A Darwinian theory of beauty
“Beauty is an adaptive effect, which we extend and intensify in the creation and enjoyment of works of art and entertainment” (Dutton). During this speech I realized how many viewpoints one can have on “beauty.” From my interpretation, Dutton was trying to get across to his audience that beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, beauty comes from past generations and is deeply rooted in our minds and soul. Denis Dutton discussed walking by a jewelry shop and seeing a stone in the window. Society believes that the jewel itself is beautiful, however our ancestors found beauty in creating the jewel. So the next time you pass a jewelry shop window displaying a beautifully cut teardrop-shaped stone, don’t be so sure it’s just your culture telling you that that sparkling jewel is beautiful” (Dutton). Beauty has continued to adapt generation after generation. Has beauty adapted among generations to have different meanings? If our ancestors believed building and creating objects were beautiful and todays society believes diamonds in a window are, what does beauty look like to our future children? I had to watch this speech a few times because at first I could not interpret what Dutton was trying to get across. Eventually, I realized that he wants us to understand and value the fact that our ancestors found beauty in simple things in life, and passed it down generation to generation. Rather than finding beauty in simple things in life, like an animal or a landscape, take the time to find beauty in what our ancestors created for our generation. Beauty is not found in the eye of the beholder, beauty comes from within each individual. Although over time our society has made things become beautiful. What would Dutton think of this? Is it purely from our ancestors and Darwin’s opinion on adaptation?
In the final few sentences of your post, you claim that we should take the time to find beauty in what our ancestors created for our generation. I want to challenge this topic based on the description Dissanyakae gives regarding the art period we live in today: post-modernism. What I took from her description of this art era was that today’s art is not the same as what our ancestors created. Let me rephrase that, I do not think we appreciate today’s art the same way our ancestors did. We now focus primarily on what the interpretation of the artwork is, rather than simply enjoying the view. We put a price tag on art and this is how we judge its value, rather than simply enjoying the beauty the work embodies. We live in a society where commodity drives people to shallowly appreciate materialistic goods around them. Taking this into consideration, how can we truly find beauty in our ancestors’ art if we are more focused on the price associated with it? I guess I just feel we live in a society today that hinders our ability to find the beauty in the things our ancestors created, so it is nearly impossible to achieve this wish.
Dutton makes some convincing points, but I’m not so sure I’m truly convinced by his reasoning. I don’t think he is right or wrong, but I think that beauty comes from our society and what is “popular” is considered beautiful. For example, models are shown to have “perfect” bodies and that is said by society to be considered beautiful. However, that may not be considered beautiful by everyone. When he states “[beauty] is deep in our minds and is a gift handed down to us” by our ancestors, I’m not quite sure what he means. Is it that beauty is something that is universal and is like a gene in our DNA that controls what is beautiful? Or is it that our ancestors defined what we should see as beauty, like the process of making a stone, instead of the stone itself? To answer your question of what will our children consider beautiful, I think they will be swayed by what we consider beautiful. Mainly because I think even today all of our opinions are somewhat swayed by society and the people we interact with, so I believe that trend will continue.
P.S. Sorry it’s a little scatterbrained but I had a lot of thoughts going on!