isn't everything

The philosopher Immanuel Kant distinguished between the "experience of beauty" and mere "agreeable sensations".  The appreciation of art falls in the former category, whereas having a good meal falls into the latter category.

But for an evolutionary psychologist like Denis Dutton, it all comes from our evolved brain.  He quotes Randy Thornhill that "Pleasure, like all experiences, is the product of brain mechanisms, and brain mechanisms are the products of evolution...by selection"

Certainly, it seems less romantic to analyze our appreciation of art this way.  Many people would claim, as Pierre Bourdieu did, that a spontaneous connection with art ("punctum"), and aesthetic experiences generally, are social in nature, and cannot transcend the social conditions in which they are made.

Of course, humans evolved in a social context, so our genetic form was designed by millions of years of evolutionary experience (in a social context).  Our brain was designed to be triggered by social cues.  Our folk explanations of our own feelings and experiences are not strictly true, but instead are also the product of the built-in reasoning of our genetic brain.

Comments

[master law of attraction]

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[law of attraction]

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[secret universe law attraction]

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